For video editing, what CPU/graphics card combo is needed?

[addragyn]

What programs will your daughter be using at school? What school?

 

[mariner]

Thanks for the testimony Justin. Good point about the virii and school networks. I knew that those networks were a hotbed of such problems but just hadn't thought of it in that light. Good point. Are there no Mac virii. I guess the cost difference is the biggest stumblin block with the powerbooks. But this thread has convinced me to consider them seriously. Would be nice is Stephanie could get her hands on one to experience it before hand.

addragyn, I don't know what applications she will be using, whatever digital graphics folks use I suppose. Some likely possibilities have been mentioned earlier in this thread. She is going to Texas State (was Southwest Texas St. Univ. when I attended in '71). Prolly not known for their digital graphics curriculum but they are known for their music school, and she is an all-state choir singer. So she is going to dabble in choir while learning digital graphics. And since they have a well known professional music production studio I have encouraged her to consider combining some video and sound productionto increase her marketability.

mariner

 

[stateofbeasley]

Originally posted by: Justin216
Once your daughter gets to school, it does get rediculous with virii off school networks from other students, to the point of losing all work and having problems due to that...as you said, this first year is crucial...

Norton Antivirus set to auto-update every night + some common sense (like not opening email attachments from strangers) will keep a Windows PC virus-free. I've had a ThinkPad T40 (2373-19U) for almost two years and I haven't had a single problem due to viruses.

Personally, if I was doing it again, I would have bought my PB a little sooner and saved myself a "English 102-missing term paper from crashed HD" incident, and now will consider safety BEFORE any computer purchase...I'd advise you to look into the Powerbook line, as any current machine will hold its performance and value over time (If she wants to upgrade later, the powerbook line holds its financial value VERY well...much better than PCs.....after 3 years, you can most likely still get at least half of the original purchase price, whereas PCs lose much, much more than that)

This is very misleading. A "crashed HD" simply means mechanical failure. In simplified terms, the mechanical drive heads crashed into the magnetic platters, destroying data stored on them. This can happen on any Hard Disk, regardless of what kind of computer it is in.

Powerbooks generally depreciate less rapidly than a Windows notebook, but they have fallen behind Centrino notebooks in performance. The Pentium M trashes the PPC G4 in SPECint and fp.

There is a reason that most professional musicians, photographers, and movie producers use Macs...they are simply KNOWN for their excellent stability with crucial and demanding work!

Windows XP and MacOS X are pretty much in the same league as far as stability. I've seen blue screens and kernel panics on both, but this was due to hardware failures.

PowerBooks are generally good computers, but it would be foolhard to buy into all the hype.

 

[freshspin]

I agree, their is too much hype. My wife's computer lab did have a large number of OS 9 machines. Perhaps they weren't tricked out with every bell and whistle as well. The hype / myth is that Apple's do no wrong.

I admit they are fine for someone that just wants to do one thing and only one thing at a time for hours on end, but for my needs, and my wife's art needs, we are steering clear of apple's.

Someone with a firewall set up, keeps up with patches, and runs a virus scanner can keep their Windows machine clean, even on a virus filled student network.

 

[addragyn]

Freshspin OS 9 is 5 years old. It is dead and niether bells nor whistles will change it. OS X is the current OS from Apple. And Premiere is only available for XP now. So I don't think the gear your wife used in that class was a good basis for an opinion.

Anand did an article on using a Mac. He had no problem with the multitasking ability and even praised how OS X handled heavy useage.

http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=2232
The benefit of leaving applications running even when you're not using them is that when you do need to use them or open a file with one of them, the response time is instantaneous - as opposed to waiting for an application to load. Of course, you can do the same thing in Windows, but for some reason stability and performance seemed to remain unchanged under OS X, whereas I almost always ran into an issue with Windows - whether it was having too many windows open or too many programs running.

It is somewhat ironic that I would praise Apple for the multi-tasking capabilities built into OS X, given that the Mac OS trailed Windows in its support for preemptive multi-tasking. Needless to say, the mistakes of yesterday are not true of OS X today, and its multi-tasking prowess was my biggest draw to it.

...

Performance isn't always a negative thing under OS X. In fact, there is one aspect of OS X's performance that I do believe significantly outshines that of even Windows XP: caching. The biggest pet peeve of mine as a PC user is hearing that hard drive crunch and having it be the reason for an interruption in my work, play or whatever else that I may be using my PC for at the time. I always get the upgrade-bug just as soon as I hear that drive crunch away, and immediately, I want to upgrade any and everything in my system to make those few seconds that feel like an eternity cease once and for all. Of course, regardless of how much I throw at the problem, it's always there and although I can lessen it, I cannot rid myself of it.

What I found in my time with the G5 and OS X was that it does a marvelous job of caching, to the point where after the first time I start the machine, I rarely hear the hard drive being accessed. Furthermore, I definitely don't feel as slowed down by it as I do under Windows. Again, I feel a bit lost writing this without a complete understanding of how Apple architected the caching system of OS X, but the results are positive and noticeable.

One thing I think might be a major annoyance for somebody doing creative work on Windows versus a Mac is the ability for an app to steal focus in Windows. Ever accidentally click on a dialog box because it popped up as you were typing? Imagine this as your editing or drawing.

Freshspin Apple's video editor is Final Cut Pro HD. Scrubs, nip/tuck & 24 all use it. Van Helsing was edited with it. Current video options are much better than the stuff your wife had to use at that class.

Here are videos of current video apps on the Mac.
http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/video/
http://www.apple.com/dvdstudiopro/video/
http://www.apple.com/motion/video/

Also checkout the Vegas editor on the PC.

Bob says hi.
- - -

Mariner it appears TSU uses Final Cut.

I would not buy a new Apple laptop right now.

 

[Wuzup101]

OS9 really is not a good way to judge the current mac platform. I personally would never use it myself. Luckly it's about 5 years outdated and I'll never have to. OSX 10.3 "panther" is the current OS and is much more stable and user friendly than OS9 or windows XP. Apple should be taking this one step further with 10.4 "tiger" set to come out sometime soon (should get a release date at MWSF in mid Jan).

BTW... I'll tell you that last year I had a PC at school. I ran a firewall in addition to our school's fairly formidable hardware firewalls. I had a copy of norton set to update every morning at 4am. I also had it set to do a full system scan every morning on both of the 120gb drives. About 3/4 of the way through the year I got a virus which didn't harm much on my computer. It did however result in large amounts of spam being sent out... which caused my campus to turn off my internet port for 2 weeks (imagine how much of a pain in the butt this is). I then got another virus about a week and a half before finals week which ultimately resulted in me having to reformat everything on my system drive. It turns out that on a college campus it's very likely that you get a virus before norton has a treatment for it. I currently use norton on my mac because 1) it's free 2) i don't want to get my friends with PCs infected if something is passed through me. There are some viruses that will affect a mac. However, you can count the number of them on one hand... while it would take a few thousand hands to count the number of them for windows XP. On top of that windows XP is easier to hack, and is a less secure OS in general.

I will say that I'll probably always have a PC, but I wont use it for critical work anymore. It will probably be my gaming platform of choice for years to come, unless apple does some awesome crap soon

The powerbooks definitely are expensive, but you get what you pay for. You have to realize that they have top of the line parts in them for the most part. I speced out a comparable IBM T42 before I bought this machine (along with a dell latitude) and all three were priced right around the same. The thinkpad was actually a bit steaper, while the dell was about $150 less.

 

[stateofbeasley]

Originally posted by: Wuzup101OSX 10.3 "panther" is the current OS and is much more stable and user friendly than OS9 or windows XP. Apple should be taking this one step further with 10.4 "tiger" set to come out sometime soon (should get a release date at MWSF in mid Jan).

It's a real stretch to claim that OS X is "much more" stable than Windows XP. It's a claim that is pretty much impossible to prove up.

It turns out that on a college campus it's very likely that you get a virus before norton has a treatment for it. I currently use norton on my mac because 1) it's free 2) i don't want to get my friends with PCs infected if something is passed through me.

I've been using university networks for almost six years and I've never had any problems.

On top of that windows XP is easier to hack, and is a less secure OS in general.

More unprovable hype.

OS X is a great product, but the hype is simply not reality.

 

[stateofbeasley]

You almost get what you paid for. Someone posted a link to this earlier:

http://www.pcworld.com/reviews...aid,118514,pg,5,00.asp

Apple does well in reliability, but eMachines beat the snot out of it and IBM, HPQ, and Dell. IBM's service overall is still the best.

Originally posted by: Wuzup101
The powerbooks definitely are expensive, but you get what you pay for. You have to realize that they have top of the line parts in them for the most part.

 

[SZLiao214]

One thing that non of you have suggested is get both a desktop and a notebook. But a nice slim mobile notebook for classes and coming back home. Build a computer for all of her graphics stuff. A computer of 1000 dollars would be much more powerful then a notebook almost twice that cost. Oh, is there a difference between a notebook and a laptop? I thought they were same thing.

 

[Wuzup101]

Stateofbeasley, I definitely do think that the e-machines are a pretty good deal. I was never a fan of their crappy desktops (and I don't think many here were). But, yes I do agree they make reasonably equipt laptops that are pretty decently made. And their prices are great.

As for the stuff about OSX hype... well you can think it's hype as long as you want. Use both OSes and then you'll see which one is more stable. I currently run both, and OSX is just plain better. As far as easier to hack is concerned... one is windows XP... one is based on UNIX... nuff said. Neither is perfect, but OSX is better.

And as far as networks it depends on the school. We have 40,000 undergrads on campus, so our networks are polluted with harmful stuff. Smaller schools tend to have less to worry about...

 

[stateofbeasley]

An operating system is not stable and secure merely because it is based on Unix. The "Unix automatically = good" isn't an argument at all. It's marketing.

Temple may not be as big as OSU or other 40k campuses, but we do have 17k undergrads + others and we do get virus outbreak alerts all the time. I've never been attacked or hacked. I've never seen Windows XP crash except due to hardware failures.

Windows XP users do have to be more careful about viruses and spyware, but it doesn't require much additional effort to be reasonably vigilant.

Edit: Found this thread at Ars Technica where people argued and argued over whether X or XP was more stable. If one goes by anecdotes, its a wash. A true discussion about stability would require deep understanding of both operating systems, which is something very few people have.

Originally posted by: Wuzup101
As for the stuff about OSX hype... well you can think it's hype as long as you want. Use both OSes and then you'll see which one is more stable. I currently run both, and OSX is just plain better. As far as easier to hack is concerned... one is windows XP... one is based on UNIX... nuff said. Neither is perfect, but OSX is better.

And as far as networks it depends on the school. We have 40,000 undergrads on campus, so our networks are polluted with harmful stuff. Smaller schools tend to have less to worry about...

 

[SZLiao214]

Originally posted by: Wuzup101
Stateofbeasley, I definitely do think that the e-machines are a pretty good deal. I was never a fan of their crappy desktops (and I don't think many here were). But, yes I do agree they make reasonably equipt laptops that are pretty decently made. And their prices are great.

As for the stuff about OSX hype... well you can think it's hype as long as you want. Use both OSes and then you'll see which one is more stable. I currently run both, and OSX is just plain better. As far as easier to hack is concerned... one is windows XP... one is based on UNIX... nuff said. Neither is perfect, but OSX is better.

And as far as networks it depends on the school. We have 40,000 undergrads on campus, so our networks are polluted with harmful stuff. Smaller schools tend to have less to worry about...

I have one of those emachine notebooks(68xx) Its fast as hell for its price. The computer is kinda bulky but not to bad. When carried in a backpack the 8.6 pounds doesnt feel like anything.

 

[omissible]

Now for some Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics:
PC Magazine Service & Reliability Survey
, Notebook Scores, including Software and Hardware reliability scores.

Surprise, surprise: Apple and IBM come out well, with Apple doing slightly better than IBM (!).

 

[Wuzup101]

Believe me, stateofbeasley, you are one of the more knowledgeable people on your campus. I used to work for the campus "rescom," people who setup and fix our on and off campus students' computers. I've seen first hand what can happen, when people who aren't the most knowledgeable about computers or windows don't keep up with the 15 different programs they have to run in the background to keep windows XP working at an acceptable level.

I agree, just because it's UNIX based doesn't make it great. It's just great and happens to be based on UNIX. XP happens to be better than pretty much all other versions of windows... but it's still not that good... like I said OSX isn't perfect, but many others, even those who use PCs and don't even own a mac, admit that OSX is better than windows. I'm not one of those hardcore mac addicts... I haven't been using macs all of my life. I currently have between 7 and 10 PCs sitting in various rooms in my house. Some running XP, 98SE, 2000, linux... you name it... This is my only mac (this powerbook)... and I will still tell you the OS is better... hands down...