Mac for HD Video Editing

Zbornak

Zbornak

Zbornak

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Joined
12 Jan 2010
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1,879
Hey guys I'm gonna be cheeky and ask you to be my personal shopper as I don't know much about Mac hardware capabilities.

I'm looking for a Mac (iMac or Powerbook) to edit HD videos. Specifically video files shot on a Canon 7D DSLR. It will also be used for general family use (videos, music, internet browsing) and will have to be future-proof for at least 3+ years. Don't worry about software, I'll sort all that out.

Can anyone suggest something for me? Budget is £2k maximum. Bear in mind I can get higher edu discount as well.
 
That's where I'm torn because I know desktop offers greater performance and the laptop is more pratical. I really don't mind either way to be honest!
 
If it's just home movies, I'd go for the 27" quad core iMac. Stick with the i5 and upgrade the RAM to 8GB. Comes in just under 2k with AppleCare. I'd never spend the kind of money Apple charge on a big laptop. It's ridiculous. I only got my 13" because it had £150 off. And anything bigger than 13" is kind of silly.
 
Wow that's an absolutely amazing setup. Cheers. 1TB hard drive as well which is great. Would be very interested to how the rendering times change compared to my current setup!
 
If you're looking for cheaper still. You can get a 27" Core i7 on the refurb store. Only comes with 4GB of RAM and the old 4850 though. But it's £1400. Adding AppleCare and the battery charger (useful for the wireless keyboard and mouse) it comes in at just under £1600. Only difference is it comes in an unbranded box. Dunno if you'd get HE discsount on refurbs though.

Edit: To add to that there's a current generation iMac with the i5 and 5750 for £1400 on the refurb store. http://store.apple.com/uk/product/FC511B/A?mco=MTkwMzU2Njc Still comes in under £1600 with the AppleCare and Charger. Can spend the rest on a RAM upgrade. £280 will get you 16GB of this: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-205-OC
 
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dnc316 said:
Wow that's an absolutely amazing setup. Cheers. 1TB hard drive as well which is great. Would be very interested to how the rendering times change compared to my current setup!
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I assume you will be using iMovie or will you be using something like Final Cut Express? :confused:
 
Brian8bit said:
If you're looking for cheaper still. You can get a 27" Core i7 on the refurb store. Only comes with 4GB of RAM and the old 4850 though. But it's £1400. Adding AppleCare and the battery charger (useful for the wireless keyboard and mouse) it comes in at just under £1600. Only difference is it comes in an unbranded box. Dunno if you'd get HE discsount on refurbs though.

Edit: To add to that there's a current generation iMac with the i5 and 5750 for £1400 on the refurb store. http://store.apple.com/uk/product/FC511B/A?mco=MTkwMzU2Njc Still comes in under £1600 with the AppleCare and Charger. Can spend the rest on a RAM upgrade. £280 will get you 16GB of this: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-205-OC
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Cheers. I'll have to look up discounts in the refurb store for higher edu.

Blackhawk47 said:
I assume you will be using iMovie or will you be using something like Final Cut Express? :confused:
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Final Cut Pro and other things like Apple Colour and maybe some Adobe CS5 software.
 
I would defo stay away from a laptop if you're using FCP. It works on their laptops above 15" but faster HDD on the iMac and more max ram.
 
dnc316 said:
Cheers. I'll have to look up discounts in the refurb store for higher edu.

Final Cut Pro and other things like Apple Colour and maybe some Adobe CS5 software.
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If you're using Premiere CS5 and can get the Mercury Engine to work with your 8800GTX (I believe 768mb of ram was the minimum it would work with), I wouldn't be at all surprised if the machine you've got is faster than a £2K 27" iMac for HD video editing. I use it with my GTX260 with files from a 5DMKII and the speed increase with the hardware GPU acceleration is obscene.
 
8t10 said:
I would defo stay away from a laptop if you're using FCP. It works on their laptops above 15" but faster HDD on the iMac and more max ram.
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Thanks for clarifying that.

Adrianr said:
If you're using Premiere CS5 and can get the Mercury Engine to work with your 8800GTX (I believe 768mb of ram was the minimum it would work with), I wouldn't be at all surprised if the machine you've got is faster than a £2K 27" iMac for HD video editing. I use it with my GTX260 with files from a 5DMKII and the speed increase with the hardware GPU acceleration is obscene.
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It's won't just be for editing; the family want a new computer so I thought to get a Mac instead of a PC. I will use the Mac for editing and the family will use it for their general purposes and I will still use my PC for gaming. Thanks for the advice though. I currentely editing 7D files on my machine just fine (with certain codecs) but I'd like to increase rendering times.

Feek said:
Education discount doesn't apply to the refurb store.
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Thanks.

Edit: How about 'decrease' rendering times. lol.
 
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Nexus said:
Eh?
I can run Final Cut Pro just fine on my 13' inch MacBook Pro :confused:
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I've been told by a pair of Apple Geniuses (ii?) that it requires a dedicated graphics card, which the 13" does not have. I asked them when I was looking for an MPB.
 
I can confirm that FCP is one hungry program that brings my 2 year old iMac '24 with 8gig Ram to a standstill at times. To the OP, depending on what type of editing you do (professional?) FCP is silly overpowered for home movie editing. iMovie 11 has nice features and with enough time, imagination and crafting, you can make very professional looking flicks. However, I myself to dabble with FCP, more for the learning process than the need. What's nice is that you can directly export your iMovie film to FCP and craft even further.
 
regulus said:
I can confirm that FCP is one hungry program that brings my 2 year old iMac '24 with 8gig Ram to a standstill at times. To the OP, depending on what type of editing you do (professional?) FCP is silly overpowered for home movie editing. iMovie 11 has nice features and with enough time, imagination and crafting, you can make very professional looking flicks. However, I myself to dabble with FCP, more for the learning process than the need. What's nice is that you can directly export your iMovie film to FCP and craft even further.
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I myself also not only want use FCP for my own stuff but also to have it the expertise under my belt as the industry is certainly swaying that way at the moment. I do professional editing as I make films for a living so I think FCP probably is the way to go. I use Sony Vegas Pro 9 at the moment and it's just not 'complicated' enough if you know what I mean? The bigger screen will be a great help as well for special effects and grading.

Does anyone if it's easy to install RAM into the iMac i5's? I Googled it and most of the articles make look like a piece of cake but they were all written about 2 years again. Are things still the same in regards to modifications? If it is easy then maybe the refurb store is the way to go and I'll install the RAM myself.
 
dnc316 said:
Does anyone if it's easy to install RAM into the iMac i5's? I Googled it and most of the articles make look like a piece of cake but they were all written about 2 years again. Are things still the same in regards to modifications? If it is easy then maybe the refurb store is the way to go and I'll install the RAM myself.
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It should be as simple as this: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3918

Apparently it shouldn't void any warranties either if you do it yourself. And the latest iMac with the i5 and 5750 in the refurb store should support 16GB of SO-DIMM PC3-10666 (1333Mhz). Whereas the older ones and MBPs support SO-DIMM PC3-8500 (1066Mhz)
 
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FCP works fine on my 13" Macbook Pro?

Works better on my Mac Pro though I'll give you that hehe :)
 
dnc316 said:
I myself also not only want use FCP for my own stuff but also to have it the expertise under my belt as the industry is certainly swaying that way at the moment. I do professional editing as I make films for a living so I think FCP probably is the way to go. I use Sony Vegas Pro 9 at the moment and it's just not 'complicated' enough if you know what I mean? The bigger screen will be a great help as well for special effects and grading.

Does anyone if it's easy to install RAM into the iMac i5's? I Googled it and most of the articles make look like a piece of cake but they were all written about 2 years again. Are things still the same in regards to modifications? If it is easy then maybe the refurb store is the way to go and I'll install the RAM myself.
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If you're doing it professionally, then FCP is certainly the way to go. Just be prepared for a hellish learning curve. An loooooong rendering times.
 
Thanks regulus.

Brian8bit said:
It should be as simple as this: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3918

Apparently it shouldn't void any warranties either if you do it yourself. And the latest iMac with the i5 and 5750 in the refurb store should support 16GB of SO-DIMM PC3-10666 (1333Mhz). Whereas the older ones and MBPs support SO-DIMM PC3-8500 (1066Mhz)
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Thanks. Was confused for about half an hour because it looked like there were only two RAM slots but I checked a video on YouTube of RAM replacement and I confirmed I could see two slots :p

Lowe said:
FCP works fine on my 13" Macbook Pro?

Works better on my Mac Pro though I'll give you that hehe :)
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Thanks for the input but I think I'll stick to the iMac for the bigger screen and the fact that it will stop plenty of family arguments like over whose had the laptop at work all week etc.

Thanks Brian8bit for the RAM link. They look lovely :)
 
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