Another new computer

For women it's shoes or handbags. For me it's computers. I just can't stop buying them. I always want the newest and greatest. That's one big flaw with computer buying... they are updated so fast that as soon as you buy one, another one is released that is just slightly better and it makes you wish you held off that little bit longer so that you could have bought that one instead. Well I have solved that problem. It turns out that I solved the problem about a year and half ago. Buy Apple. Just buying Apple isn't really the solution but having made the switch it sent me down the right path. I'll give you the long background process that led me to buying my new computer as all my decisions seem to have to pass a variety of tests before I make the final yes or no.

As you may (or not) have read in my other entries, I recently bought a HD video camera. The Sony SR12 120GB. Blue ray camcorders just aren't a realistic approach yet. Now I went back and forth on which camera to buy, weighing up the pros and cons of different manufacturers, recording formats and storage. Having finally settled on the Sony AVCHD format and checking that my video editing software, Final Cut Pro, was compatible I was disheartened to discover that my research wasn't as in depth as I had thought. It turned out that the AVCHD format will work with FCP but only when converted to the Apple Pro Res 422 codec. Now there is nothing at all wrong with that codec but another thing presented a problem. Apple Pro Res 422 would only work on newer Intel processor Macs. Mine was an older IBM processor Mac. So I needed a new computer to run FCP to work with my new camera. Talk about knock on effect. Now full HD resolution video is very CPU intensive and although I could run FCP on a regular iMac and convert the AVCHD to Apple Pro Res 422, rendering the video and editing would be on the slow side. We would be talking hours to render video files depending on their length. Some might be asking, "Who does this guy think he is... Steven Spielberg?". Well to go further back in time, when I was living in England, with the help from my cousin Ian, we used to be quite the video making enthusiasts. Spending our weekends making short, sometimes intentionally funny short videos. Often we would spend so much time laughing and joking through the shooting of the video it would take us several weekends to put together the short amateur videos. So I have always had an interest in making videos whether it be spoof commercials or tourism clips, whatever the subject. I have recently put in a request to spend a day with the video editing department with my company, Shaw. I seem to get asked quite a lot about what computer to buy. I always answer the same way. Buy the most advanced computer you can afford because as I mentioned earlier, as soon as you buy it, it's out of date. Having said that, I felt myself flip flopping between buying the computer I wanted and waiting for the next NEW one to be released. With Apple, their products go through cycles. Every 8 - 18 months a new version of the product will be released. Every product. iPods, computers, even the iPhone has been updated to the 3G version. So should I buy my computer now, or wait until January. That being the projected unveiling of the latest incarnation. January being the annual Macworld Expo. At macrumors.com in the buyers guide section they set recommendations to buy or not to buy Apple products based on their current cycle. My computer was listed as 'DON'T BUY: UPDATES SOON'. I guess I should tell you what computer I bought instead of just referring to it as 'my computer'. I am now the proud owner of a Mac Pro 2 x 3.2 Ghz quad core currently with 2GB ram, soon to be upgraded to 6GB ram! That's QUAD core as in four. And I got two of them meaning 8 processors!!! 8... EIGHT... one more than 7!! 8 3.2 ghz processors!! And 6 GB Ram! I was going to go to 12GB ram but I held back. I really, really wanted to get 12 but my level headedness came through and made me see that I would not use 12 GBs on a day to day basis. I would get some use out of it when rendering the video but that didn't justify it for me. So getting back to my decision to get my Mac Pro sooner rather than later given that January is only a few months away. After lots of debating, Shauna finally convinced me to get it now. She put it a good way and in a way that I related to. She knows that if I postponed the purchase until January that when January came I would then tell myself to wait until April for the end of the tax year and get it then. But then I would find some other reason not to get it then and wait for the next reason to pass by. I also tried hard to see myself outgrowing the Mac Pro. 8 cores isn't going to become obsolete anytime soon. But the final nail in the coffin is the best. It re-affirms my loyalty to everything Apple. Everything they stand behind. When I was in the store buying my Mac Pro I mentioned my reservations with the new versions imminent to the store genius, (Apple employees are called Genius's). He told me that with it being so close and the fact that I was buying a Mac Pro for a lot of money, that if Apple did release a new version in January that was a significant upgrade to mine, that I could go back to the store and request that I get the newer model, stating that if I had known I would have waited. He said that he had seen people come back with macbooks purchased a few months before the new aluminium uni-body versions were released and swap them. If they were willing to do that for a macbook worth $1000-$2000 they sure as hell better do it for me and my Mac Pro.