Best editing computer to upgrade to?

[lrv59242]

I currently have a MacBook Air M1 8 GB & it's barely getting me by for editing 4K Sony a7siii footage.

I'm wondering based on people's experience what the best system & specs are for efficient, and stress free editing? Do I just need better specs & stick with M1? Or move toward pc? 

thanks in advance!

[Peru Bob]

A PC would be less expensive than a Mac.

Have a look here:

https://www.pugetsystems.com/recommended/Recommended-Systems-for-Adobe-Premiere-Pro-143/Hardware-Rec...

[lrv59242]

Although money is something I want to be somewhat cautious of, I am more concerned with investing in the best quality computer for editing without as much stress and worry of so many things going wrong. So despite affordability I'm wondering what the ultimately reliable set up would be?

[Peru Bob]

I would give Puget a call or email:

https://www.pugetsystems.com/contact_expert.php

I purchased a system from them a few years back and have been happy with it.

[John T Smith]

I read somewhere else that 32Gig of system ram is the minimum needed for 4k video

[RjL190365]

The biggest problem is the insufficient total amount of RAM. Unfortunately, the M1 Macs are currently not offered at all with more than 16 GB of RAM.

[Warren Heaton]

Transcode to ProRes and it should perform exceptionally well.

[Andy 1968]

The Apple M1 chip and Intel's Alder Lake CPUs both support hardware encoding that should playback the odd variations of H.264. Will Premiere Pro ever take full advantage of the hardware? It might. I would check to see if FCPX plays the video clips from the  A7SIII? Some software programs can make better use of the hardware than others. 

[Warren Heaton]

@lrv59242 

Did you upgrade yet?

Did you tanscode to ProRes?  (The M1 MacBook Air handles 4K Apple ProRes really, really, really well.)