Advice on New Editing Setup

[Devrim Akteke]

Hi,

When it comes to buying a new Mac it is always to buy the fastest so you can use it for at least 10 years. Well of course that is not always true. You have several options, one could be trying Open Core Legacy Patcher to use new Mac OS versions, which is pretty solid. So you can continue using your current iMac. The second option could be buying a 2022 iMac with 27 inch screen, as max as your budget can. And you will use this machine for at least 6-7 years without problems. 3rd option could be, personally, I don’t recommend Mac Mini, the lowest version of Mac Studio would be better than that one. And you are going to need a screen. And maybe you can try a new iMac again as max as your budget can, with a second display.

[Glenn Payne]

Thank you so much for your thoughts! I looked into some 2020ish iMacs as an option. What do you think of this system?

2020 iMac 27 Inch Retina 5K, 8-CORE i7 3.8ghz, 1TB SSD 128GB, RAM RADEON PRO 5700 with 8GB of video ram.

Ebay refurbished with 60 day return warranty. The price is $1,769.00. They claim it retailed at around $5,000. Would it noticeably out perform my current system?

Thanks so much!

[Devrim Akteke]

It looks like a good machine. Each spec is maxed as I can see. I would choose it myself.

[Eric Santiago]

Anything newer than yours will be fine.
Not big on used unless you know where the item came from personally.

I just suck it up and pay the Apple tax 😛

[Glenn Payne]

haha. Thank you both! Hoping to grab something fairly soon.

[Ben Balser]

Go with a third party monitor, you’ll get way more bang for much less bucks. I’m using a ViewSonic VA2756 UHD with a MBP M1 Max and it’s a beautiful monitor. I do some film, mostly TV broadcast (retired TV producer). It works fine, and was a fraction of the cost of an Apple monitor.

Any new Mac will blow away what you have now, but bear two things in mind.

1- Get as much as you can afford (32GB RAM is plenty) CPU wise, cause it’ll age out later rather than sooner.

2- Verify all third party software and plugins will be compatible, or you have something to replace them with if not. Don’t get cause updating FCP Libraries and find third party stuff not working.

[Glenn Payne]

Thanks so much for the advice! I’ve definitely thought about getting a third party monitor and doing a high powered mini. I hadn’t really thought about doing a MBP as the primary machine with an external. I have a 2020 model now that’s M1 with 16GB.

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Echo Ben on this.

I have an “old” Mac Mini M1 which works happily away and is easy run off my monitor.

Adding, that anything secondhand Apple more than 3-year old solution, where you are spending more money than on a Mac Mini, I would suggest won’t last you as long as your 2013 iMac (which is impressive).

There are two things keep an eye out for, in the addition of whether your current software will run, is that Apple is often upgrading their OS to a point where the Apps/software providers can’t keep up with the changes.
And, Apple is also going down the hell-hole of making everything A.I., not neccesarily because you need it, but because it looks like the Board of Directors are doing something to keep Apple in line with current “trends”.
What it means to you, as we have already experienced, is that some plug-in providers drops their apps instead of upgrading, as they are competing up against Apples “free” version powered by A.I..

I understand that money is always a factor, but the new Mac Mini’s are not that more expensive, and most modern 4K TV’s can double as a computer monitor.

Possibly not the greatest answer, but your consideration will be depending on whether you are making your own films (hobby?), or whether you are working for money – if for money, there is nothing lost by charging a bit more, even a tiny bit more, so you can upgrade your system every 4-5 years (normal expected life-span when buying for a business).

Just an opinion that is hopefully helpful.

Atb
Mads

[Glenn Payne]

Thank you so much for the info! It’s sounding like a third party monitor with a mac mini or mac studio might be my best bet. I’m so lost when it comes to the number of cores and how much they matter, much less the chip variations. What do you all suggest when comparing the mac mini and mac studios? I see one has the M4 and the other M2. I SUPER appreciate any thoughts, since some of these stats are a bit lost on me.

Mac Mini M4 Pro – $1,399.00
<b data-equalize-sec=”title”>12-Core CPU
16-Core GPU
24GB Unified Memory
512GB SSD Storage Footnote ¹

<b data-equalize-sec=”title”>Mac Mini M4 – $999.00

<b data-equalize-sec=”title”>10-Core CPU
10-Core GPU
24GB Unified Memory
512GB SSD Storage Footnote ¹

Mac Studio M2 Max – $1,999.00

<b data-equalize-sec=”title”>12-Core CPU
30-Core GPU
16-Core Neural Engine

• 32GB unified memory
• 512GB SSD storage¹

<b data-equalize-sec=”title”>

[Devrim Akteke]

Personally, I would go with M2 Max even though there is a new M4 chip out. It will be better overall. You can read the review from Scott Simmons before the final decision, https://www.provideocoalition.com/review-m4-mac-mini-for-video-editors/

provideocoalition.com

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