Choosing a workstation for Premiere Pro

[Rob Ainscough]

Out of those choices, none. Sorry.

But if I’m restricted to those choices then Lenovo because of CPU and GPU options.

Not sure what you mean by similar price? The base P620 is over $3000 and the others are $1500 to $2000.

Regardless, the P620 will allow for more future expansion at a cost effective price. When it comes to Adobe apps the fastest GPU/CPU + fastest RAM = best performance.

[Richard Baguley]

Rob, thanks for the reply. I priced them all out at about $2300 or less: there is a P620 listed in MC for that. The Dell is less, but I added more memory and 10Gb ethernet to equalize it with the others.

Interesting that you say none of them: why? Do you build your own or have another chosen system?

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Richard,

I am with Rob on the Lenovo.

But all 3 options are entry level, and not for professional use IMHO.

Don’t forget to add to your article on “choosing a workstation for running Adobe Creative Suite (and Premiere Pro) efficiently.” that Cloud for video is no longer available in Adobe CC for freelancers, SME’s and students.

When it comes to working across mobile/tablet apps, laptop and desktop, Adobe has cancelled the Cloud in Creative Cloud. Unless you carry a hard-drive, or have a Cloud account with Google, Microsoft or other, forget Adobe CC.

You’ll be better off writing about best choice for Davinci or Avid, than Adobe Creative non-cloud…

In other words, Adobe management in their desperation to spend $ 20 Billion on Figma (failed and cost them $ 1 Billion to Figma) has completely lost the plot.

Still love them, of course, but not for long…

Atb
Mads

[Richard Baguley]

Mads, you make an interesting point about Adobe’s questionable strategic choices, but that goes a bit beyond the remit of my article. 😉 I had to pick something to start with, so I chose Lenovo and a couple of comparable models to discuss.

It is interesting that you describe a system with 32GB of RAM and a Threadripper Pro as “entry level”. I wanted to go beyond that and get into something more realistic for a serious/pro user. So if price was no object (wishful thinking, I know), what would you start with for a Premiere/AE workstation?

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Richard,

No problem, understand about your remit.

Still suggest that it is appropriate to mention that there is no more Cloud in Adobe Creative Cloud for many of those users that helped promoted Adobe get to where they are today.

On Figma merger, Adobe is doubling up on investment in A.I. generative creation tools for non-professional users. This is what writers and actors strikes in the US are made of, and EU regulation.

Filed in the UK Parliament library, within the PDF “Parties response to the notice of possible remedies (PDF, 167KB) (18.12.23)”

“(iii) Third, decisions around Adobe XD disinvestment and Project Spice termination were made for clear and obvious business reasons and independent from the deal discussions with Figma. Absent the Transaction,Adobe would be incapable of continuing to compete and innovate in the supply of all-in-one product design software, in other organic or inorganic ways, and would be better served with an investment in growth areas like Adobe Express and Adobe Firefly.”

https://www.gov.uk/cma-cases/adobe-slash-figma-merger-inquiry

Note how neither Premiere Pro, After Effects, Photoshop or Audion is mentioned, as they are all out of favour, in return for more money being spent on “growing” Adobe Express.

In other words, “professional” is out of the window too, as Adobe wants our customers to migrate to “Adobe Express”. Undoubtedly it will happen anyway.

But killing the Cloud, to make life more difficult for the small proffesional users, they might as well have discontinued their professional products altogether..

Sorry, additional rant completed.

Anyway, this is not your remit.

I use a HP with latest i9 processor + NVidia RTX ADA card + 4K display + 128GB Ram + 1TB SSD for boot and software, and another 8TB for media and other projects.

That might be a bit over the top, but anyone working professionally up to 4K, will need something that can handle it.

Having said that, anyone starting out in the industry and want entry level, then I would agree that your Lenovo will do the job (That is based on the 1TB SSD, as 500GB will not get you out of bed before you run out of storage.

The Mac has got too many “N/A” + can not be upgraded as the business grows. Although, it will allow for the user to run FCPX.

Don’t forget the cost of a proper monitor…

Atb
Mads

gov.uk

Adobe / Figma merger inquiry

The CMA investigated the anticipated acquisition by Adobe Inc. of Figma, Inc.

[Rob Ainscough]

I don’t know what your typical projects are with Adobe which will determine what you need and if “time is money” factors into your equation.

I build my own systems because they offer the most flexibility and can be very specifically configured for the tasks I want them to perform.

Dell/HP use proprietary components and any failures means you have to go to Dell/HP and wait for parts and pay a premium for those replacement parts. For example motherboard and power supply in the Dell/HP are non-standard and can only be replaced by going to Dell/HP.

The Lenovo is a little better because they use less proprietary components. But they don’t use the “best” components, for example their RAM timings will not be top tier (RAM speed is VERY important for Adobe), their UEFI/BIOS configurations will not be optimized for best performance, minimal rated power supply (poor transient response).

Mac … well, I wouldn’t consider anything less than the Mac Pro for video/audio workflows. A few months ago I priced out a Mac Pro well equipped for video/audio work and it was around $18,000 US (and that was the now old M2 processor).

I’m primarily a DaVinci Resolve/Fusion user now but occasionally work on Adobe projects (not on my dime as there is no way I’m paying Adobe subscription prices anymore). I run 4 computers and run headless Resolve/Fusion workstations for projects I can run in the background while I continue to work. As I pointed out in another thread, I’ve never needed more than 64GB RAM but I do buy the best RAM timing options available for 64GB (2X32GB modules DDR5). Also very important is your network performance if you have external storage (NAS) or computers to do processing … I run 10GbE network and looking to do some Trunking (pair up some 10GbE ports) to get 20GbE all via Cat 8 RJ45 (SFP so fiber is an option but Cat 8 is good to 40Gbps).

My typical media sources are 4K – 60 RAW HDR (but not always) … on the audio side 6 track recordings but often just 1-3 tracks.

But important to know a key factor … you need to provide the “time is money” factor. If not, then any of those options you listed will work, just more slowly … for example if you have a project that take 1 hour to render out in one of those computers, on a faster computer you could easily drop that down to 15 minutes. If you do this day in and day out, that’s A LOT of time saved (or time earned pending how you want to look at it).

Cheers, Rob.

[Richard Baguley]

Rob, I couldn’t find an email address for you, so is this okay to use as a quote from you?

“video editor Rob Ainscough takes a different approach: he builds his own PCs, using multiple systems to share the workload. “I run 4 computers and run headless Resolve/Fusion workstations for projects I can run in the background while I continue to work… I’ve never needed more than 64GB RAM, but I buy the best RAM timing options available for 64GB (2X32GB modules DDR5) It’s important to know a key factor … the “time is money” factor. Any of those options you listed will work, just more slowly … for example, if you have a project that takes 1 hour to render out in one of those computers, you could easily drop that down to 15 minutes on a faster computer. If you do this day in and day out, that’s A LOT of time saved (or time earned pending how you want to look at it).”

I also added links to Resolve and Adobe Workspace Fusion. Plus, is there anywhere specific you would like me to link to for your name? I couldn’t find a company or other link for you other than your Creative Cow profile.

[Rob Ainscough]

You can use rob@simhorizon.com.