Purchase Power

OK. Thanks in no small part to to all of the people who responded to my previous topic, FCP or Premiere, and the great group of people at the meeting on Wednesday, I'm pretty close to making the jump to FCP and Mac. The problem is knowing what's fair to spend and what I should be including in the system. I have a limit of $10,000 and would like to start in SD and move into the HD arena when I can afford a new HD camera as well. Now, can anybody let me know what I should be configuring, you know, the optimum Mac/FCP for $10,000. Or, put another way, when you get back from Resfest, can you give me an idea of what Mac power is. I already know what Bill Gates thinks it is. How would you build a system if someone gave you $10k?
Thanks again for all the help you've given this newbie to the forum.
Jonathan

Essentially just get what you can afford. Get the fastest Mac, fill it up with at least 4 gigs of ram. Get a SATA Raid. A nice 23 flat panel is nice. Two is even better
You need a NTSC monitor.
Couple of good speakers.
Here is what I did a few yeares back

[www.lafcpug.org]

What a great story. Thanks, Mike. I'm the same way relative to learning anything new through immersion and just getting out there and doing it. That's why, after joining the forum two days earlier, I was at the Group Meeting last Wednesday which was great for me being able to talk to alot of the members there who had hands-on experience with both environments. I'm a long way from Traffic but I'm started so I talked with Dana over at Pro Max this evening so he knows I'm headed down there to have him do the FCP set up instead of Premiere.

So here's to a new relationship that has helped me greatly so far in a very short period of time. And I'm happy everything worked out with your house the past few days.