Good Mac Setup for After Effects?

[0oi]

Hi all, I've been animating for a small production company using the same hardware setup for a couple of years now, and fortunately, my bosses have recently decided it's time to get me an upgrade!

We work in an almost exclusively Mac-based office, and despite what I've read about people moving away from Mac in favour of PC setups lately, I'm still pretty dead set on getting a Mac, just for office workflow purposes.

Here's what I'm currently running:

Mac Pro (Mid 2012)

3.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon

32 GB 1066 MHz DDR3

ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024 MB

It's been a pretty reliable workstation, but nowadays I'm experiencing a bit of slowdown, especially when it comes to opening Adobe programs (After Effects and Media Encoder specifically, although even Illustrator has been suffering from a bit of slowdown lately.)

The 2019 Mac Pro is a little out of budget for us, and from reading a few forums, it seems as though the late 2013 Mac Pro is pretty terribly optimised for Adobe programs, so here's what I'm thinking of getting:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Apple-27-inch-display-8th-generation-processor/dp/B07PX8G1CM/ref=sr_1_3?key... - plus some extra RAM

I'm really a novice when it comes to tech and hardware stuff, so I just wanted to ask - Is this a good Mac setup for the money? Will it be a decent upgrade and last me for at least a couple of years?

Cheers guys.

[Martin_Ritter · Accepted solution]

The best Mac setup for AE is a PC.

The reason for this is, that Apple hardly have any suitable CPU in there computers. Xeon is nice and powerful, but AE can't take advantage of it's many cores. i5 is simple to weak. An i7 or i9 with up to 5Ghz is what you need for best performance.

The second reason is that AE have full support for Nvidia GPUs, and more or less working support for AMD cards - and Apple don't offer any Nvidia cards in their products.

The best Apple option is to get an i5, i7 (if any) with the highest GHz and prepare yourself for mid-class performance on the highest-end price.

Isn't there any option to put a PC into your Apple environment? You'll get much more power for the same price.

*Martin

[0oi]

Thanks for your response!

In that case, it looks like I really should be making the jump to PC. If there are any mid-range PC options that you could reccomend or advice you could give,I'd really appreciate it. I'm not looking for anything state-of-the-art or super expensive, just a decent upgrade from what I have that'll last a little while.

[Rick Gerard]

The best system for the money always changes. It is a constantly moving target. More often than not the best performance for the initial cost of ownership in the last few years has usually been on the PC side, but in my business, for everything that I do, when you throw in maintenance, IT costs, protection from virus and malware costs, and resale value my Mac's have been far cheaper to own, operate and upgrade than the Windows machines I have owned. Only you can make that determination. Windows machines are more susceptible to IT problems and configuration and driver issues because the combination of hardware is almost unlimited. I once had Alienware build a customized PC for me that cost nearly 3 times what the Mac Pro I was using cost (a few years ago) and in the first year I had several weeks of downtime trying to figure out drivers and 12 months after purchase the power supply actually blew up with a bang killing the CPU and a bunch of other hardware. It was out of warranty so the repair costs, which were several thousand dollars, was all on me. Instead of fixing it, I sent it to the recycler. Three years later, when the Mac Pro had some memory and processor issues caused by a very tired power supply, I sent it back to Apple - out of warranty and way past Apple Care protection.  Two weeks later and for less than $200 it was back in the office. The price was so low because Apple did not charge me for new memory, or a new CPU and they discounted the price of the power supply. I kept it in service for another couple of years as a rendering node. I've never seen a company that sells or services a PC match Apple Care. This does not mean I have a love affair with Apple, it just means that for me, a guy that has both Windows Machines and Apple products, the cost of ownership and the productivity I have with all of my work has been lower for the Apple products than the PCs. Depending on your workflow, it may be different for you. My only point is that you can't just look at the cost of the machine, you have to look at the cost of doing business.

[Martin_Ritter]

That's a good point Rick Gerard​!

I never trust those prebuild-out-of-the-box PCs. They are overpriced and not well configured. I always configure and build the thing on my own. The hardest part is to get a market overview, especially at mainboards (there are so many!!). I did spend lot of time reading forum posts and test on my last builds, now I can configure good working hardware in a few days.

At home, my 7 year old PC is still running fine, I only upgraded graphic card. At work, the oldest PCs are around 5 years and don't have any issues. For work, we updated graphic cards aswell (something you can't easily do on a Mac). I think, if the machine is well build, it will last. Also, you can start with a mid-price PC and upgrade it over time. Start with an i5 if money is an issue, get only 32GB of RAM, take the mainboard on which the i7 or i9 will fit, too, pay attention to have 2 RAM slots free for 64GB upgrade, and so on.

When it comes to administration, you really should know about computer stuff and "Windows specials" like the registry. This is the greatest disadvantage of not using Apple, however internet if filled with help. With Windows 10, Microsoft added a very well security suit and make it easier for normal users to handle issues.

A good read about fine config is offered by purgetsystems (https://www.pugetsystems.com/recommended/Recommended-Systems-for-Adobe-After-Effects-CC-144/Hardware... ).

To find hardware, I like to search on "geizhals.de" (https://skinflint.co.uk/?m=1 ). They have excellent filters.

Generally, you should get a CPU with high clock - starting from 4Ghz and no limit on top. CPUs nowadays can overclock them self - mostly called boost", so don't get irritated when the base clock is only 3.5GHz. If the boost-clock will be 4.5, or even 5.1, you are fine. Intel is recommended, but AMD released some Ryzens with seem to be able to beat similar Intels (for the first time since years). At least, it's worth a look.

If you don't plan to upgrade CPU right from beginning, I would invest most money on it, because usual you buy a whole new computer instead of upgrading CPU.

Get a mid-class mainboard, at least. Cheaper boards tend to weaker electricity support for CPU, making the system unstable the older everything gets. Also, better boards offer overclock features which might be helpful. Also, pay attention to USB ports, RAID levels (if you plan to use it), maximum RAM, size (your fingers will be very pleased, if you take an ATX board).

Get fitting RAM. There are different version (DDR3, DDR4 mostly), different voltages (1,35, 1,5), different module sizes, different supported speeds (check back RAM and MB for compatibility). I like HyperX very well and never run into any issue with those.

Get a Nvidea GPU, series 10 should be enough right now, maybe at least a GTX 1050. Pay attention to Cuda cores, the more the better - but also keep in mind that AE hardly uses GPU.

Get a power supply unit with around 600W if you are not about doing crazy stuff like hardcore overclocking, multi GPU or watercooling. I like BeQuiet! very well, because they actually are >quiet<. They have a calculator on their website. PSU should be around 50% usage on normal load. Also, you'll love modular cable design.

Get a suitable CPU fan. Don't use the one which ships with the CPU. For i7 till 4,5GHz, Thermalright HR-02 Macho is the best seller, temperatures are fine. Consider a integrated water cooling. They are as easy to handle like an airflow cooler, but often smaller and better - also more expensive.

Last, get a nice case. Pay attention to compatibility to the CPU fan. For daily work I recommend a silent case, especially if you use physical hard drives. I lost my heart on Fractal Design.

Putting everything together is foolproof. Rule of thumb: if you need force, you probably doing it wrong (at least check twice, some connections need a strong hand). Internet is full on that topic.

Setting up Windows 10 is easy. Get the MediaCreationTool from Microsoft and and USB stick, let the new PC boot from USB and in less then an hour, you are a Windows user.

It's worth to check Bios after the building, but don't change anything if you have no clue what it does. You can finetune and optimize here, but it's not generally necessary.

If you have a config, you can post it here and we'll have a look at it.

wow, that's a lot of text!

*Martin