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Subject: Re: [AE] iMac and AE
From: Carey Dissmore <carey@imugonline.com>
In-Reply-To: <list-4685324@media-motion.tv>
Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2012 18:32:53 -0500
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References: <list-4685324@media-motion.tv>
To: "After Effects Mail List" <AE-List@media-motion.tv>,
 <stephen@sv2studios.com>

Hi all,

Just sort of jumping into the fray on this thread now with a couple of =
side-angle comments.

First, I too have seen this whole issue coming to a head when I made my =
Mac Pro future blog post way back in January. I'm a Mac guy who has had =
PCs around for years but other than doing AE and encoding on them during =
the Mac performance valley between G4's and G5's (those were dark times =
for performance), I've been doing most production work on Macs and =
remain more comfortable there.=20

Having said that I'm a performance nut and long overdue for an upgrade =
to my Mac Pro 3,1 (which is currently stuffed with SSDs, 4 drive RAID, =
and dual CUDA cards...basically as upgraded as it can be without =
swapping the whole box out). Alas, really concerned that big iron =
hardware from Apple themselves is not going to be with us much longer. =
Hope remains for the operating system to find it's way onto other big =
iron though...

Within the world of PC hardware, It's true that dual Xeon boxes are the =
top performance route but I have to admit they are quite pricey. However =
they are really built for max performance for heavy lifting. We AE folks =
have much higher performance demands than people who only edit. We can =
lay the lion's share of the high cost of dual Xeon boxes at the feet of =
Intel who charges north of 1600 per CPU (you need two) in quantities of =
1000 to the builders. That's just those parts, nothing else. When you =
compare it to the numbers achievable on 6 or 8 core i7 systems, =
especially overclocked similar to what Teddy Gage seems to have built, =
you find yourself looking at bang-for-buck factors and getting wooed by =
the performance that can be achieved with one of these $350-500 CPUs in =
a well-built system for around $2-4k. Apple has never built a machine =
with this type of CPU in a tower configuration with slots and room for =
things like more ram, drives, CUDA cards, etc. So it has left a big hole =
in the middle between iMac and Mac Pro. As Mac users, we sucked it up =
and bought Mac pros because we needed them, but if we're  stuck =
migrating platforms we start examining options, cost structures, etc.=20

carey

On Apr 13, 2012, at 6:19 PM, Stephen van Vuuren wrote:

>> That sort of thing is only meaningful for the first week and a half. =
Work expands to fit the available resources
>=20
> Or contracts.. and only if you let your tools dictate your work. It =
should be the other way around. Maybe you have the overhead to absorb =
that kind of inefficiency, but I don't like to operate on that. My own =
two cents...
>=20
> I used to be a very high paid IT infrastructure wonk before I returned =
to filmmaking in 99 - and that sort of thinking got many, many companies =
in very deep water. I did very well and advanced quickly by great =
boosting computing performance, user skill levels and massive increase =
in infrastructure speed, redundancy and capacity all while cutting spend =
per user of total IT budget. The CTO of the company was so convinced I =
was going by spending more, he hired the Gartner Group to analyze the =
whole company and our division came out first on satisfaction, first on =
performance but well below corporate average on spend.
>=20
> Look at Google - they have applied the best thinking in this area of =
price/performance/TCO to a science. The cool think about their work on =
storage drives is I see how true it's been with my own storage planning =
for the eventual 150 TB that Outside In will consume (right at about 60 =
TB) right now. But I've paid a tiny fraction of what a standard RAID =
storage solution would have cost.
>=20
> I think for individuals, small shops and large in the post world, the =
same type of science in dealing with price/performance and TCO goes a =
lot further than letting "work fit available resources". I strongly =
believe infrastructure science is the way to be one step or more ahead =
of competition in technical field.
>=20
> stephen van vuuren
> 336.202.4777
>=20
> http://www.sv2studios.com/
> http://www.outsideinthemovie.com/
> http://www.stephenv2.me/
>=20
> A film is =96 or should be =96 more like music than like fiction. It =
should be a progression of moods and feelings. The theme, what=92s =
behind the emotion, the meaning, all that comes later.
> =96Stanley Kubrick
>=20
>=20
> -----Original Message-----
> From: After Effects Mail List [mailto:AE-List@media-motion.tv] On =
Behalf Of Tsassoon
> Sent: Friday, April 13, 2012 6:59 PM
> To: After Effects Mail List
> Subject: Re: [AE] iMac and AE
>=20
> That sort of thing is only meaningful for the first week and a half. =
Work expands to fit the available resources. I've done most of the work =
that I've done in my life on computers that wouldn't keep up with =
today's phones, as we all inevitably will.
>=20
> I buy Apple machines because I find them cheaper to administer, and at =
two years will still sell for 50% of retail. That is, I've found their =
TCO is the lowest. What's needed though are more Thunderbolt =
peripherals, including ePCIe boxen. Is there something stopping nVidia =
from writing their own OSX drivers for a wider range of their cards?
>=20
>=20
> Tim Sassoon
> SFD
> Santa Monica, CA
>=20
> Sent from my iPhone
>=20
>=20
>=20
> On Apr 13, 2012, at 1:34 PM, "Stephen van Vuuren" =
<stephen@sv2studios.com> wrote:
>=20
>> You can=92t get a Sandy Bridge E system from Apple
>=20
> +---End of message---+
> To unsubscribe send any message to <ae-list-off@media-motion.tv>
>=20
>=20
>=20
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