Designing a video editing machine

[mgphoto]

Hi all

I am a professional photographer and video maker. I currently use just full HD, but will no doubt move to 4K in the next couple of years.

I am currently using a high spec MBP.

I am looking to build a mac pro, that I want to be able to be outputting video from FCPX, editing more video, and processing very large image files simultaneously - without breaking a sweat. Only heavy use programs used are FCPX, Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop.

I am looking for something that will remain high speed for these purposes for at least 2-3 years. (Definitely wanting the 1TB flash memory - and may get ram upgrade aftermarket).

I am considering 2 options below - what do you think? Or another option??

1>
3.0GHz 8-core with 25MB of L3 cache
32GB (4 x 8GB) of 1866MHz DDR3 ECC
1TB PCIe-based flash storage
Dual AMD FirePro D500 GPUs with 3GB of GDDR5 VRAM each
$8,538.99 (with genuine mac ram)

2>
3.5GHz 6-core with 12MB of L3 cache
64GB (4 x 16GB) of 1866MHz DDR3 ECC
1TB PCIe-based flash storage
Dual AMD FirePro D700 GPUs with 6GB of GDDR5 VRAM each
$8,429.00

THOUGHTS? 32 or 64gb ram? Better to get more cores CPU, or spend that money on better graphics cards?

M

 

[Pressure]

You will need to look into an external storage option you will be using as the scratch drive, like the Pegasus2 Series from Promise.

You definitely don't need 1TB of internal storage for your needs.

Buy aftermarket RAM to save some more cash.

Do you really work on more projects at a time? Or is it simply a "nice to have" feature?

 

[mgphoto]

Thanks for the reply @pressure

As my only large capacity external storage is drobo (not the fastest) I would rather have source files on the internal - hence 1tb

At moment yes I definitely am editing whilst outputting other files - but that may be cut down if the output time taken is much quicker than my pro.

what do you think about video cards?

 

[puckhead193]

I'm a video editor for a major network. I ordered a 6 core. 32 gig ram 1tb, D700. The processor is upgradable which I will prob no doubt do once apple care expires. The video card is still up in air as far as I know.
I can always update the ram. I could have gone with a smaller SDD but went with the largest as I hate moving files around and don't want to bother dealing with running out of space.

 

[Anim]

As my only large capacity external storage is drobo (not the fastest) I would rather have source files on the internal - hence 1tb

Just to be clear...

With the nMP you shouldn't really think of internal vs external when it comes to storage like you do with other desktops. PCI-e can travel down the Thunderbolt2 cable allowing bigger and faster (raid / daisy chain) external storage than you get with the single internal PCI-e SSD.

Here is an example using daisy chaining.
http://www.engadget.com/2014/01/05/lacie-little-big-disk-thunderbolt-2/

So there are other options if you need faster and bigger drives than what Apple offer, obviously it comes at a cost though.

Anim