[MacDV] Mac rookie needs your opinion

[Zane H. Healy]

> I am going to make the switch over to the dark side - MAC.
> I'm considering that bad boy G5 dual 2.5G. I need the opinion of "the Pro's" on what I should add to the stock G5. I was thinking 1G mem, 250G sata to start off with (plus the 23inch monitor). Someone told me that I could get an ATI all-in-wonder card for the G5 and make it my home entertainment center. Anyone try this yet?
> 
> Also, I am going to get into DV editing so I needed your suggestions for an additional application. I don't need to make a movie but I'd like to have some nice features and not have to go back to school for a year to be able to operate it! I will eventually have a lot of home movies to edit/burn.
> Final Cut express?
> 
> Thanks in advance and sorry to bother you all with these piddly question but I have to learn somewhere, might as well learn from the Pro's!

I'd recommend getting at least an extra Gigabyte of RAM, and then simply
playing with the system.  For that matter you can even hold off on the
system.  It will come with iMovie and iDVD, see if they will do what you
need before you worry about getting higher-end video apps (though if you
want to do Widescreen Anamorphic home movies like I do you'll want the
higher end apps).

As for the Hard Drive, I'm kind of wondering what people think, should you
get an internal SATA or an external Firewire drive.  I bought an external
firewire enclosure that holds two disks as I had a spare 80GB and 120GB, and
use those for video work.  I'm a little worried about how well the drives
will hold up if you have two internal SATA drives (I'm worried about them
getting to hot).

		Zane