FCP HD 4.5, upgrades and a few CPU questions

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FCP HD 4.5, upgrades and a few CPU questions

hey everyone
I'm a senior about to graduate film school in may. I have been a PC most of my life but I am thinking about saving up and buying a 2nd editing machine (very..slowly...saving i might add). I had a few questions

I understand you can buy FCP 1 or 2 on eBay for under 200 bucks, which is reasonable. I understand that once you own these copies you can buy the FCP HD production suit as an upgrade, and save a few hundred dollars. My question is, if FCP 1 and 2 doesn't run on OS X then how do you apply the upgrade? Is it one of those things where you have to insert the FCP CD or does it previously have to be installed? If it has to be previously installed, how do you do that? *scratched head*

Now the nice thing is my dad is a teacher and i am still currently a student, so even after i graduate I can buy things discounted because he is a teacher (from the educational apple store). So if i got FC HD express from apple.com's educational market, can i turn around and buy the full licensed version of FCP HD production suite?

And i am thinking about getting a G5... and when i say thinking about getting it i REALLY mean i've made my mind up and i want a G5, it's just that I am slowly saving up for one. My question is (and this is the PC user in me) what is the upgradeability on the G5 desktop (i'd probably only be able to afford the 1.8 single processor). If it seems like there won't be many processor upgrades and that I can only get upgrade like video cards and ram, i might get the Imac just to save a little money (won't have to fork out 200 bucks for a display). Does anyone know what kind of upgrades that will be available to the G5 Imac and the G5 power mac desktop.

Also for my plan of saving i was thinking about buying the system through their educational discount (give dad whatever money i saved and buy the system. then I buy the software full licensed and not academic). Does that sound like the best plan of attack?

Does anyone know what the FSB on the G5 desktop with 1.6 ghz? I've seen a few refurbished for a great price, but no specs on the FSB.

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the FSB

Runs at half the speed of the CPU. So that would be 800MHz

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Stay honest

This is just a summary of my knowledge and licences are different depending on your country/state.

Upgrading FCP? I don't know. Commercial software licences are different this side of the Atlantic. If I was in your position, I'd contact a few winners of FCP auctions and ask them what problems they have had when trying to upgrade their licence. Apple's attitude may change depending on the number of upgrade requests from "anonymous" licences.

Upgrading an Educational FCP Express licence? Forget it. Educational licences are typically issued to staff and students for the duration of the licence or for the duration of your attendance at the educational institution, whichever comes first. Once you leave the educational establishment, the licence expires. Educational licences are not usually upgradeable to professional products.

Hardware purchases? If you buy it while you are a student, it's yours forever for your primary use or until you sell it. If your dad makes a personal purchase for a G5, it's his forever but he should be the primary user, not you. Obviously, this is unenforceable in the real world where people buy and sell computers all the time, but if you place personal educational orders for three G5s a month, don't be surprised if Apple get in touch. If you want to stay honest, borrow some money off your Dad, buy the G5 (collateral to the loan) for yourself while you are still a student and pay him back. There'll be a sudent law centre locally who will draw up the financial agreement with your Dad for free.

Third party accelerators for the G5? Over the last eight years, Apple has tightened up on the hardware leaks but stuff still finds its way to Think Secret. *Nothing useful* leaks out of the third party hardware developers; the companies are far smaller than Apple and all of their employees know that their success depends on getting to market faster than their competitors.

Phil

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I'm only buying one system, a

I'm only buying one system, and not three, and i don't think there's anything wrong with me giving him money and him buying if. If i want to be SUPER legal about it, him and I could write up a contract and he could sell the computer to me (even though it was my money) for $1.00, it's still honest

All i know is that apple states on their website that you can upgrade from FCP 1-3 all the way up to 4.5 HD. I was curiouse to know if anyone has done this, I plan on buying a full version, full lisenced software, but if i can buy FCP 1 or 2 and upgrade to 4.5, that's always a plus.

And i'm not really into the idea of oweing my dad money. Just paid off the last $5000 for my car, I don't want to get into debt for another $2000. Push comes to shove there is another way I know i could get the money, but i rather save up slowly if i can.

And it clearly states on apple.com under the student and educational market, you can only buy one system, and that's what i intend on doing. It's not like i'm going crazy and buying thousands upon tens of thousands of dollars worth of equitment, no, at max about $2200, hopefully less.

So back to the original question, has anyone upgraded their FCP 1/2/3 to 4.5 HD?

is it unrealistic to think that there would be a zif processor upgrade available to the G5's in lets say.... 2-5 years?

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