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New iMac for 4k editing
I am thinking of buying a new 27 in iMac in preparation to editing 4k instead of using my mid 11 27 in iMac for 1080 p at present. I don’t expect to be editing Red footage or other versions of video which include some version of 4k and raw. So I am thinking about a “loaded” new iMac rather than waiting on the iMac Pro. One choice is the 3.8 gHz 4 core I5 vs the 4.2 gHz 4 core I7. For RAM I would probably order the 8G and then buy 32 G from OWC at about $300. The max memory for this thing would be 64 G of ram, but it is hard to guess if I would need that.
Thoughts? Advice?
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20 Replies
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I think this could work for you. I’m thinking of doing the same thing myself, but I would choose the core i7 over the core i5 processor. I also would get the SSD internal drive, and an external Thunderbolt 3 4-bay SSD RAID, such as the one made by Akito https://www.akitio.com/portable-storage/akitio-thunder3-quad-mini
Good luck, and let us know what you decide.
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[Peter DeArmond] “but I would choose the core i7 over the core i5 processor.”
Why? While working with FCP X, Motion et al, the CPU is by far the least relevant when it comes to working performance. You want to max out the GPU first and foremost, then get a decent amount of RAM, then fast external storage.
[Peter DeArmond] “an external Thunderbolt 3 4-bay SSD RAID”
This is complete overkill imho. Why in the world SSDs? You are paying, what, TEN TIMES more per GB compared to a regular spinning disk? With a four (spinning) disk RAID such as a Promise R4 you’re already getting near 600MB/s… what could that not be enough for? And that at a fraction of the price. It’s not like he’s looking to edit uncompressed 5K material or the likes.
Having an internal SSD also has little to no bearing on FCP performance as well (aside from maybe booting up?). Same story. If anything, I’d upgrade to the 3TB Fusion.
Either way, I can say from experience, the current iMac with the above characteristics is more than fine for doing 4K work of any kind. Other than maybe Thunderbolt 3 or 10G Enet, I really don’t see why you’d would want or have to wait for the Pro. Never mind that it’s starting price is already near TWICE that of the largest current iMac.
– RK
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If you’re aiming for a high-end machine I’d defiantly go with the i7 CPU, top-end GPU, 32 or 64 GB of RAM and a SSD as boot-volume (256 GB should be solid as a start-up volume, 512 GB is more future proof).
The choice of an i7 is a no-brainer for media production. It scales better with more threads and has a healthy boost in clock speeds. If you ever work with heavier formats you will appreciate it. I’d also imagine FCPX’s background renderer likes as many threads / cores as possible. Most encoders scale well with more threads / cores as well.
RAM – defiantly buy from third party.
As for storage something like a Pegasus tends to be great. Some apps like an SSD for their cache but that can be sorted with an external TB3 drive.
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[Robin S. Kurz] ”
Having an internal SSD also has little to no bearing on FCP performance as well (aside from maybe booting up?).”Booting up on my 2011 Mac is a real irritation to me, it drags on for what seems like forever, so for sure I will get the 2TB fusion internal disk. I keep my FCPX project and media on a Raid 0 disk, LaCie 6 TB which provides 3T net storage, and that seems to work well enough. Of course with 4 k media, it will require more storage.
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[Robin S. Kurz] “[Peter DeArmond] “but I would choose the core i7 over the core i5 processor.”
Why? While working with FCP X, Motion et al, the CPU is by far the least relevant when it comes to working performance. You want to max out the GPU first and foremost, then get a decent amount of RAM, then fast external storage.”
Ok, so now Robin says that the choice of an i7 is not that critical over the i5. Peter says the i7 is crucial. Which is it?
Is an FCPX editor really going to see much difference between the two, all other options being equal?I would love to read some other opinions.
don walker
texarkana, texasJohn 3:16
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[Claude Lyneis] “Booting up on my 2011 Mac is a real irritation to me, it drags on for what seems like forever”
I meant more booting up of FCP. ???? Since I never actually turn off my machine, only really restart it when it’s updated, I really don’t care much about machine boot-up speeds.
– RK
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Deutsch? Hier gibt es ein umfassendes FCP X Training für dich! -
[Don Walker] “Is an FCPX editor really going to see much difference between the two, all other options being equal?”
I was talking about performance specifically regarding FCP, yes. And I can only tell you that we have 20+ iMacs with part i5 and part i7 and I can guarantee you that no one can tell you which is which without running an actual benchmark or checking the Mac info window.
Personally, again, in the context of FCP/Motion, I find the price : speed increase (single digit percentage at best, for select operations) ratio rather disproportionate. But if the several hundred $$ more for the i7 are no issue, go for it.
– RK
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Deutsch? Hier gibt es ein umfassendes FCP X Training für dich! -
[Robin S. Kurz] “Having an internal SSD also has little to no bearing on FCP performance as well”
I disagree. A bit. It mightn’t effect FCP directly, but the Mac is always doing SOMETHING in the background that it needs to pull from disk and the SSD is noticeably faster. It does effect FCP when loading plugins, effects etc. A lot? A little? That’s relative. Enough so that I notice? Yes.I have a 2015 iMac with a 1TB SSD in one office and a 2013 iMac with a 3TB fusion drive in another and I know which office I prefer. OK, the 2015 iMac has a 5k screen as well…
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[Martin Curtis] “I have a 2015 iMac with a 1TB SSD in one office and a 2013 iMac with a 3TB fusion drive in another and I know which office I prefer.”
I highly doubt that any mentionable performance differences will merely be due to the SSD as opposed to a Fusion drive by any relevant level. There are many many other specs that will play into that and make the real difference, whatever it may be.
– RK
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Deutsch? Hier gibt es ein umfassendes FCP X Training für dich! -
Exactly,
when you would ONLY use Final Cut Pro X then you can “ignore” the processor, go for the best graphics card you can have, RAM is good as well. But of course, if you will use your iMac for various applications (multimedia production and “normal usage” like Mail, Safari,…) you will appreciate a good all-round machine. Depending on how much you want to spend, you will have to adapt your selections. If I were you, I’d go for the i7 processor and put your own RAM in it. For the graphics card, take the best one; the 5K Display needs power. And for SSD vs. Fusion Drive vs Hard Drive I have to say the following: I am working on a MacBook but have an iMac as well, so SSD vs. Hard Drive. The Hard Drive is just horrible. Go for the 256 GB SSD and buy a whatever RAID you want, you have all the options. Then you will have all your apps and important documents on your iMac with super high-speed. On the other side, you have all the big stuff like 4K footage on your external storage: Connect it via USB 3 or Thunderbolt and it will be fast enough for editing.
(I am working with a medium speed hard drive, just connected via USB 3 and it is fast enough. I also have an external 512GB SSD, which I sometimes use to get even faster performance – when loading projects or importing videos, the SSD outperformes the hard drive easily…)And with that setup you should be able to do video editing and multimedia production, while you still get good performance on everything else you will do.
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