• Apple Final Cut Pro

  most effective upgrades to a i7 iMac?

  Posted by Larry Watts on March 31, 2017 at 3:37 pm

  I am working on a 75 minute documentary due in August. Doing it all in FCPX and Motion
  The majority of the footage is 4K in proRes 422, some in 444

  I’m working on a late 2013 21.5″ iMac. 3.1 GHz Intel Core i7
  16mb GB 1600 MHz DDR3
  NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 1024 MB
  500 GB Flash Storage (This is what it says, but I can’t believe it)

  Running 10.11.6

  I’m maxing out the hard drive with programs and plugins so that is a problem
  It sure seems more ram would really help out.

  Is this an iMac worth upgrading at this time?

  If so how would you go about it speeding it up?
  Step 1?
  Step 2?
  Step 3?

  Mac rumors and other sites predict Apple will release new machines in April and say don’t buy anything now.

  What would you do?

  Thanks
  Larry

  Doug Metz replied 9 years, 1 month ago 4 Members · 4 Replies
• 4 Replies

• 

  Bret Williams

  March 31, 2017 at 4:09 pm

  Unless you’re actually putting video files and projects on your internal (a scary proposition IMO) then 500gigs should be plenty of space. Ive had all the Adobe, BMD, and Apple programs I could want on the system and still it was around 200gigs. But if you’ve got your personal photos/videos on there (scary too) then maybe it would run low.

  That said there’s not much you can easily do except upgrade the RAM to 32. But in reality FCPX performance is tied more to the GPU. So a better GPU would be next but I’m not sure that’s much of an option. Not an easy one at least. Your CPU is fine. CPUs in iMacs have only gotten marginally better since 2011. The compulsion to get a new iMac is more about retina screens, faster io, and GPUs.

  _______________________________________________________________________
  https://BretFX.com FCP X Plugins & Templates for Editors & Motion Graphics Artists
• 

  Patrick Donegan

  April 6, 2017 at 8:32 pm

  A smart upgrade would be a Thunderbolt eternal drive.
  RAID would be better.

  Also, a spare HD or 2 for backups during the final stretch.

  FCP X 10.2.3 – user since FCP 1.25
  iMac mid 2011, MBA mid 2012
  iPhone 4
  HVX-200, Shure wireless mic
  Miller Solo tripod
  Advanta-Jib
• 

  Larry Watts

  April 6, 2017 at 9:01 pm

  I’ve been researching this heavily, but so far have only found external GPU’s for macbook pros.
  Can you suggest a brand?

  I’m on an iMac with thunderbolt 2.

  THX
  Larry
• 

  Doug Metz

  April 7, 2017 at 1:14 pm

  I’ve been using this one made by Areca (set up as RAID 6 with 3TB HGST drives):
  https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1032197-REG/areca_arc_8050t2_8_bay_thunderbolt_2_raid.html

  Other World Computing has several to choose from:
  https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/Thunderbolt

  Doug Metz

  Anode

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