New Computer for Learning Premiere Pro / After Effects / Photoshop

Report · Aug 27, 2021

Hi, I'm looking to be able to work on some basic Premiere Pro / After Effects / Photoshop skills at home. I've been perusing this forum and reading a ton of articles to learn about what will suit me best. I use Edius at work, but it's not really much more than arranging clips on a timeline and exporting them.

My current home PC is about 8 year old:

It's an Inspiron 620
i3-2100

6 GB RAM
AMD Radeon HD 6450

I figure this PC is too far gone to even try to upgrade it, so I'm probably just going to swap it out.

I used Premiere Pro on it a few years ago to convert VHS-C tapes to digital files, arrange them on timelines, and export them, but it seemed to be a long, tedius process.

I want to be able to build my Premiere Skills, as well as learn After Effects, and incorporate some Photoshop. I'm not looking to do anything spectacular, but I've been looking into getting a new computer to make learning go faster, and easier.

I keep coming back to the HP Pavilion, not for any real reason, other than I think I can find what I'm looking for within my budget.

Here are 2 options I'm debating:

AMD Ryzen 5 4600G
32 GB DDR4

256 SSD Storage
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Super 8GB

AMD Ryzen 5 3500
32 GB DDR4
512 GB NVMe SSD + 2 TB HDD
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Super

I guess my question is whether those Processers are similar enough that I'd essentially just be sacrificing hard drive space for a better GPU? But is that GPU upgrade worth it? I figure I'd eventually need to add more another hard drive if I went with the first one anyway.

Another option that wasn't even on my radar until today is the M1 Mac Mini. I can get the 16 GB version for basically 3/4 of the price of the Pavilion, so that's what interests me there, especially since I'm just learning. But I'm concerned about how well I'd be able to use AE on it. I'm not typically an Apple user, but this one intrigues me.

Does anyone have any thoughts? Or advice?

Thanks in advance!

Report · Aug 27, 2021

I build my own, so all I can says is that any Ryzen5 may be 'weak' for Premiere Pro

This includes 2 recommendation links from Puget Systems... copied from Peru Bob
https://community.adobe.com/t5/video-hardware/premiere-pro-hardware-articles-to-read-before-you-buy-...

Report · Aug 27, 2021

Thanks. I had read through those, but all of the ideal builds are out of my price range at the moment.

I had looked at building my own, but when it all came down to it, the HP didn't seem that bad for the bang for the buck, plus I'd feel more comfortable with their warranty and such, rather than the novice I am building it myself.

Adobe's suggested processor is a Ryzen 3000 or newer, so I was hoping that one would be okay just to learn on.

My hope is that once I'm more confident is using the software, I'd be able to use an employer's hardware.

Report · Aug 27, 2021

Moved to the Video Hardware forum.

Report · Aug 28, 2021

I would opt for Intel instead of AMD. Intel chips have Quick Sync AMD CPUs do not. That being said the Apple M1 chip is awesome and it does have something like Intel's Quick Sync. The problem right now is the M1 chip is it still in the trial and error phase. On the PC side Premeire Pro can use Nvenc or Quick Sync. Both work great. Keep in mind the M1X and and Alder Lake CPUs will be out soon. I would wait another 3 months if you can.