new mac pro w/station and edius?

[deebee69]

To all of you mac users
Ive just recieved a quote from our custom pc bulders here in the uk.
The quote for a new pc with edius broadcast and nx or sp card included ....but for the same price there is this huge great big grunt of a machine from apple...namely the newmac pro workstation.
So can edius take advantage of these quadcore xeon proccecors with huge amounts of ram and storage plus 64bit, maybe having to use bootcamp windows rather than leopard within the mac to operate edius?
I dont think ive explained it that well but I think you will get the jist.
We record to dvcpro 50/100 p2 and edit with edius broadcast version 4.54
Many thanks for your help in chooseing which machine.

[LightPrism]

Think Stormdave and Jerry Gill would be in a good position to respond as they are running Edius and monster Macs...

The new MacPro does look like a beast - I was wondering the same thing - how well it works running Edius.

[Roy Colquitt]

I don't have a GV card installed in mine--running Edius OHCI--so I can't comment on that part, but just from the aspect of build and price, the MacPro is a beautifully constructed, quiet running dream of a computer, and as far as everything I've seen, the price is completely competitive with machines on the same level.

As LightPrism pointed out, there have been some posts by STORMDAVE as to the caveats there might be in terms of running GV hardware in Bootcamp - Take a search, or I'm guessing he'll be along to comment.

[STORMDAVE]

Roy, you're a magician...how'd you know I was going to answer? :D Oh yeah, I have a high post count :(

Anyways, yes the new Mac Pro should work fine with the NX (Only). The SP will not work because both of the SP cards are not PCIe (SP SDI is another one, but that's a different story).

So you will only be able to use the NX Express with the Mac Pro.

It's working fine for me, but there are a few snags here and there, but I've learned to live with it. I have the best of both worlds, which is a major plus.

The chipset difference between my Mac Pro and the new one is not that big, so you should see a very similar performance with the new ones. The top of the line Mac Pro is only 10% faster than the Clovertown 8 Core.

Mac Pro's are very nice machines...the quietest I have ever used. I do not regret buying it and paying the full amount. They are very well built.

However, you're going to be on your own if you go the Mac Pro route. But I am sure if you have any questions, you can ask me or maybe others who have a similar configuration.

The price of the Mac Pro is very close to what you would pay to custom built one, or might even come cheaper in some cases...so I know it looks tempting. I don't want to recommend you buying it as it's not supported, but I haven't had any major problems with it. It works smooth as butter. Still kinda ticked that Apple hasn't fixed the 1.99GB RAM limitation...this is probably due to the Mac Pro's not having a BIOS.

Guy Graphics also builds nice machines, so look there as well.

[deebee69]

Still kinda ticked that Apple hasn't fixed the 1.99GB RAM limitation...this is probably due to the Mac Pro's not having a BIOS.

Thanks for all of your replies

As for above [stormdave]could you explain the 1.99 gig of ram issue please.

If I was getting one tomorrow it would be with the NX card,so any more do's and dont's then please feel free to let rip.Im fully aware that its not supported etc.

[STORMDAVE]

I have 9GB of RAM and instead of 3.5GB supported (Max for XP Pro) under XP, it only shows 1.99GB. Maybe a fix will be released later on, not sure.

Read this thread, there is alot of info here.

http://ediusforum.grassvalley.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1709

[precisedjs]

I have 9GB of RAM and instead of 3.5GB supported (Max for XP Pro) under XP, it only shows 1.99GB. Maybe a fix will be released later on, not sure.

Read this thread, there is alot of info here.

http://ediusforum.grassvalley.com/fo...ead.php?t=1709

9GB of ram?! I know in a n00b but I didnt think anyone would ever need it or use that much! What the heck do you run?!?

[STORMDAVE]

9GB of ram?! I know in a n00b but I didnt think anyone would ever need it or use that much! What the heck do you run?!?

After Effects CS3 (Under OSX) utilizes 8.6GB of RAM during render. 1GB dedicated per core.

If you use After Effects and have 4GB of RAM, you're throwing away about 4 cores because you need at least 1GB per core to utilize your system fully.

You don't need more than 2GB for editing, or even more than 3GB for Photoshop...because these apps have 32bit limitations.

System came stock 1GB (2x512) I added 8GB on top (4x2GB)...it can handle upto 32GB+

To get this performance in the Windows world, you will need Windows 64bit to use all the RAM.

[STORMDAVE]

Just to note that Vista x64 sees 10GB of RAM on the Mac Pro.

[pjsssss]

Just to note that Vista x64 sees 10GB of RAM on the Mac Pro.

10G RAM...That is just obscene

[STORMDAVE]

10G Rm...That is just obscene

Not for the work I do :D
Try doing a 80 layer 1080i project in After Effects with less than this...
I'll be upgrading to 18 gigs total soon!

[SRsupport]

Hmm...so machine is obscene. 10 gig of ram here. :) It is Dave's fault hehe

[STORMDAVE]

I forgot to mention Vista eats 2GB while idling even with Aero off :|
So I actually have a usable 8GB. :(
Either way under OSX everything is more efficient, which is what counts for graphics work anyway.

To anyone building a new PC, make sure to get AT LEAST 4GB of RAM if you plan to use Vista x64. Ram is cheap. Get it :)

[Jim N]

I'm not sure about this but is there a problem with MACs not supporting Bluray players/burners at this stage. Does this matter for Edius users?

Jim

[Geoff]

Running a MacPro here with Edius on WinXP under Boot Camp. Other than an initial problem with an NX card the system has been very successful. I believe that BluRay burners have been used with a MacPro, but not under the OSX operating system; perhaps others will correct me if I'm wrong also I would be interested know if /what internal luray drive have been used.