What Mac Pro work with FCP 7?

I am hired to work with a project in FCP 7 and I realize, since I have been using Avid for the last few years, that I need to buy both the software (I only have FCP 6 at the moment) and a Mac Pro.

I have been looking at a used Mac Pro and wonder if anyone know how this work with FCP 7:

Mac Pro, Quad Core, 2.66 ghz, 16 GB RAM, (early 2009) model: A1289

www.everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_pro/s...9-nehalem-specs.html

I plan to install an USB 3.0 card and use an external drive with footage and project.

Any thoughts?

Hi Golem99
Welcome to the forums.
There are several ways to answer this and it depends on some addition info.
First, do you only need FCP7 or do you need the entire FCPSuite? Legacy FCP5.1.4-7.x.x will run on Macs up to the newest, but some of the other software won't.
Which OS version will you use? Are you working in a collaborative project and will all editors be using the same FCP and OS versions? Always a good thing to do. If you need the whole suite with Motion4, Colors, etc… then the last OS version that works reliably is Lion. (??)
Finding legitimate copies of legacy FCP is getting harder. They come with software product keys. Make sure that you have that key, and even so, sometimes Apple does not want to recognize them. If you need Apple's help, you need a legitimate copy. Apple was selling copies even after FCPX came out, but you had to call and get personal help. Was still $999.00 I believe? Once installed, the updates are still available on Apple's website.
If you buy a tower with the program already installed, make sure to get the keys.
The old towers allow 4 drives (or six if you use the optical bays) internally, so you can install different OSs on different volumes and boot from them. Even El Capitan will run on the 09.
Newer computers will not boot from older OSs, so you need a computer that is no newer than the the OS version you intend to run. In other words, you can't boot into Lion from the latest iMac. One possible workaround is using a Virtual program like Parallels, but you will see some slowdown in editing. FCP7 already does that on the best of machines. Spinning Beach Balls anyone?
If you go for the 09 route, upgrade the graphics card (GPU). Will help some, not as much as for FPCX and Motion5.
Sites like BareFeats and MacPerformance Guide have some good info on them for various configurations. You should also read the BruceX forum topic here on fcp.co for more info.

OK, know you most likely don't have a choice, but I gotta say it, everyone would be better served moving on to FCPX. Faster, better in almost every way possible.

Best of Luck!

Hope this helps, Greg

Thank you very much, Greg!

You are right, everybody should move on. This will be the last project
using FCP 7 at this TV-station (they are currently changing everything to
Premiere...) Still, I need this to work properly. Thank you for your time
and effort"


Steve Ericsson
Stockholm, Sweden