Minimum Requirements for FCPX (Truely)

I've got a macbook pro from 2007 with about 4GB's of RAM on it. I'll have to wait till I get home to fine the rest of the spec's on it. But FCPX runs pretty slow on it. After about 10 15 minutes it starts to drag on a lot of things. i've had to download a program just to clear out my RAM every once in a while when this happens.

It's a struggle to run FCPX with any other program at once on my computer. I've had it crash several times just for asking it to click in a certain random area, i guess it was to much to think about. and don't get me started on the video effects with their little thumbnails that they want me to drag over to see the effect. that's guaranteed to drag my computer to a halt or at least slow it down for a minute or less.

anyway, my question is, what is the TRUE minimum requirements to run FCPX smoothly. with out all these slow hickup's everywhere.

i know my macbook pro is probably just considered to 'old'. i know i can't add more than 4GB's of ram into it, idk if a new video card would help or if that's even possible. or if i should just get a new computer because i'm going to need a better processor.

side notes: i'm editing off a western digital hard drive running firewire 800 with whatever that fast RPM is, like 7500 or something. the hard drive needs to have a power source, let's just put it that way

4GB RAM is barely enough. You probably have a graphic chip that isn't all that, either. You can't change that. But here's some things you can do:

1- Edit with Proxy media. Switch back to original or optimized media only when you're ready to export.

2- Keep all projects and events on the external dirve.

3- Keep rendering turned off. Manually render when necessary.

4- Don't use an external monitor (makes the GPU divide up it's VRAM).

5- Only run FCP X by itself, don't run other apps at the same time, especially TimeMachine or virus apps.

6- Keep all Events and Projects closed, use folders to group things, keep them closed, only unless you're working in them directly.

1 - good idea. should i only convert my files to proxy or have them be proxy and whatever the other option is when i'm importing footage from my camera?

2 - done

3 - i'll have to try that

4 - don't have one

5 -

6 - i actually have heard someone suggest this so i'm doing that now as well.

What would you suggest be my next computer purchase then if i were to try and get my computer to meet the needs of this program. Do the newer Macbook Pro's have the capability? Would a new iMac work as well? Or am I going to NEED to get a Mac Pro just to keep up?

I'm working off a minimum budget here, so I know a Mac Pro would obviously give me ridiculous power but I just wanted to know if I would be fine with a newer Macbook Pro, or if I should bump it up to an iMac?

Proxy media is used along side original/optimized files. In the FCP X preferences you can switch which one FCP X is using at the moment. Switch to Proxy (small file size, lower resolution) for editing. Switch back to original/optimized when you're ready for Export, so that FCP X will read the full res files, not the lower res proxies.

New iMacs and MBPs are nice machines now. I edited on a maxed out 17" MBP with a 2TB LaCie T'bolt drive, and it screamed. Out performed about anything else I've ever edited on. Including my own Mac Pro.

Current Mac Pro's are semi-out of date. We're waiting on Intel to release it's new CPU's in June to see if Apple will upgrade the Mac Pro, or just drop it.

There may be some upgrades to iMacs and MBPs at that time, or shortly after, also.

So, I'm personally waiting until June to upgrade. I currently have a Mac Prof for my studio work, and a 17" MBP for going on the road and teaching gigs that don't supply a trainer's Mac. Now that I have an iPad, I don't need that heavy MBP for email, web surfing, doing business on the road. I only need it as a trainers Mac when the training facility doesn't have one, which is very rare now. So my MBP is rarely used anymore (2008 model).

When the next Mac Pro's and/or MBP's come out, I will decide which way to go. I'm hoping T'bolt will have come down in price a tad little bit by then. I'm hoping I can just go with a big, blown out 17" MBP for both studio work, and can take it on the road in the rare instance I need it for that. One Mac instead of two would save me tons of time keeping both up to date, sync'ed, etc.

But I'm waiting until June to decide.