from [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> Hi Charity, Here's the big question: how long can you wait? There is a lot of speculation that Apple is working on a significant update for the Mac Pro line for 2013 (for example: http://tinyurl.com/76mlu7h). Normally I don't advocate getting the newest / shiniest toy just for kicks, but the Mac Pro line hasn't been significantly updated in 2+ years, and the current model lacks pretty basic things like a Thunderbolt port. If you can wait until 2013, it sounds like you may be rewarded for your patience. If you cannot or don't want to wait, I would recommend getting the beefiest Mac Pro you can afford. If your funds are limited, try to get the 12-core processor from Apple, and then use third-party retailers like MacSales and Crucial to max out your RAM and internal hard drive space. In my experience, the hardware from MacSales and Crucial is high quality, less expensive than Apple, and probably the easiest hardware upgrade you could possibly perform. You can also sometimes find the exact drives Apple uses for Mac Pros (the Hitachi Deskstar 2TB 7200RPM, at least in my models) on Amazon for about half the price Apple charges. Because the current Mac Pros do not have Thunderbolt ports, I would recommend going with the maximum amount of internal storage space supported by the Mac Pro (4x2TB) before even beginning to think about external drives. If you need more than 8TB, G-Drives are great, just stick with FW800 or eSATA (for which you'd need an additional eSATA card). As for software, I would highly recommend giving Final Cut Pro X a try if you haven't already. Much of the consternation surrounding the new version is from pro-level users whose favorite tools were taken out of the software in an effort to make it more consumer / prosumer friendly, and to Apple's credit, they did a good job of making it less intimidating, with a much shorter learning curve. One of the biggest benefits of FCP X, in my opinion, is that you can start users in iMovie '11 to perform the basics first. If they decide they need to perform some higher-level task, the existing iMovie '11 project can then be imported into FCP X, which looks and feels much more similar to iMovie than FCP 7 could have ever hoped. Our users have a very wide range of video editing experience and skill, and have been happy with this workflow so far. I hope this is helpful. Feel free to contact me if you have any followup questions! Ryan -- Ryan Brazell Learning Technologies Specialist UCSF Library and Center for Knowledge Management San Francisco, CA ************************************************************************** LLTI is a service of IALLT, the International Association for Language Learning Technologies (http://iallt.org/), and The Consortium for Language Teaching and Learning (http://www.languageconsortium.org/). Join IALLT at http://iallt.org. Subscribe, unsubscribe, search the archives at http://listserv.dartmouth.edu/scripts/wa.exe?A0=LLTI Otmar Foelsche, LLTI-Editor ([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>) **************************************************************************