Recommendations please? Pro-user 4K video editing…?

[rodralig]

• GPU: Nvidia GTX 1070, 8GB DDR5
• CPU: i7-7700 3.6GHz
• HDD: 2TB+M.2 & PCIE 256GB SSD
• RAM: 16GB (8GB * 2)

PowerDirectorFilmoraX.


Am thinking of going Mac with the M1 chip in the Mini form factor maxing out the RAM to 16GB, 512GB internal HDD and make use of the fast ports of an external HDD (for capacity). Software will either be FCP, Filmora for Mac or maybe DaVinci. But will this be enough? Say, for at least 3~4 years?BYO

[Preston-CLB]

Your current specs are actually pretty decent. I suggest upgrading your RAM to at least 32GB--64 would be better.

Perhaps it goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway: Clean all the temp files and other garbage off of your drives. Also, disable programs that run in the background that aren't needed and can be started manually. Some of them really chew up ram and hit the CPU. Third, uninstall apps you don't need to free up disk space. SSD's run best when they are less than 75% full.

Don't know if it's possible with your motherboard, but you might consider upgrading your CPU to a six or eight core I9.

JMHO, but Macs are not worth the premium price.
-P

[jbj]

[cleonard]

For video editing like that you will get better results with more of everything. You really want you video that you are editing on NVMe drives. Keeping archival videos on spinning disks is OK, but while actively working on them. If you are currently editing from/to the spinning hard drive, that is probably your bottleneck

You should get a big boost with a new system. You want something that can take two NVMe drives if you can.

[rodralig]

Your current specs are actually pretty decent. I suggest upgrading your RAM to at least 32GB--64 would be better.

This is a 4+ yr old PC. SSD may already be beaten up…

PC has also been re-blasted / everything re-installed from scratch.

Don't know if it's possible with your motherboard, but you might consider upgrading your CPU to a six or eight core I9.

Don’t know about that, but again, a 4+ yr old motherboard?

JMHO, but Macs are not worth the premium price.

Unless I am missing something - the M1 chip outperforms video editing with similarly priced PCs.

Firstly, what software are you talking about? There’s really four NLEs out there; Avid, Adobe Premiere, Resolve, and Final Cut Pro.

It’s in my OP. If I’d move to a newer rig - it would be FCP, Resolve, PowerDirector or Filmora.

You should think about transcode for editing, then relink to 4K files for DI/finish. Editing 4K native takes a lot of horsepower.

The softwares I have do have the capability of using proxy files for the 4Ks. Preview is lower resolution.

For video editing like that you will get better results with more of everything. You really want you video that you are editing on NVMe drives. Keeping archival videos on spinning disks is OK, but while actively working on them. If you are currently editing from/to the spinning hard drive, that is probably your bottleneck

I know. That is my rationale - mini form-factor with a big enough SSD as a workspace, then source/archival in external disk.

You should get a big boost with a new system. You want something that can take two NVMe drives if you can.

That is the point of the post - what recommendations for a new system excluding a BYO option.


_

[xcoreflyup]

a decent graphics card will take up most of that $1500 currently so.

[ibanezfoo]

• GPU: Nvidia GTX 1070, 8GB DDR5
• CPU: i7-7700 3.6GHz
• HDD: 2TB+M.2 & PCIE 256GB SSD
• RAM: 16GB (8GB * 2)

PowerDirectorFilmoraX.


Am thinking of going Mac with the M1 chip in the Mini form factor maxing out the RAM to 16GB, 512GB internal HDD and make use of the fast ports of an external HDD (for capacity). Software will either be FCP, Filmora for Mac or maybe DaVinci. But will this be enough? Say, for at least 3~4 years?BYO

That CPU is ok for now and can be overclocked. I have a pile of them in CAD machines running at 4.5+. You need way more RAM though. Also way more HD space.

You might look into some better software too like Lightworks or Davinici Resolve.

[rodralig]

That CPU is ok for now and can be overclocked. I have a pile of them in CAD machines running at 4.5+. You need way more RAM though. Also way more HD space.

You might look into some better software too like Lightworks or Davinici Resolve.

[Puss]

Consult your motherboard documentation, many have a maximum amount of ram they can handle (along with the speed and type). Then max it out
Same thing with the CPU.


Instead of going bleeding edge, I'd just go with 2 year old stuff and max it out. CPU speeds have maxed out, so now it's cores, cores, cores. Hopefully your Nonlinear video editing solution is multithreaded.

[uzigalil]

get a m1 chip mac mini or wait until october 18 and see if a mac mini pro comes out. But it handles 4k with no issues.

[ibanezfoo]

Consult your motherboard documentation, many have a maximum amount of ram they can handle (along with the speed and type). Then max it out
Same thing with the CPU.


Instead of going bleeding edge, I'd just go with 2 year old stuff and max it out. CPU speeds have maxed out, so now it's cores, cores, cores. Hopefully your Nonlinear video editing solution is multithreaded.

Speeds have actually gone down a bit. Sucks for CAD users though because the software likes raw speed and doesn't really utilize those extra cores. The benefit of the cores is doing more work at full speed rather than 1 thing even faster. So we can open a few sessions of Revit without lagging with more cores, but none of the sessions on an i9 10920X is any faster, and in some cases slower, than an older overclocked i7 7700K.

[rodralig]

get a m1 chip mac mini or wait until october 18 and see if a mac mini pro comes out. But it handles 4k with no issues.