I'm curious to know what other people are doing who have similar needs, but here's where I'm at.
I'm purchasing this machine because I can easily move it between residences in two countries. I'll have a monitor in each location.
I'll be using Capture One (photo), Final Cut (video), Logic (sound) & iZotope apps (sound) as the principal applications.
Having spent more time than I should have investigating options to save money, reality and convenience now hold sway.
Processor: 6-core i7
RAM: 16GB (32GB if we find out Wednesday that it's easy to install third party RAM)
Internal SSD: 512GB
Ethernet: 10 Gigabit
Of the internal SSD, about 20GB will be taken up by apps. For me, this is down by 50GB - 60GB as a result of Apple's recent announcement that Logic sample files can now be stored on an external drive.
The balance of 480GB will be used for whatever my current project is. I've concluded that this is not excessive for 4K video, that there are no external storage options that will equal the internal SSD for performance, and that options that come reasonably close are at least as expensive, and as far as I can tell more expensive, than Apple's internal SSD storage. I considered 256GB, particularly in light of the Logic announcement, but I think that that's cutting it closer than I want.
The purchase of 10 Gigabit Ethernet is future proofing. I have no immediate need for it, but I think that it may prove useful down the road, including for internet, and the price ($100) is both minor, verging on trivial, and attractive compared to what it costs to add it.
I currently have a fair amount of external storage, which I use for original data that I'm not currently using (I'm pretty disciplined about keeping only current projects on my computer) and for backups. I think that the purchase of this computer, with its four Thunderbolt 3 ports, calls for a review of my external storage, and replacement of some of it with more efficient options.
I'm still investigating monitors. I'd like them to be reasonably close to my iMac's 5K Retina monitor in quality. I'm currently focusing on NEC, which apparently is about to release a new monitor that may be appropriate. I own an Eizo, but they are very expensive, probably beyond what I'm prepared to spend for this setup.
An external GPU is on the back burner until I find out what problems, if any, the integrated graphics present.
I'm purchasing this machine because I can easily move it between residences in two countries. I'll have a monitor in each location.
I'll be using Capture One (photo), Final Cut (video), Logic (sound) & iZotope apps (sound) as the principal applications.
Having spent more time than I should have investigating options to save money, reality and convenience now hold sway.
Processor: 6-core i7
RAM: 16GB (32GB if we find out Wednesday that it's easy to install third party RAM)
Internal SSD: 512GB
Ethernet: 10 Gigabit
Of the internal SSD, about 20GB will be taken up by apps. For me, this is down by 50GB - 60GB as a result of Apple's recent announcement that Logic sample files can now be stored on an external drive.
The balance of 480GB will be used for whatever my current project is. I've concluded that this is not excessive for 4K video, that there are no external storage options that will equal the internal SSD for performance, and that options that come reasonably close are at least as expensive, and as far as I can tell more expensive, than Apple's internal SSD storage. I considered 256GB, particularly in light of the Logic announcement, but I think that that's cutting it closer than I want.
The purchase of 10 Gigabit Ethernet is future proofing. I have no immediate need for it, but I think that it may prove useful down the road, including for internet, and the price ($100) is both minor, verging on trivial, and attractive compared to what it costs to add it.
I currently have a fair amount of external storage, which I use for original data that I'm not currently using (I'm pretty disciplined about keeping only current projects on my computer) and for backups. I think that the purchase of this computer, with its four Thunderbolt 3 ports, calls for a review of my external storage, and replacement of some of it with more efficient options.
I'm still investigating monitors. I'd like them to be reasonably close to my iMac's 5K Retina monitor in quality. I'm currently focusing on NEC, which apparently is about to release a new monitor that may be appropriate. I own an Eizo, but they are very expensive, probably beyond what I'm prepared to spend for this setup.
An external GPU is on the back burner until I find out what problems, if any, the integrated graphics present.
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