Well, here I am using Macs for the first time!
I work for a smallish TV production company. The team with which I'm working now produces 3 15-minute mini-shows each week.
We all use Final Cut Pro X, and so are on iMacs. We have four older units that we'd like to upgrade, but I'm just not familiar enough with the systems ad software to know really what upgrades are worth it.
We've got a few recent iMacs (mid-2015 Retina 5K, 3.3Ghz i5, 16GB RAM, Radeon R9 290 2GB, 1TB HDD), and then some models which are getting pretty long in the tooth. The 2015 models are nice to look at, but the regular hard drive still makes them feel a little sluggish.
The four older models are all 27-inches, and the specs are as follows:
- Late 2009, 2.66GHz Core i5 (I5-750), 4GB RAM, Radeon 4850 512MB, 1TB HDD
- Late 2009, 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo (E7600), 4GB RAM, Radeon 4850 512MB, 1TB HDD
- Mid 2010, 2.8 GHz Core i5 (I5-760), 4GB RAM, Radeon 5750 1GB, 1TB HDD
- Mid 2011, 2.7GHz Core i5 (I5-2500S), 4GB RAM, Radeon 6770M 512MB, 1TB HDD
I'm pretty sure they're all just 1TB drives. No Fusion or anything.
I've poked around a bit and I know the memory is easily upgradeable. Also, since they all have optical drives, it looks likes you can keep a big storage drive in there and pop in an SSD. Is this relatively easy? I'm comfortable taking electronics part.
But is any of this worth doing? I know a memory upgrade and SSD would definitely make things a lot snappier, but we're still dealing with first/second generation Core CPUs. Even a Core 2 Duo!
We film, edit, and output in 1080p. Some projects are 4K, but they're edited on either a Mac Pro (trash can) or the newer iMacs. The older models are still usable when editing proxy files, but editing on them can hardly be described as 'fast' or 'fun.'
Any and all input would be appreciated! Do we just use them for teaching machines and save the money for future new systems? Or would upgrades to 8GB RAM and SSDs help?
I work for a smallish TV production company. The team with which I'm working now produces 3 15-minute mini-shows each week.
We all use Final Cut Pro X, and so are on iMacs. We have four older units that we'd like to upgrade, but I'm just not familiar enough with the systems ad software to know really what upgrades are worth it.
We've got a few recent iMacs (mid-2015 Retina 5K, 3.3Ghz i5, 16GB RAM, Radeon R9 290 2GB, 1TB HDD), and then some models which are getting pretty long in the tooth. The 2015 models are nice to look at, but the regular hard drive still makes them feel a little sluggish.
The four older models are all 27-inches, and the specs are as follows:
- Late 2009, 2.66GHz Core i5 (I5-750), 4GB RAM, Radeon 4850 512MB, 1TB HDD
- Late 2009, 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo (E7600), 4GB RAM, Radeon 4850 512MB, 1TB HDD
- Mid 2010, 2.8 GHz Core i5 (I5-760), 4GB RAM, Radeon 5750 1GB, 1TB HDD
- Mid 2011, 2.7GHz Core i5 (I5-2500S), 4GB RAM, Radeon 6770M 512MB, 1TB HDD
I'm pretty sure they're all just 1TB drives. No Fusion or anything.
I've poked around a bit and I know the memory is easily upgradeable. Also, since they all have optical drives, it looks likes you can keep a big storage drive in there and pop in an SSD. Is this relatively easy? I'm comfortable taking electronics part.
But is any of this worth doing? I know a memory upgrade and SSD would definitely make things a lot snappier, but we're still dealing with first/second generation Core CPUs. Even a Core 2 Duo!
We film, edit, and output in 1080p. Some projects are 4K, but they're edited on either a Mac Pro (trash can) or the newer iMacs. The older models are still usable when editing proxy files, but editing on them can hardly be described as 'fast' or 'fun.'
Any and all input would be appreciated! Do we just use them for teaching machines and save the money for future new systems? Or would upgrades to 8GB RAM and SSDs help?