What is a good setup to run Final Cut Pro?

[Kemosavi]

I want to build a hackintosh. Mainly to use final cut, shake, and maya. I would like to know what a good hardware setup would be. Hopefully from someone who has tested these software packages.

I personally would also like to do a retail install as well so, if someone could point me in the right direction I would be eternally greatful.


Thanks

[TheHAWKs]

A good setup would be a system with a Intel quad CPU lots of Ram with large cache hard drives in a Raid config and Nvidia Graphics.

[naquaada]

There are difference setups possible: The one with minimum requirements or one which working is fun. But these are more expensive.

I think today is an Intel setups better, they're coming closer to real Macs than AMD machines. But I'm also using an Socket 939 AMD processors and they're working perfectly. In the actual Macs are nVidia cards, the Mac Pro's will soon get the ATI Radeon HD4870 or HD4870 X2. These things are monstrous fast, but are getting very hot and need up to 300W power. I'm using an ATI Radeon HD2600XT, it costs between 20-50 Euro on ebay and needs only 50W. It supports Dual-Monitor up to 2048x1536 and TV-Out. There are various passive versions out there, so they have no loud fan.

If you want to use Maya and Final Cut you need large fast harddisks (I can recommend the Samsung HD103UJ, it's very fast, quiet and stays cool) and a lot of RAM. You also will need high-resolution monitors, if you want to use HDTV 1080p resolutions you need one or two with 1920x1080 resolution. The HD2600XT is able to display these modes. And of course you need a fast cpu and a lot of RAM.

If you want to do it absolutely professional you need a low-latency audio device. Onboard soundcards are often bad in quality and have possibly a fixed sampling rate of 48 kHz. I'm using professional M-Audio cards. There's the USB Transit card which supports recording and playback up to 96 kHz, S/PDIF in and out and an optical AC-3 output. A little bigger is the M-Audio ProFire 610. This thing has 6 inputs and 10 outputs (two channels each are coaxial S/PDIF) and is supports sampling rates up to 192 kHz, that's high definition audio quality. The thing has 8 fully independent analogue outputs, so you can route the ouputs manually to a 7.1 surround sound set. Both audio devices are coming with special Mac drivers, especially the ProFire has very complex routing settings. The ProFire 610 also has a MIDI interface and an inbuilt 2-channel microphone amplifier with optional 48V phantom power.

These would be my tips for additional things, but I can't tell you anything about an Intel/nVidia mainboard setup, I'm an AMD/ATI-only geek. Another method would be to search for a suitable laptop which has one or more eSATA ports so you can connect fast external harddisks. But the laptops gfx cards are often worse and it's more difficult to find drivers for it.

[shaKes7]

An older thread, but perfect for me

How's the echo while working with a Hackintosh on Final Cut? Doing good?

Originally Posted by Kemosavi I want to build a hackintosh. Mainly to use final cut, shake, and maya.

For Maya there's a Nvidia Quadro (or Ati FireGL) required, costs lot more, but there are softmod possibilties for older nvidias. But i would be also curious to hear some alternatives.


I'd like to build a 'videoediting iPC', too. I choosed i7 920, an ordinary Quad would do quite the same, however i7 is i7 an the prices for 920s and their ddr3 (OCZ for example) rams are getting into direction reasonable.. beside their Mainboards, but the Gigabyte UD5 should do just fine. especially with osx86, i suggest.
The Graphic is another point, could take nvidia gtx 260, 275 or just save money with an ati radeon 4870 and wait for the forthcoming gtx 3xx and their prices stabilizing.

The System, i'd like to choose:

• CPU: Intel Core i7 920
• Mainboard: GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD5, iX58
• GPU:
  - GIGABYTE GV-N275UD-896I, GeForce GTX 275, 896MB GDDR3
  or
  - GAINWARD 0025-BLISS GTX260 896MB GS, GeForce GTX 260, 896MB GDDR3, PCI-Express 625MHz GPU (nVidia GT200b)
  or
  - SAPPHIRE HD 4870, Radeon HD 4870, 512MB GDDR5, PCI-Express, Retail (11133-03-40)
  not really sure on that
• RAM: 3x 2GB OCZ DDR3 PC3-10666 (1333MHz) Intel i7 Triple Channel (OCZ3X1333LV6GK) CL7-7-7-20 (or should i take the Platinum Low-Voltage Triple Channel (OCZ3P1333LV6GK) ?)
• HDD: 2x SEAGATE Barracuda 7200.12 ST3500418AS, 500GB, Bulk
• DVD: LG GH22LS50 DVD±RW 22/22/12/8/8, SATA, LightScribe, Black, Bulk

What do you think?