Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

If you are a video editor working on HD footage and a workstation upgrade is in the future, Mike of HD for Indies fame has an article on building a workstation (Mac or PC) for HD editing and post/correction.

The article is fit for three main users.

Group 1: Just enough to get by. You can accept some risks and hassles-the classic starving indie category.

Group 2: You need something competent-and want greater work flow comforts-but you’re still budget-sensitive.

Group 3: The fully professional, well-equipped individuals solution, also suitable for a small studio or small facility setup.

The optimal setups Mike recommended for these three main groups are:

Group 1: Mac Pro 2.66 GHz tower, 2 GB RAM, 160 GB boot drive minimum; Final Cut Studio software; Nvidia GeForce 7300 graphics card.

Group 2: Mac Pro 2.66 GHz tower, 4 GB RAM, 250 GB boot drive, 500 GB data drive, with Bluetooth/AirPort capabilities and AppleCare protection plan; Final Cut Studio software; ATI X1900 graphics card; Apple 23- and 20-inch monitors.

Group 3: Mac Pro 2.66 GHz tower, 5+ GB RAM, 250 GB boot drive, 500 GB data drive, with wireless cards and AppleCare protection plan; Final Cut Studio software; ATI X1900 graphics card; Apple 30- and 23-inch LCD monitors.

The article is very high in depth and goes over main different options, for many different kinds of users, with many different budgets. Mike seems to favor the Mac platform for HD editing due to the great hardware and software available, mainly Final Cut for post processing of HD content.

I highly recommend reading this article before you go out and purchase a workstation to edit HD content on - a compelling read.

Read [DV]

“The UK Apple store has leaked details about the speculated “8-core Mac pro”. When searching for “Mac” in the UK Apple Store, the listing for the Mac Pro was:

Mac Pro
Now quad-core or 8-core processing power.
Configure yours today.

This has since been taken down and the store has gone offline into “maintenance mode”. What could this mean for die hard Apple fans? Either the killer Mac Pro we’ve all been waiting for, or site updates. Only time will tell.

Read [MacRumors]

LoopRumors believes that Apple is staging a redesign of its Mac Pro systems. The new systems are said to be smaller, with a new cooling system that will direct hot air out the top of the system rather than the back.

The Mac Pro was initially released at last years WWDC conference, sporting the Intel chip and upgraded specs, but an identical housing to the now retired Apple product, the PowerMac G5.

Personally, this is very great news as I plan to purchase a Mac Pro when I’ve finished the long road of saving up for the machine.

via [LoopRumors]

Steve Jobs just finished Apple’s keynote presentation at the WWDC. The first major announcement was the introduction of the highly-anticipated Mac Pro. The new Mac Pro, is a quad Xeon, 64-bit desktop featuring two new Dual-Core Intel Xeon processors running up to 3.0 GHz.

“Apple has successfully completed the transition to using Intel processors in just seven months—210 days to be exact,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “And what better product to complete it with than the new Mac Pro, the workstation Mac users have been dreaming about.”

The new Mac Pro features the new Dual-Core Intel Xeon 5100 series processor, is up to twice as fast as the Power Mac G5 Quad and features two Dual-Core Intel Xeon processors running up to 3.0 GHz, each with 4MB of shared L2 cache and independent 1.33 GHz front-side buses and 667 MHz DDR2 fully-buffered memory. The computer can handle 4 separate hard drive, adding up to 2 TB of storage and support for two optical drives to simultaneously read and/or write to CDs and DVDs (no word on Blu-ray yet). Every Mac Pro includes three full-length PCI Express expansion slots and one double-wide PCI Express graphics slot. The front panel of the Mac Pro includes a FireWire 800 port, a FireWire 400 port and two USB 2.0 ports with additional FireWire 800, FireWire 400 and three USB 2.0 ports on the back panel. Mac Pro also includes dual Gigabit Ethernet ports, optical digital input and output, analog audio input and output, and optional built-in support for AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR. Every Mac Pro comes standard with the NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT with 256MB of video memory, providing built-in support for dual-displays and Apple’s 30-inch Cinema HD Display.

The Mac Pro is shipping today with the standard prebuilt configuration, including two 2.66 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon processors and priced at $2,499 (US).

The Mac Pro, with a suggested retail price of $2,499 (US), includes:

• two 2.66 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon processors


• 1GB of 667 MHz DDR2 fully-buffered ECC memory expandable up to 16GB


• NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT with 256MB of GDDR2 SDRAM


• 250GB Serial ATA (3Gb/s) hard drive running at 7200 rpm


• 16x SuperDrive™ with double-layer support (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)


• four PCI Express slots: one double-wide graphics slot and three full-length expansion slots


• ships with Mighty Mouse and Apple Keyboard

In addition to the standard configuration, the Mac Pro offers more than 4.9 million build-to-order options including: two 2.0 GHz or 3.0 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon processors; up to 16GB of 667 MHz DDR2 fully-buffered ECC memory; up to four 500GB Serial ATA hard drives running at 7200 rpm; up to two 16x SuperDrives with double-layer support; ATI Radeon X1900 XT and NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 graphics cards, both with 512MB of GDDR3 SDRAM; AirPort Extreme module, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR module; Apple USB Modem; Apple Wireless Keyboard and Apple wireless Mighty Mouse; Mac OS X Server Tiger; Apple Xsan; and Apple Fibre Channel PCI Express Card. Complete build-to-order options and pricing are available at www.apple.com/macpro.