Will Final Cut Studio 2 work on the new 24" iMac?

I'd like to buy the iMac, but not if I can't run FCS2. Will it run it and how do I need to upgrade/configure it?

Hi there,
I run FCP2 on a new 24" iMac (I max'ed out the RAM, which I would recommend if you do go that way). Everything is fully operational, but there might be some downsides depending upon what you are doing.
- the iMac will take longer on rendering tasks, and will not have as much available for real-time viewing in your timeline with effects applied as a beefier Mac Pro will. To elaborate, when you add effects (or if you want to live preview certain effects) you will have to render before viewing your video.
- the iMac is no where near as expandable as a Mac Pro, for storage, memory, CPU, and video cards. Even the lowest config of a Mac Pro is likely to wipe the floor with a loaded iMac on many intensive tasks. Imagine what a loaded Mac Pro can do! Of course, it will cost you...
That said, the 24" iMac makes a decent "budget" editing box. I added Lacie Quadra d2 external hard drives on the Firewire800 interface which are ALMOST as fast as internal. I don't add much in the way of 3D or particle effects to the majority of work I do on the iMac, so the performance is quite nice. I work primarily in SD still and the standard editing performance is very snappy (not too bad for rendering either; 2 hours of SD output takes like 15 minutes, I've heard this can take as little as 5 minutes on a Mac Pro)...I think I would abandon the iMac for a Mac Pro in a second if I was working a lot in HD, or if I did a lot of compositing and so on.
One thing to keep in minding if you are purchasing as you grow in editing knowledge...If you purchased an iMac today as used it for 2 years before you decided you had outgrown it's capabilities and need a Mac Pro, it wouldn't be a waste of money. The Xsan cluster rendering that FCP2 can do is really neat in that you can distribute some of your rendering tasks to other Macs on your network, allowing you to keep the iMac doing something useful while the Mac Pro remains your main editing station.
There was a post about not using an iMac for "professional" editing, and I would tend to agree. If you make your living by editing, do yourself a favor and buy the "right tool for the job", namely a Mac Pro. My iMac does a nice job for what I paid for it, but if it was paying my bills, I'd upgrade without hesitation.
However you end up deciding to go, enjoy your new Mac!

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