Inspiring

Question

Mac vs. PC for Premiere Pro CC with a budget of...

Forum|Forum|12 years ago
October 24, 2013
4 replies
22020 views

$3300.00 ... That's what I'm budgeting.

Warning:

I know any post of Mac vs. PC can spark a lively debate and I sense much of this forum's base are PC users but hopefully I'll get some honest and sound advice/purchase options.

Purpose:

I'm a current Mac user not wanting really to go back to PC but I'm about to make a purchase so I wanna be open to the idea if it's gonna make life better for me while editing. As crazy/stupid as it sounds...my fear of returning to the PC world is mostly because of my memory of the years of having to deal with the need for Virus Protection on a PC. I have bad memories from having to renew/pay for that every year and it slowing things down and ultimately my last PC was infected and crashed. But my editing is what I do 6 days a week on this computer for work. I used to be a FCP user so Macs made sense but now I'm all in on Premiere Pro CC so maybe a PC would be best...or maybe I should just stay with Mac. Who knows?! Bottom line: I use Premiere, Audition, Encore and Photoshop with 90% of it on Premiere (using basic cuts, cross dissolves, extensive use of Warp Stabilizer, and the occasional gaussian blur). I also use this computer to go online. That's about it. Mostly.

Current State:

I have a 2011 iMac with a 27" screen. Love that size. It has 3.4 GHz i7, 16GB 1333 RAM, AMD 6970M 1GB VRAM GPU, 120GB SSD (OWC 6G) running the OS and apps, and I also have a Elite Pro Dual eSata HDD + Thunderbolt adapter (RAID 0) from MacSales.com that I currently use as my scratch drive.

Option #1:

I was just about to purchase the newest iMac with most of the upgrades for what would be $3300. The upcoming 2013 Mac Pro looks nice and I love the idea of being able to upgrade as I go, but it doesn't come with a screen and I can't necessarily afford it when you add that in. Plus it doesn't come out for a couple months and honestly I have a great offer in right now on my iMac that I'm about to sell.

The iMac I was intending to get as soon as next week was:

2013 iMac with the 27" Screen

3.5 GHz Quad-Core Intel i7 ("Turboboost" up to 3.9 GHz)

1TB "Fusion" Drive (Apple's 120 SSD + 1TB HDD mix)

32 GB of 1600 MHz RAM

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M (4GB VRAM)

4 USB 3.0 Ports

2 Thunderbolt Ports

PRICE: $3300 (about)

Option #2:

A PC of some sort that's upgradable going forward and optimized for what I use it for primarily (see underlined and bold above). I truly have been out of the PC world sooo long and I know that each "side" has their advantages. I love Mac but I'm just wanting to get the best machine for Premiere for my budget. I've been a loyal mac user for years but I'm no fan boy (eg. I happily own a Galaxy S3 by choice) I was excited to get the newest iMac released just a couple weeks ago but then tonight I saw this site (http://pcpartpicker.com/) and started thinking about my options.

I will be selling my 2011 iMac to help pay for the new one so I can't keep this one. That money has factored into my budget. It's been great but I feel like it drags and hangs with MPE enabled sometimes so I figured a newer computer would help.

Also...SSD. I have read great things from various posts about the Samsung 840 Pro SSD's so I may pick one or two up eventually to supplement or replace my current scratch drive.

I'd love someone to toss out if I should go option #1 or if there's a better Option #2 out there.

Thanks!

This topic has been closed for replies.

J

josh825

Participating Frequently

I completely understand where you are coming from. I have a lot of friends that are doubtful about switching from Mac to PC. But once they see the performance on the PC they are blown away.

Here's my recommendation:

Custom (mid tower desktop) from digital storm.

GPU: Atleast a GTX 1070

CPU: atleast i7 7700K preferably a i7 8700K

Memory: at least 16gb. 32Gb is really where you should be.

Storage: investing in a 1TB SSD is expensive but it's worth it if it is to far out of your budget get a 1TB HDD and anything above or at 128Gb SSD for a boot will be great.

Benefits:

You can always upgrade your RAM or GPU and even your CPU if your up for it. For example if you noticed 5 years that the application was requiring more buy a new card and swap it out. Instead of buying a whole new computer! This should be all in your budget. If you do get this computer with the options I said you will be flying through premiere and nothing will stop you. Hope this helps!

Peru Bob

Community Expert

Did you realize that this thread is over 4 years old?

J

josh825

Participating Frequently

Nope Haha. Responded to this last night after a long night of editing was even looking at dates.

J

javishoo81

Participant

get an imac thats it i have the same one and it rocks

Imac2013#24gig of ram #128 ssd boot drive # 2gig vram grafics card# i7 3.5 intel # lacie 3 tb for video editing

C

Chase Chick

Known Participant

I'm not a computer putting together genius myself, but I put together my first one a couple months ago and it's not that big a deal. OP, go for the PC and put it together yourself. The BFTB factor will be far ahead of what you can get from an apple at this price point. If you wanted to spend around 10 grand and get the new Mac Pro that might be a different picture though. But in the $3,000 - $4,000 range Apple is not really competitive, and you are just paying to be lazy.

E

excited_Genie16B8

Legend

I think for any given dollar amount, you can get better performance out of a Windows machine than a Mac, especially if you build it yourself.

The corollary is that for the same performance you get on the Mac, you can easilly spend less money on a Windows machine and use the leftover to buy other gear (or maybe even a new HDTV )

cc_merchant

Inspiring

Look at Tweakers Page - What kind of PC to use?

and note how the BFTB ('Bang-for-the-buck') for a MacPro relates to any PC.

D

DMH79Author

Inspiring

cc_merchant wrote:
Look at Tweakers Page - What kind of PC to use?
and note how the BFTB ('Bang-for-the-buck') for a MacPro relates to any PC.

Thanks cc_merchant and Jim...

Okay, so I read that whole tweakers page and that helps understand certain things especially when you compare it to the older Mac Pro's BFTB. Understand though that I'm looking at a budget of $3300 with a monitor and no experience building any Windows machine. I'm computer savy but not THAT computer savy because I've been in a world of all-in-one's where things are setup for you. So I went to that partpicker website I mentioned above and taking your advice on the Tweakers Page (mostly from the Low-End Warrior build you mentioned) here's what I built having no real idea of what I'm doing but trying my best to pick what "seemed" right and I think I still have a few hundred to spare.

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/SMD/saved/

Thoughts? Now, I haven't added more hard drives because I have my current external HDD (2 x 1.5TB 7200 HDD setup as RAID 0). Its this one with the Thunderbolt adapter... http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/Thunderbolt/Elite_eSATA

But I guessed on the memory, I guessed on the monitor, I guessed on the case, I guessed on the operating system and I have so many questions about what I just did it's crazy. Like, oh I don't know...would one just buy all those parts and then put it together themselves? And am I missing anything?

The joy of the iMac is it's an all-in-one, so I don't have to worry about stuff. The disadvantage is I can't exactly change things on it except the memory and I had already planned to max it out at 32GB in my Option #1 above.

Please help.

Thanks.

PS. I edit mostly AVCHD right now (up to 1080p60), but plan to incoporate XAVC and XAVC-S stuff soon. I do multicam of no more than 4 cameras (usually 2 or 3). I don't usually render anything. And like I said before, besides straight cuts, I use lots of cross dissolves, warp stabilizers, and the occaisional gaussian blur).

cc_merchant

Inspiring

1. You don't need a separate audio card, audio is included on the motherboard.

2. Do you need wifi on the motherboard? Then look at the P9X79 DeLuxe.

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