need a cheap mac for video editing

[astralkoala]

much like vincent i am looking to move to mac for video and photo editing in OSX (my school has a volume licensed final cut pro i will use for cinema/DV class).  i would like a g4 if possible, but do not want to spend over 1000 dollars.  i read that pc monitors are compatible, so i can just use my current display.  what about hard drives or disk drives?  i also saved money by building my own pc.  as everything in the apple store is a bit expensive, is there any way to buy cheap mac parts and create my own?  how certain configurations compare to my current PC (AMD T-bird 900 Mhz).  Thanks, Ranolph

[choasforages]

well, now that the emac is availble to everyone, it should not be fudging your budget too much, o and unfortuanly macs arn't as common as x86 garbage, so you would be hard pressed to find enough parts (of the correct type it is possible though), but you can try ebay, if you wanted to do this the hard way, pick up an old 9500, put a voodoo 3 card in it, max out the ram, slip a g4 upgrade card in it, and i wouldn't know how much it would cost, couldn't be too much though, o if i am wrong, would some mac hacker correct this stance

[Heru]

An Emac should do the job perfectly.  they cost a little more than you wanted to spend, however, at $1099 dollars to start.  They have a built in monitor, and have a G4 processor.
And PC hardware is compatible, mice, keyboards, harddrives, ram, video cards, etc.  Epson printers tend to work the best just so you know in case you want a printer.

[ravuya]

I highly recommend the eMac - it also has L3 cache unlike the current rev of the iMac. Cheap, affordable, built-in display. Just what you need.

If you wanted to build your own mac, you're a few years late. UMAX used to let you buy parts and then assemble the box yourself.

[psyjax]

Actually a hacked up and tricked out 9500 isn't a bad way to go.

I hear such machines are still widely used in the industry.

A good thing for video Editing that you may want to consider, is buying an old tower with SCSI support. That way you can have a SCSI harddrive which is ideal for video due to higher thruput and lower fragmentation.

Video Editing relies less on CPU than it does on your HD, RAM, and video card. There are Quadras out there, totaly hacked up, that still work with premere and other such software.

Just something to consider.

[Gooseberry Clock]

And what makes you think that SCSI drives have less fragmentation than IDE drives? They both work in exactly the same way, they just communicate in different ways.

[ June 12, 2002: Message edited by: Gooseberry Clock ]

[psyjax]

quote:Originally posted by Gooseberry Clock:
And what makes you think that SCSI drives have less fragmentation than IDE drives? They both work in exactly the same way, they just communicate in different ways.

Ultra wide SCSI drives spin at higher speeds and can write more data at a time than IDE drives.

[choasforages]

umm, mostly quailtuty of hardware,
umm ide is manly used is shity x86 computers. ide, hmmpf, it only can communicate with one device at a time, less then ideal for a multitasking os and or raid, now scsi will allow you write all acroos the bus , meaning it is better for multitasking environments. and scsi hardware is built to last and to have decent uptime.

/* one hates x86 with a passion */

[ravuya]

9500 models are widely used in the industry because they have a shitload of PCI slots (6, to be exact) and support SCSI internally.

Put an UltraWide SCSI PCI card in there and a video card that supports AV connections, drop a 15k RPM IBM drive in there and you're golden.

[astralkoala]

thanks for the responses.  a couple of more questions.

Do these look like good used mac prices (no monitor of course)?

http://www.bob-weber.com/z/prices/computers.html#66


which is a better buy at $279, a g4 upgrade card (400 Mhz) or a G3 upgrade (500 mhz)?

what is the best place to buy upgrade cards?

assuming a take the same harddrive, ram, and video card from my pc and put it into this new mac, what what kind of comparative editing performance will you get in 900mhz t-bird athlon v. 400mhz g4 v. 500 mhz G3.  
Thanks, Randolph

[psyjax]

Hmmm... the 9600 is a go. If your going for the upgrade thing I would load that baby up with all the trimmings and go for the G4 card, G4's floor their G3 cusins despite clockspeeds.

If you want upgrade cards, checkout MacMall.com

alse, read www.lowendmac.com (specifically http://www.lowendmac.com/macdan/01/1212hj.html) and www.resexcellence.com for tips and tricks to tweaking old systems.

Here are some reviews of upgrades:

http://www.macspeedzone.com/archive/5.0/upgradesmanufactureresults/9600_200.html

The dual 500 for sale on that site is an awsome system too. I don't think an upgraded 9600 vs. a T bird 900 will win, but it won't be slow. As mentioned above, clockspeed isn't the prime requisit for video, what you need is good storage and video hardware.

Remember, your going for a cheep video box, your not gonna have a powerhouse 3d rendering, FPS game machine, but you will have a fully functional awsome video editing unit.

None the less, that dual 500Mhz unit for sale, will require little or no upgrades and will surely outperform a 9600. That is a better buy in the long run because it won't be going obsolete for a while and when it does it will be more upgradable. You will also save cash on upgrades.

The lowendmac article suggests that to trick out a 9600 it will run into the 1000's of dollars, so you may be just better off getting the dual 500 unit. While running OSX it will kick the shit out of most any computer short of of a dual 2gig athlon  

It's your call. Don't forget online auctions, sometimes you can get even better deals from them.

[ June 19, 2002: Message edited by: psyjax ]