PC over mac?

G

gutterball321

Well-known member
I am looking for a new computer for video editing and figured I might as well get something that will handle 4k when I need it. I have recently started using premiere over FCP and I use a PC at work. I have enjoyed the change over from my imac so figured I could go the PC route and save some money. I was hoping to buy from best buy so I can do the finance plan but i know this might not be the best solution. I am also not a computer builder so does anyone know any good PC's for video editing? I will also need 2 24inch monitors but will be fine starting off with one. So any kits that fit my needs at best buy or on a website geared more towards PC video editors?

my price range may go anywhere from 1000$ for the tower to $1800 total. I figured if I go over 1900 i'll probably just get the 27inch imac so was hoping to go cheaper.

this looked like a powerful machine from best buy but I have NO IDEA: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/desktop...mcat212600050008&cp=1&lp=4#tab=specifications
 
no good at building a pc, hoping there is someone or somewhere that has a good video editing PC package so I can avoid this.
 
I'm gonna say Mac. Pay the extra money. Windows 8 is a ginormous cluster you know what. It's absolutely horrible to use. I have a friend that just switched to Mac and he uses the Premiere software monthly rental package for both editing and After Effects, and has no problems whit it at all.
 
Speaking specifically to your desired use, as any Windows/Mac decision should be based on --

Premiere runs better on Windows. More GPU options for leveraging the Mercury Playback Engine as well.

You don't have to run Windows 8. You can still run Windows 7.

In either case, though, it has to be 64-bit.
 
Thanks for the question and David for your response. I think that this new era of 4K and $10 to $12 thousand or more Macs will certainly have many of us LONG TIME Mac users thinking twice about the next purchase. I sit here and send this on my seven yer old MacBook Pro that needs to be replaced, will edit tomorrow on my 8 core still running FCP 7 and all of this knowing I am going to need more power very soon. I have always edited on Mac from the very first Avid on a Quadra to my first owned system with a 9500 and Targa/Premiere to Media 100 and eventually FCP.
As much as I am uncomfortable with Windows systems it seems that bang for the buck has certainly gone to their side. That you can't expand or add to the new MacPro seems very short sighted to me. That you can't get in at a reasonable price and build up is reason enough for me to consider other options.
 
Well, we don't want to get into a general Mac/Windows debate, as those never go well. But for your purposes, unless you really prefer the Mac OS, a well-equipped Windows machine will run your desired software better.
 
And building your own isnt that hard at all and can save you alot more money.

And you will know your system inside and out.
 
Mac/Windows debate! Certainly not my intention at all as that serves no purpose. But yes I am certainly more accustomed to using the Apple OS but always willing to learn. Thanks again.
 
I have been using Mac for a long time. Since FCP 1.2. FCP X is not as awful as some claim, however, there is no guarantee that Apple will not alter the road map and you will need to upgrade your machine to run FCP X. I remember the hype they offered when moving to OpenCL. Upgrading the video card was supposed to make things move so much quicker. I bought upgrades. They were not worth it. While the new Mac Pros are an interesting concept, are they worth 6K+ in order to get one speedy for 4k? You may do fine with the iMac for a while. You need a fast processor, but also a decent video card, a lot of RAM, and fast hard drives. Video is not cheap on the infrastructure end.

At least with the PC based software, it seems to have more flexibility with speed and cost of the hardware. To each his own. I still like FCP X and I use it on a MacBook Pro. For my purposes it works well. I am also ready to cross-grade my creative suite master collection to the PC though just in case.
 
I just built my new edit station this weekend, not my first by any means, but certainly one of the easiest:

i7-4770k, Asrock Extreme 4/TB4 Thunderbolt motherboard, 16GB 1866 certified ram, MSI GTX 760, Seagate hybrid 2TB system drive and 2TB NAS media drive. Raid comes later.
I would consider something like this the minimum for efficient editing with FX. This was about $1500 for components including case,power supply, and blu-ray burner.

This thing screams compared to my 5 year old laptop. A 240 frame Cinema DNG transcode to 16 bit tiff in Capture One Pro dropped from over 40 minutes on the laptop to less than 3 on the new station and I haven't even installed the GPU yet. Handles 10 bit DPX video or 10 bit uncompressed 4:2:2 broadcast AVI video with no issues at all.
 
No matter what machine you're looking at. Do yourself a favor and call ADK video editing in Kentucky. Ask for Eric Bowen tell him what you're thinking. I can't say enough good things about these guys. If you're serious about your work, trying to run a business etc, give them a call. You'll be happy you did. Good luck
 
i use the newest retina MBP 13inch $1500 at home and its very slow. I use a pc with windows 7 at work and its 20x faster and easier to use with premiere. Its not a video company so the computer is not high end at all. I feel like i could say 600-700$ to go the PC route, was just hoping there was a video editing PC package already for sale somewhere.
 
I don't want to get into the Mac/Win debate, but I do always say if you have to ask, you should get a Mac. (disclosure: primarily Windows user)
 
i clicked on your best buy link and noticed there is another asus that is almost identical, but has a better gpu for the same price.

link
 
gutterball321 said:
i use the newest retina MBP 13inch $1500 at home and its very slow. I use a pc with windows 7 at work and its 20x faster and easier to use with premiere. Its not a video company so the computer is not high end at all. I feel like i could say 600-700$ to go the PC route, was just hoping there was a video editing PC package already for sale somewhere.
Click to expand...

These days for a bare bones starting point that you can build on that is probably the case. It depends on what kind of editing you will be doing. What your source footage is, how complex you get in terms of VFX and multiple video streams etc. You really do need at least a second disc drive for media separate from your system drive. Get into the $1000 -$1500 range though with decent ram, i7 class processor, and a decent NVIDA GPU you get something you can live with and grow with for a long time.
Pick up a copy of Maximum PC and look at the companies like Alienware that build gaming machines. What works for games for the most part works for video editing too.

You might want to check locally to see if there are any small shops building and serviceing PC's. Have them build one to suit.
 
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Dedicated built video editing computers can be very expensive. In the early days you pretty much needed one to guarantee compatibility with software/video cards. Not so much the case these days except on real high-end systems. I would suggest reading this http://videoguys.com/guide/E/Videog...+over/0x86959ff2ee4098c3eef68b2070f368dd.aspx and then go over to avadirect.com who I recommend and price out similar built system. They still have a windows 7-64 bit OS option there. As far as Mac/PC. One advantage of a Mac is being able to export in Prores. Your camera recording codec and customer delivery requirements will determine if you need Prores capability.
 
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Hey guys, I have an HP Z400 workstation with Xeon 3.07GHz, 14BG RAM, an Nvidia Quadro 2000 card, and I am an Adobe guy. I am soon going to be for the first time working with ProRes 1080p 10bit files, some 2k RAW, and here and there some 4K compressed footage as I am upgrading my FS700. I have really only worked in the world of AVCHD and .mov.. I definitely am into color grading but don't do many VFX and when I do, it's pretty mild stuff, just a feathered mask here and there between a few layers of video. My computer has held up great so far for h.264 files but my computer has one major weakness, it only has USB 2.0 ports. I did install a USB 3.0 card for a couple of slots. Transferring files from my USB 3.0 External hardrive to my C drive hits a speed around 120MBs at the beginning of a file transfer and by the end of the transfer it shows around 80MBs. The other way around sending a file from my C drive to my USB 3.0 External drive starts around 40MB and then floats around 60-70MBs. USB 2.0 transfer speeds have pretty much been 20MBs. My computer also has a single firewire port it came with.

So my big question here is.....do you guys think this quad-core machine will hold up for editing and color grading of these ProRes 220mbs files, 2k Raw, and possibly ......a little 4K editing? If not, any recommendations on what to upgrade in my computer in order of priority to get the process going. OR.....should I plan on getting into an 8 core system or higher?

Really appreciate any advice. The upgrade path is not very cheap to do this for the FS700 so I am hoping I get another couple of years out my Workstation. Again thanks a ton for any advice!
 
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