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June, 2025

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Computer for editing

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FSKP
Posts: 332 - Karma: 2,214
What computer should i buy for editing?
I don't want to pay more than 1500-1700$

I tought of an iMac would be good?
What do you think?
12 years ago
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eheath
Posts: 61968 - Karma: 126,910
if you want a desktop, build a nice windows setup, use adobe premeire pro. If you're serious about it, ton of guys on here could help you pick out some good components. If you dont wanna build it yourself, check out cyberpowerpc.com you basically can build a computer without building it. You could get a very powerful tower and two monitors for $1600.
12 years ago
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tomPietrowski
Posts: 7296 - Karma: 18,731
An iMac coul be an option but they are not really suited to rendering as they suffer from poor cooling. They work well for graphics but when extended CPU processing is involved there have been issues with overheating. Also if you plan to use adobe program's adobe have had issues with memory management with Osx.

For the money your looking at you could build a really nice windows desktop or if you don't fancy building you could get something good pre built. If you go pre built have a look at cyber power. They tend to have some reasonable prices there. Or if you go custom I'm sure a few of us here could recommend good builds.
12 years ago
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FSKP
Posts: 332 - Karma: 2,214
Thanks! I'll look at this! ++ karma
12 years ago
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123+ski
Posts: 2832 - Karma: 581
imacs are sweet, but as far as I know, they use the same hardware as macbook pros. I would look into a used/refurb macbook pro if you want to go mobile, and if you are fine with a desktop, build a tower, and if you want it to be a mac, google tonymac. There are entires lists on his site of ideal hardware, and you should be able to build quite the machine for that price.
12 years ago
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dispatchQ_main
Posts: 2619 - Karma: 629
I would skip a mac for your price range. If you have components you can reuse than you could easily build a top of the line pc for your budget. If you don't than you could probably skimp a little on the graphics card if all you want is a computer for editing.

Some other advice i would give is skip on an ssd as I haven't noticed the benefits of having one on my new build for editing. They are pretty expensive still for the size and the performance gain is hardly noticeable imo. Plus you can always add one later when you see them on sale or they drop in price which is always happening.

12 years ago
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eheath
Posts: 61968 - Karma: 126,910
You don't notice your ssd? Do you run all your programs on it?

And a 256gb ssd is < $200 now
12 years ago
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dispatchQ_main
Posts: 2619 - Karma: 629
I shoulda said for editing I don't really notice it. I run windows, chrome and my most frequently used programs/games off of it and all I really notice is the boot times, especially with fast boot on my msi board it's basically instantaneous to turn my system on. Even then it's more of a showpiece than something useful or worth spending money on when it could be spent on more ram or a better cpu.

I read this on toms hardware and it basically is what my thoughts were when using the ssd explained a little better.

with video editing please keep in mind that reliability of the drive is way more important than the speed of it.

Keep in mind also that 2 high end HDDs can feed an OC'd i7 enough compressed data (h/x.264) to keep it at full load if you are doing heavy loads. In short, you do not 'need' SSD performance to have an excellent editing experience. That being said, I have done one project on my SSDs, and OMG!!! the instant seek time of the SSDs really make things snappy when randomly picking a spot to start playing from!!! But other than that extra quick responsiveness I did not see much other improvement in actual use for editing and rendering speeds because compressed data is rather CPU heavy. If you start editing raw, uncompressed (or low compressed) footage (like lagarith), then you will see a huge performance boost because there is less load on the CPU, and more load on the drives, so for that workflow SSDs would make more sense... but you would need some nice big drives.
12 years ago
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Belzebub
Posts: 451 - Karma: 812
Check this out: http://www.chillblast.com/Chillblast-Fusion-Firebird.html
12 years ago
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FSKP
Posts: 332 - Karma: 2,214
Which video card should I choose?
12 years ago
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eheath
Posts: 61968 - Karma: 126,910
Depends on how much you wanna spend
12 years ago
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FSKP
Posts: 332 - Karma: 2,214
Around maximum 400$ for the graphic card

And for the power supply, 500watt, 750watt or 1000watt or more?
12 years ago
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eheath
Posts: 61968 - Karma: 126,910
It all depends on what you're running. I have a pretty power hungry system and i have an 800w.

As for graphic cards, check out the gtx 570, gtx 660ti and gtx780 (780 may be out of your range)
12 years ago
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FSKP
Posts: 332 - Karma: 2,214
For the cpu i tought of an Intel core i7, but what's about AMD? Is it good?
12 years ago
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eheath
Posts: 61968 - Karma: 126,910
Stick to intel
12 years ago
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Mag
Posts: 8155 - Karma: 14,803
What about those hybrid ssds? seem to be only slightly more than a regular hard drive, I don't plan on getting one, I'm just curious if they actually work or if they're just a waste, with no benefits.
12 years ago
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1337
Posts: 31080 - Karma: 29,700
GTX 580 for < $400
12 years ago
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tomPietrowski
Posts: 7296 - Karma: 18,731
Gpu wise have a look at the GeForce 770. Should be right on your price range.
12 years ago
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