Mac or PC for editing?

Rylan Zolinski

Rylan Zolinski

Well-known member
This is a pretty touchy subject and I don't want to start a flame war. A few years ago I started editing with a PC and eventually my cousin convinced me to switch over to a Mac in which I did. I was very pleased with how it has performed and right up until this day (bought it roughly 3 years ago). 3 years of technology is a lot of time and with that I want to upgrade my hardware. I can't afford a Mac Pro and I was thinking a long the lines of an iMac. But for what I want (which is $1700), I could buy a pretty sweet PC and even for A LOT less. I got a new job in which I edit video and I am working on a PC and so far I am liking it. I just think I might really miss the interface and the "feel" of editing on a Mac. I guess right now I am just looking for some opinions and insight on what I should do?
 
If you don't have any clients clamoring for FCP, then a build-a-bear tower with CS6 is probably the best deal right now.

My biggest editing clients still want FCP, so I'm stuck in the Mac ecosystem for a while.
 
If you're wondering if an iMac is enough horsepower, I edit 1920x1080 ProRes 4444 on a 1 year old MacMini without a hiccup.
 
Batutta said:
If you're wondering if an iMac is enough horsepower, I edit 1920x1080 ProRes 4444 on a 1 year old MacMini without a hiccup.
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Is that FCP7? Considering it doesn't use more than 3GB of RAM and doesn't take advantage of GPU for accelerated playback of more compressed formats, outside of that particular workflow, Mac Mini is currently not a good choice.

Current iMacs are a fine choice for editing, and I'm holding out for a Ivy Bridge i7 MacMini with a 1GB Radeon GPU. That with 16GB of RAM and a SSD should be a great machine for FCP/Adobe.
 
Gary Huff said:
Is that FCP7? Considering it doesn't use more than 3GB of RAM and doesn't take advantage of GPU for accelerated playback of more compressed formats, outside of that particular workflow, Mac Mini is currently not a good choice.

Current iMacs are a fine choice for editing, and I'm holding out for a Ivy Bridge i7 MacMini with a 1GB Radeon GPU. That with 16GB of RAM and a SSD should be a great machine for FCP/Adobe.
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FCP7, and the MacMini supports up to 8GB of RAM, which I have installed. I'm not a hobbyist. I edit non-stop with the thing, cutting trailers with lots of graphic elements. Even did a feature on it. It's more than up to the task. Sure, if you have intense time pressures and need the fastest render speed possible, I wouldn't recommend it. But I have zero complaints. I bought it as a stopgap when my previous system went down, but have had no reason to upgrade yet.
 
FCP7, being a 32-bit application, is only capable of using 3GB of RAM, not matter how much is in your system [source].

I also did not intend to imply that you were a hobbyist. Hobbyists don't routinely work with ProRes 4444 footage. However, the Mac Mini is currently not the best option for more updated NLEs (Adobe CS5-CS6, FCPX, ect.) which would include anyone who doesn't plan to edit in FCP7 with an all ProRes workflow, and this is due to its poor GPU at the moment.

EDIT: Just checked my fully 64-bit Snow Leopard install with FCP7 and it is, indeed, only using up to 2.5GB of RAM.
 
How is your current system failing you? It kind of sounds like you want to upgrade just to upgrade. I still have and use FCS6 on my G5 PowerPC...then I have a killer Windows 7 machine that I run Vegas and Adobe CS3 on... between the two, there's really not a project that I can't handle so far (knock on wood!).

Remember, where technology is concerned, the longer you can wait, the better off you will be. Most all Mac's & Window's machines will offer Thunderbolt in the months to come...and who knows what else is coming.
 
I went back and forth, I use Mac at work and PC at home. Might be nice to have a Mac at home just so you don't get rusty, however, as already mentioned you can get a LOT more bang for your buck on a PC. Macmini sounds like a good solution to just save money until a more compelling reason comes up, that's if you're just cutting in FCP 7 and don't need anything more.
 
Gary Huff said:
FCP7, being a 32-bit application, is only capable of using 3GB of RAM, not matter how much is in your system [source].

I also did not intend to imply that you were a hobbyist. Hobbyists don't routinely work with ProRes 4444 footage. However, the Mac Mini is currently not the best option for more updated NLEs (Adobe CS5-CS6, FCPX, ect.) which would include anyone who doesn't plan to edit in FCP7 with an all ProRes workflow, and this is due to its poor GPU at the moment.
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Yes, I misread your comment. I would never say its the BEST option. But it's a more than adequate option in my opinion. As someone who has been editing on Final Cut since version one, I'd say we've become INCREDIBLY spoiled at this point as to the capabilities of our systems. Before, it was a question of could it run the software AT ALL. Now it's how well.
 
And my point is that the Mac Mini, in this next generation, will hopefully have a 1GB GPU. That's all that stands in the way of me recommending it as a system whole-heartedly, and mostly because I want to run Premiere with MPE enabled on it. If I was primarily a FCP7 editor, it wouldn't matter, the current i7 Mac Mini would be a great machine.
 
Mark Williams said:
IMO you can get a lot more bang for your buck with a PC.
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Yup, which is exactly why I switched to a custom windows 7 pc with adobe cs6.

Works great, fast as hell, I edit 4k footage all day long on it.

Truth be told, once you are in the actual NLE interface, the os disappears.
 
why not keep your 3 year old mac and build a really nice pc. that way you can use the pc for most editing, but you still have the mac available for the fcp stuff.
 
To clear things up, I use CS5 and AE with my Mac. I've never touched FCP. I have an '09 Macbook Pro (Core 2 Duo with 4 GB's of Ram) and it's relatively sluggish when editing T2i footage. In the near future I want a Blackmagic Camera as well.
 
Morox said:
In the near future I want a Blackmagic Camera as well.
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Then you should seriously consider upgrading unless you intend to primarily shoot ProRes with it. Once you get the Raw video files into a proper format, you'll be fine, but it could take a long time to process that footage to even begin editing on older hardware.
 
Gary Huff said:
Then you should seriously consider upgrading unless you intend to primarily shoot ProRes with it. Once you get the Raw video files into a proper format, you'll be fine, but it could take a long time to process that footage to even begin editing on older hardware.
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Although you didn't fully recommend it, I am now considering a Mac Mini. Hmmm...
 
PC will obviously have a better value, but you can also check out apples refurb section and get a little better deal. but otherwise, just get one of these:

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?prodid=11760106&whse=BC&topnav=&cm_sp=RichRelevance-_-categorypageHorizontalTop-_-PopularProductsInCategory&cm_vc=categorypageHorizontalTop|PopularProductsInCategory

that's an absurd amount of machine for under a grand, even if you need to add the $55 costco membership, but the beauty of costco is that they extend your warranty to 2 years.
 
Morox said:
Although you didn't fully recommend it, I am now considering a Mac Mini. Hmmm...
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The new Mac Mini will probably carry my recommendation, and it will be out (hopefully) before the BMD camera, so I'd wait and see what Apple has in store.
 
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