4K Editing?

[Ray Sherman]

Thanks for the great reply! I read through both links that you suggested…… Great information. I certainly agree that maxing out the iMac is important in regards to 4k editing.

I do realize that some type of pre-rendering would have to take place. I’ve only used Vegas Pro in which it ate up a lot of time trying to look at a very short edited event. As you pointed out, Vegas will loose the looped pre-render once you move out of it. As you know, this takes up time and the joy out of video editing. In your case along with other producers it’s much more than that $$. This is my main reason for wanting to move to Mac. Your explanation of FCP X puts the icing on the cake.

As for cooling, you made a good point; No one is complaining of failure. Apple didn’t give the iMac a 5K display on a whim. This is their entry into the 4K editing market. As long as the computer doesn’t shutdown from failure I’d say it’s working OK.

I totally agree, Apple Care is the way to go. I’ve always felt that extended warranties on workstations are important.

As for All-in-Ones, It’s a mixed bag mainly due to some future component failures that can’t be replaced. With that being said, it appears that Apple did their homework in this all-in-one. Another great point you stated earlier on, “If you look at the new iMac Retina 5K the entire computer cost about the same as you would pay for a 4K monitor alone without a PC.”

The bottom line; Smooth editing and a great UHD monitor is what I’m after, with rendering time not being an issue. The maxed out iMac with the 27″ 5k retina display, thunderbolt 2 storage and running FCP X certainly seems like it would fit my situation/use. I’m not editing raw 4K and/or using RED camera’s, therefore I don’t need a ton of processing power.
My current equipment is as follows;
Sony PXW-X70 using 10bit 4:2:2 with 4k upgrade on the way.
Canon 7D DSLR

I’m somewhat confused in regards to OS drives and storage drives. A lot of people throughout the forum are stating; Go for a SSD instead of the Fusion due to being faster. I imagine that the Flash drive is SSD, but not sure. I need to do a little homework on SSD’s. What’s your experience and/or thoughts?

Another external HD alternative at half the price of the PROMISE Pegasus2 below:
G-Technology 6TB G-RAID Studio External Storage System with Thunderbolt 2
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1048666-REG/g_technology_0g03501_g_speed_studio_r_thunderbolt.html

PROMISE Pegasus2 R4 8TB (4 by 2TB) Thunderbolt 2 RAID System
https://store.apple.com/us/product/HE151VC/A/promise-pegasus2-r4-8tb-4-by-2t…

I can’t thank you enough for your help and expertise. I have learned so much from you and this forum through the years. It’s nice to know that I can turn to people like you for solid advice and suggestions. Thanks again, Ray
P.S. I’m close to the edge, now where’s that credit card? 🙂

[John Rofrano]

[Ray Sherman] “A lot of people throughout the forum are stating; Go for a SSD instead of the Fusion due to being faster. I imagine that the Flash drive is SSD, but not sure. I need to do a little homework on SSD’s. What’s your experience and/or thoughts? “

The Fusion drive implements a concept known as “tiered storage”. It takes a SSD and a HDD and creates a Volume across both disks much like a RAID 0 does. The difference between this and RAID is that it doesn’t write the same information to both disks. It writes initial information to the faster disk (SSD) and when the SSD gets filled up, it moves “less used” information to the slower disk (HDD). So files that you access often stay on the faster SSD and files that you access less often go on the slower HDD. It’s an economical way to get massive storage and still have high performance for files used most often.

If you can only have drive and you need lots of storage, and you don’t have lots of money, get a Fusion drive. If you can have more than one drive, then get an SSD and manually put the files that you use less often on the HDD.

[Ray Sherman] “Another external HD alternative at half the price of the PROMISE Pegasus2 below”

Not in the same class but if that’s al you can afford then it’s a start. The G-RAID (which is an excellent manufacturer btw) 6TB only has 2 disks. This means you can use it for RAID 0 for speed or RAID 1 for redundancy. The Pegasus has 4 drives which means you can use it in a RAID 5 configuration for both speed and redundancy.

Here is an interesting article that has a great comparison chart on RAID systems:

A Comparison of 10 Thunderbolt RAID Storage Solutions

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Ray Sherman]

Thanks for the info. I would probably go with either the 512gb or 1TB flash (SSD) drive for OS. In Vegas, I used two internal 2TB hard drives at RAID 0. One for raw un-edited pre-rendered video, pictures and music with the other having rendered events for final output. I’m unsure of what would be the best optimal setup for the iMac using FCP X, Motion 5, etc.. To be honest, I’m not sure what other Raid configurations would be best. This is one area that’s not my strong suit. It seems like two 2TB or 3TB external drives would be all I need. With that being said, I can see where four drives would help in regards to storage, especially with XAVC L and 4k video. I’ll read the link you sent me for better understanding of the new Thunderbolt RAID storage. If you have a description of what each drive should be used for as well as RAID configurations “PLEASE” pass it on. With that information, I could focus on it for a better understanding.
Thanks again John, you have been a tremendous help. Ray

[John Rofrano]

I’m glad I could help Ray. Good luck in your choices.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Ray Sherman]

Thanks John, as always, you have been a tremendous help. It’s awesome to know that I can turn to a person with your expertise in this forum. Thank you for your time. Ray 🙂