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Wendy5C6E
Participant
October 31, 2020
Question

Refurbished Laptop for Premier Pro Project

  • October 31, 2020
  • 1 reply
  • 949 views

Hello!

 

I am working on a Video project for school it will be 15-30 min high res.

 

I need an affordable laptop, I think I can work on a 13 inch. Can you recommend some real world specs that will allow me to edit and render without crashing. My budget is about $600 to $1000 max. 

 

I am getting conflicting info. My professor says 16 gig ram minimum and 500 gig HD,  and  I think Adobe says 32 gig ram and 1 TB hard drive.

 

Would it be a mistake to get a 2012 machine with higher specs?

 

I'm not certain that I will contiue doing video work, but I need to complete this project successufully to finish my masters.

 

Thanks for your ideas!

Hannah

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1 reply

gerikp
Community Expert
gerikpCommunity Expert
Community Expert
October 31, 2020

Adobe does a pretty good job breaking down the minimum and recommended specs needed for Premiere Pro. Use this as you price out your computer. https://helpx.adobe.com/sea/premiere-pro/user-guide.html/sea/premiere-pro/system-requirements.ug.html

W
Wendy5C6EAuthor
Participant
November 1, 2020

Yes, I saw the recommendations.

 

I had access to a 2009 desktop Mac with 12 gig of ram to create a compressed video that was a minute long in Premier.

 

But I'm wondering what is going to happen when I'm working with 4k clips and rendering a 15-30 min large format movie that can be shown in a theatre. 

 

What will happen if I don't spend $2000+ in order to get the 32 gigs of ram?

 

Will it crash while rendering? will I be unable to edit, because it won't playback? Or would I just have to render files overnight, like we used to do in the olden days-- longer processing time?

 

I'm considering this one, which is only one year newer that the one I'm typing on, but has twice the ram--16 gig, I don't know if it would make a difference.

https://eshop.macsales.com/configure-my-mac/UALE1H59OBXXXXD

 

or

a newer computer with 16 gig of ram partly because it ships with final cut pro, and I could use that as a backup.

 

https://www.apple.com/us-hed/shop/buy-mac/macbook-pro/13-inch-space-gray-1.4ghz-quad-core-processor-with-turbo-boost-up-to-3.9ghz-256gb#

 

I don't know if I can bring myself to take another school loan,  just for one documentary project. I live in my car and that doesn't even cost $1000.

 

Is it possible to screen a movie in a lesser format, or would it look like crap? It is a documentary, so the expetations of the viewer might be lower. Its been a few decades since I've used premier, and I'm out of the loop on file formats.

 

Thank you for your thoughts, I don't have alot of support on this, especially with tech stuff.

 

 

R
RjL190365
Legend
November 1, 2020

For Premiere Pro it is a mistake to get anything from 2012. You see, that 2012 system had already dropped to "Obsolete" support status at Apple itself; therefore, that unit can (officially) no longer be repaired or updated at all. And Adobe has in recent years become extremely picky about the age of the components and the age of the graphics drivers.

 

Therefore, if you don't have $1,500 or more to spend, then there are practically no newer-gen Macs that will properly run Premiere Pro. You will have to scrap your macOS plans and switch to Microsoft Windows.

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