Wich imac for video editing

[roeliepoelie]

Hey,
I am looking for a new imac 27" for video editing and photoshop.
The video editing would mainly be home video's, i have about 8 years of raw footage of the children that i have to put into some nice video's.
Photoshop would also be the photo's of the kids/family etc.

I have a mbp, (15" , mid 2012, 2,3 Ghz i7, 512 SSD (put in myself) but that one is f****, someone dropped a glass of water on it and now it is not working anymore. Tried everything, complete new instal etc. cleared the whole memory etc. I think that there is corrosion inside my mbp, and that it is wasted.

I never have done any final cut pro on that mbp, did some small movies with imovie. But never any final cut pro or the likes.
My thought would be the Imac 27" 3,8 Ghz, with the radeon pro 580 graphic card and upgrade by apple to 512 SSD.
The RAM i want to upgrade myself with 2 x 16 Gb.

I no there might be an new Imac coming one of these days, or maybe next februari, or maybe even next may. I don't want to wait for that, we are now going into wintertime so long nights to get started with the editing...

Would the imac as mentioned before be an good option for me? or is it even better to go with the i7 processor (an extra 240 Euro).
Or, could i just as wel buy a cheaper one, with the radeon 575.

hope you guys can give me some advice....

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

The most you can afford would be my suggestion. Having been in graphic design and still do the odd free job, preferred the i7 model iMacs, with a 1TB Blade Drive and ample memory.

 

[mikehalloran]

Nothing like using FCP on an underpowered Mac. Load a project. Take a lunch break. See if the project has loaded yet. If yes, you can get something done...

The most you can afford would be my suggestion. Having been in graphic design and still do the odd free job, preferred the i7 model iMacs, with a 1TB Blade Drive and ample memory.

I agree 100% Do not get an i5. I do not like Fusion drives for AV unless the video files are short.

An 8G iMac is fine only if you plan to add a pair of 16G RAM sticks so that you have 40G. You probably won't need more.

 

[iMas70]

I'm currently using a late 2015 iMac (i7, 2TB fusion, 16GB, AMD Radeon R9 M395X). Works great to edit 4K drone videos. I plan to order another i7 in a few days. It will have the Radeon Pro 580 and 8GB. I'll upgrade that myself. I was planning to go with the 3TB Fusion drive but a lot of posts try to steer people towards the SSD. I understand why. The configuration I'm looking at is $2599 USD. Going from the 3TB Fusion to a 512 SSD bumps the price up to $2699. Going with the 1TB SSD adds another $400 to bring the total up to $3099. And if I go with one of the SSD options, I'll also have to get external storage.

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

If you are opening it up and upgrading the graphics, buy an SSD and do it yourself.


https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ssd/owc/imac-27-inch/late-2013-2017

 

[roeliepoelie]

thanks for your advice.
After reading into it a bit more i decided it is gonna be the i7 imac, with the 580 radeon and an 512 SSD.
The RAM i want to upgrade myself to 40 Gb.
Thanks for your advice.

 

[GrindedDown]

Nothing like using FCP on an underpowered Mac. Load a project. Take a lunch break. See if the project has loaded yet. If yes, you can get something done...



I agree 100% Do not get an i5. I do not like Fusion drives for AV unless the video files are short.

An 8G iMac is fine only if you plan to add a pair of 16G RAM sticks so that you have 40G. You probably won't need more.

Except it’s not actually that bad at all. Final cut is perfectly serviceable with 4K files and a fusion drive. i5 also works pretty good with these machines. Stop exaggerating things just to prove your point please.

OP, don’t let everyone fool you into thinking that unless you buy the max spec iMac with 2tb ssd, video editing will be impossible and the machine will break lol. This is especially true if you plan on using the machine for home and personal videos. If you aren’t a working video professional, get something as fast as you can afford and you’ll be happy. Don’t spend lots of extra money just because of forum pressure.

Higher spec machines like i7, best GPU, etc... do make a big difference, but only you will know if you need it. If you are editing 4K, have complex and lengthy timelines, run plug-ins like Neat Video for denoising, do masking/rotoscoping, and all that.....sure get the max spec.

I would get extra ram for sure though (third party, not Apple).