Low End MBP vs High End MBP HD Vid Editing

Hello folks I have a bit of a dilemma. I'm going to college in just a few short months to major in film production and I want to move from Premiere Pro to Final Cut Studio (most widely used editor in Hollywood) so I'm looking at the Macbook Pro. Currently I use a Canon HF10 for all my work and it records native 1080p content. Money is a bit tight so I've been pondering whether the 2.53GHZ/512MB 9600GT upgrade is worth it from a performance boost point of view. I don't want to get the lower end model and then its not capable of handling the load. If you guys can help me estimate the performance gap between these two it will be greatly appreciated.

 

I'd say that you'll see anywhere between a 5%-20% performance difference between the two models. I wasn't sure about spending the extra money either and I kept looking at benchmarks to try to convince myself that the 2.4GHz model was worth it, but the difference is just one of those things that is worth the price and the performance difference is justified, so I just went with the 2.53GHz model. Both models will be able to handle Final Cut Studio really well, you'll just be able to get things done 5%-20% faster, with less lag, with the 2.53GHz model.

For editing 1080p video, all of the upgrades in the 2.53GHz model are definitely going to help, especially the CPU, RAM, and VRAM upgrades, and more HD space to hold all of it doesn't hurt either. Looking at just the specs, the price difference is justifiable between the two models. Either one will run Final Cut Studio fine, but if you have the cash, there's no doubt that the 2.53GHz model is worth the price difference.

These are the best benchmarks I could find comparing the models, though there's no benchmark for Final Cut Studio.

http://www.macworld.com/article/136279/2008/10/macbookpro_benchmarks.html
http://www.macworld.com/article/136251/2008/10/macbookgraphics.html

 

Ah shucks whats funny is we have the same XPS system, slightly different specs but same machine nonetheless. We have had the same dilemma as well, whats even funnier is my XPS is acting up as well lol. I was going to pay for the RAM boost and I have a 1TB external drive. I was just worried about that CPU 2.4 to 2.53 gap and that 256MB to 512MB gap. Looks like 2.53 it is, more savings to do I guess. Thanks.

 

What Mac is not telling you is that the 2.53GHZ processor has twice the l3 cache, which will add a huge performance leap for video editing and photoshopping and after effects stuff. If you're doing HD and HDV, I'd recommend you go for that processor.

Also, you realize that premiere can do everything Final Cut can. I get pressure from my classmates about using a windows based system to do my projects. But the fact of the matter is I get it done and most of the time in much better quality than they present. Know that you can get a much more powerful portable editing system for the same price of the Macbook Pros and much better quality. Sager and Clevo systems (like one I have) are pretty good for those tasks.

But that's just my 2c.

 

Oh yeah I know Premiere Pro is very efficient software but I also have no desire to fight with the industry set up. 22% roughly are using Premiere Pro, something around 49% on Final Cut the rest using AVID I believe. AVID has certainly fallen off. That sucks though man I really am poor these days lol. I was actually getting a copy of FCS2 for free which is a great deal but I might not be getting a mac now. APPLE AND THEIR CACHE SWITCHING!!!

 

You know that Apple gives an education discount to students, right? It's $200 of the 2.53GHz model usually and in a few months, they'll offer an iPod worth $200-$250 to students, which you can easily sell it at its' regular price. By the way, what's wrong with your XPS 720? Check out mine...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=329211

If there's one reason to go with Apple, it's for their support. I almost went with Alienware, but going through this experience with Dell, I realized how annoying it could get to deal with another problematic company.

 

man you got some DELL horror stories, my friends do as well. They get critical errors all the time and have to do complete reformats. An old friend of mine actually started getting over on DELL he'd complain until they sent him a brand new laptop which they always did. He is sitting on two maxed spec 1730s lol. Mine used to have this issue where it would just completely shut off out of nowhere, I've got BSOD like 10 or so times, and it pretty much does what it wants to. I got to find out about that school discount though, apple is always skimpy on things like that though.

 

Hope you get a good deal on a Mac man. I just hope it doesn't break your pocket and you can make back what you spent.

Good luck. But if you give up on the Mac search, there is always high quality and great customer service from XoticPc.com or powernotebooks.com

 

I don't think you can go wrong with going with a 2.4 MBP but just buy a 320GB 7200rpm HDD and 4GB or RAM.