Need Advice on New Computer

[Brock Burwell]

I am working for a small university here in my town as a videographer/photographer and am shooting with a GH4 (shoots 4K but mostly will be down-scaling to 1080). I will be using Final Cut Pro X and Lightroom for most of my work. I've talked my boss into getting me a new computer, but it has to be something under $2,000.

I looked at the new iMac 5K i5 processor ($1,999) and it looks really nice, but I'm wondering if it will struggle to do video editing. Most of my videos will be short (2-3 minutes). I do plan on upgrading the RAM to 16GB instead of the 8, but I was wondering if there is another 27" iMac that would be better for me? Any suggestions?

[Karl Walter Keirstead]

With a $2,000 budget, why go with hardware that is notoriously expensive?

Unless you are adamant re Mac, take a look at a desktop PC (ASUS, DELL, others)- you can get incremental 5 Gb hard drives easily for about $150, no problem starting with 32 Gb RAM.

[Brock Burwell]

I edit on Final Cut Pro X, which does not work with PC

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Karl Walter Keirstead

With a $2,000 budget, why go with hardware that is notoriously expensive?

That price includes a 27 inch 5K screen so it's not that expensive, eventhough I don't own a Imac just looking at processorpower only as you need that when dealing with 4K footage if I am right this should give some indication about processorspeed compared to current higher end processors: PassMark - Intel Core i5-2500K @ 3.30GHz - Price performance comparison which looks like it's slower then a older gen i7 2600.

But does fcpx not encode to prores when you import? I guess that should eliminate any issues dealing with 4K footage?

[William Hohauser]

From a purely functional perspective, the iMac you are looking at will work fine for single camera editing in 4K. It seems like a great computer, well worth the "expense".

Most of the processing work will be handled by the video card which Apple has chosen for video editing and photo applications. Multicam in 4K may be problematic but this can be solved by converting the original 4K footage to HD before editing. Programs like EditReady or MPEGStreamclp are good for that.

To answer Noa, yes, FCPX will convert to ProRes during import if that option is chosen. ProRes will reduce strain on the processors especially for multicam. Be prepared to stock up on hard drives if you have lots of 4K footage. I work mostly in HD or 2K (basically the same thing) and I don't transcode camera footage to ProRes usually and except for my 2013 MacPro cylinder, I am using an older model 2011 laptop and 2009 MacPro and those run standard 24mbps video files from my GH3 fine. However the 50mbps files will choke on my laptop. I haven't taken the leap to the GH4 yet.

[Brock Burwell]

Well I'm OK with hard drives for the time being, but as long as the computer runs smoothly while editing this footage (most of it will be down scaled to 1080 anyway), I'll be happy.

Most of my videos will only be a few minutes long, so it's not like I will be doing long documentaries or films on it.

[Noa Put]

How do you plan to scale down? If you edit 4K material in a 1080p project it gets downscaled as well but you are still dealing with a 4K file so you can get performance issues, especially when you do multicam which will turn your film into a slideshow quickly. Converting to an intermediate format is your best bet for hassle free 4K editing.

[William Hohauser]

I agree with that especially if you intend to use 4K to take advantage of the reframing options it gives you. Anyway, the iMac you mentioned is good for the editing simple 4K. You might find that leaving auto-render on useful for when you alter the raw 4K files on the timeline.