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New iMac Configuration for Premiere Pro
I primarily edit footage shot on DSLR and P2 in both long and short format in Premiere. I do a LOT of encoding for web, DVD and Bluray.
I am looking at purchasing a new 27″ iMac, but can not make a decision whether I should configure the iMac with a 1TB fusion drive with the 2.9 Intel, 8GB memory and NVIDIA 660 512MB or go with the iMac without a fusion drive, but with 3.2 Intel, 8GB memory and NVIDIA 675 1GB.
Is having the quickness of a flash drive worth the compromise of a slightly better processor and better graphics card?
Cody Walters
Houston Video Production
Houston Wedding VideographerFinal Cut Studio 3
Adobe CS6 Master Suite
Panasonic HVX-200
Canon 7D -
6 Replies
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Personally, I’d go with a faster CPU and GPU – simply because upgrading storage is much easier than CPUs and GPUs. You’d be able to replace your HDD with an SSD or a hybrid drive fairly easily in the future – not so with a CPU or a GPU.
Alex Gerulaitis
Systems Engineer
DV411 – Los Angeles, CA -
Thanks for the reply Alex. Have you replaced an iMac hard drive before? From what I read it is difficult to open the screen.
That being said, I am leaning more toward your recommendation. I haven’t had a flash drive before, but somethings telling me that the extra power of the CPU and GPU may be more beneficial for what I am doing.
Cody Walters
Houston Video Production
Houston Wedding VideographerFinal Cut Studio 3
Adobe CS6 Master Suite
Panasonic HVX-200
Canon 7D -
No I haven’t, and despite doing systems integration for a living, wouldn’t even attempt to unless there’s no other choice. That said, it can be done – which isn’t the case with the GPU for sure, and very unlikely – with a CPU.
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If you are indeed running Premiere, you will want the best graphics card you can get (I think you can get the 2gb on the new iMac). That’s were most of your real time playback will come from with a good fast external RAID (thunderbolt).
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I would certainly get the larger video RAM as it helps tremendously with real time playback. I have installed my own SSD. It was amazing and worth it with a kit from OWC. I did it with a skilled friend. I don’t think you can do it with the current iMac — look at the last generation refurbished if you can find one.
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I have multiple blog posts on running Premiere Pro with an iMac. We’re so happy with them I’m going to be replacing the current 6 Mac Pros that run our edit suites with all 27″ iMacs.
https://www.biscardicreative.com/blog/2012/08/anatomy-of-an-imac-suite/
https://www.biscardicreative.com/blog/2012/12/workflow-update-imac-adobe-and-the-x-factor/
You can also search “iMac” in my blog for more articles…..
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media“This American Land” – our new PBS Series.
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