Jump Ship to a Windows System?

[Vince Becquiot]

My personal feeling is that you would be better off shopping for a used 12 core Macpro on Ebay.

By moving to Windows:

You will lose to ability to export to Prores. You will also lose the ability to open native FCP project, although, Premiere has “some support” for FCP through XML.

You will lose all plugins etc.

You may however have to invest in an additional CUDA card.

Vince Becquiot

Indigo Live
San Francisco – Bay Area

[Richard Floyd-walker]

Hi. Thanks for the input. Unfortunately my budget would only get me a 2.66 quad core mac pro on ebay.
I’ve kept myself pretty platform agnostic when it comes to software choices and work flow so I have never felt the need to explore Final Cut.
I wouldn’t be selling my imac either. So if I need to deliver in Prores I can transcode on that by using 5D to RGB. Though I’m quite happy with DNxHD.
I’m really thinking of a Windows machine for purely editing and post. And a way of getting a higher specced machine for less outlay.

Best Regards
Rick

[Tom Daigon]

I recently made the jump. I dont regret it, but owning and operating a PC is a bit harder then a Mac.

Here a link to my experience.

https://magazine.creativecow.net/article/hello-pc-the-journey-to-mac-and-back

Tom Daigon
PrP / After Effects Editor
http://www.hdshotsandcuts.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxPrG3WUyz8
(Best viewed at 1080P and full screen)
HP Z820 Dual 2687
64GB ram
Dulce DQg2 16TB raid

[Richard Floyd-walker]

[Tom Daigon] “I recently made the jump. I dont regret it, but owning and operating a PC is a bit harder then a Mac.”
Thanks for the link. A great article.
I know what you’re saying. My 1st Apple was a 17 inch G4 Powerbook 1.5 GHz. Back then I think it was running Tiger. It was like entering a new world when jumping from a home built XP machine.

But my original question was will there be a substantial difference in my experience with After Effects and Premiere CS6 an i7 Ivybridge machine with an Nvidia GTX 560 Ti over a 2009 iMac i5 nehalem with a ATI Radeon HD 4850. If there is then I will consider jumping over to a Windows machine as the Apple iMacs that run an i7 cost over £1700.00. If not then I will just plod along with my i5 iMac a is.

How are you finding the Z820 by the way. I feel that if I had the funds, I would be looking at one of those.

[Tom Daigon]

My experience in CS6 can now be described as WOW. Everything is faster and more responsive. I feel like Ive gone from a VW to a Lotus. 😀

Tom Daigon
PrP / After Effects Editor
http://www.hdshotsandcuts.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxPrG3WUyz8
(Best viewed at 1080P and full screen)
HP Z820 Dual 2687
64GB ram
Dulce DQg2 16TB raid

[Nevin Styre]

I use both, and it is nice that CS6 is basically exactly the same across platforms. Not having prores export can be a pain if you don’t have access to a mac, but if you plan to keep your mac I see no real issue there. many plugin licenses are now cross-platform, I use red giant mojo on my PC tower and my macbook pro, as well as element 3d for after effects on both.

If you have a limited budget and you want to get great performance for CS6 right now a PC is a no-brainer really.

[Alex Gerulaitis]

[Richard Floyd-Walker] “Would I feel a difference in performance with a machine of this spec.”

I am with everyone else on this: yes.

[Richard Floyd-Walker] “And if so where would the differences be most apparent.”

Smooth playback at full res, much faster rendering and export, a wide variety of inexpensive video I/O hardware options if you ever need that, upgrade-ability.

Alex Gerulaitis
Systems Engineer
DV411 – Los Angeles, CA

[Richard Floyd-walker]

Thanks for the input everyone.
It seems that moving to a PC is definitely the way to go.
My world is mainly CS6, Mocha and Red Giant so I don’t foresee any licensing problems.
Though now that I’ve made the decision to jump I’m thinking that it may be worth selling the imac and putting more cash into the PC. We’ll see.
Just one thing though. Does anyone know if the system that I’m thinking of getting will be able to run 2 monitors?

Best Regards

Rick

[Alex Gerulaitis]

Yes.

GTX-560 – two monitors.

GTX-600 series (e.g. GTX-660 Ti) – up to four, depending on who made it.

[Alex Udell]

Having the Mac around may be useful just from the access to Write ProRes as necessary…

Alex