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what Mac should we purchase?
Greetings.
We run a tiny media department of 2 to 5 people for a non-profit. We are about to embark on a transition from FCP 7 to Premiere. We are also thinking about buying a new Mac as part of this transition. Our upcoming productions will be overseas so we are thinking that a laptop may better suit our editing and ingesting needs.
Are there any significant disadvantages to going with a Macbook or an Air? Is the iMac an acceptable option if we do decide on a desktop mac?
Thanks in advance!
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9 Replies
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iMacs are pretty good bang for buck machines. I wouldn’t even consider a Macbook Air for any serious work.
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Thanks. What is the challenge with an air?
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re: macbook air
internal media storage space….processing power….limited graphics hardware (which adobe apps really excel with)…
Alex Udell
Editing, Motion Graphics, and Visual FX -
Thanks! If we were to go with an iMac what kind of drive would serve us best?
Serial ATA hard drive or flash storage or Fusion Drive?
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Look for a 27″ iMac, without Retina would be better since it will lighten the load on the GPU.
It’s also much more fun to edit on a large display.
Aside from from what Alex mentioned, editing on a screen size like the Air would be a nightmare.
Vince Becquiot
San Francisco Bay Area
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Hi…
either SATA or hybrid would be what I’d consider.
SATA will be the best Capacity value (store most stuff per $$) and should be adequate for most workflows (except for maybe super hires (beyond HD) native (meaning not converted to an edit friendly format).
Hybrid is a combo of low capacity flash and high capacity storage. As it uses ATA and Flash technology together. This comes at a premium in $$, but it may be a good choice for performance to get going.
Does the iMac in question support Thunderbolt? If so you can always add more external high capacity, high speed storage as your needs change.
does that help?
Alex Udell
Editing, Motion Graphics, and Visual FX -
Thanks Alex! This is very helpful.
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Vince, If we went with a Macbook, would the retina Macbook also be a heavy load on the GPU?
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Melissa, you haven’t quite given us enough information to give you the best advice. For example, what is your budget? What kind of footage will you be editing? Some basic guidelines. Premiere works best with two monitors, and pretty much as large as possible. However, a laptop and an external monitor is a decent solution when traveling. The external monitors are inexpensive enough so you can have one in two locations without having to transport them. I am currently using an external monitor with a retina MacBook Pro and it’s a solid solution, though not as good as my previous setup with an iMac and external monitor.
Premiere also likes a dedicated gpu, especially if you are using compressed footage and also use basic and advanced effects. You should also go for 16gb of ram and the most hard drive you can afford. SSD is best, but the fusion drive is a good compromise. Media should also be on an external drive and a decent usb3 drive is okay for some types of footage. The more complex, the better drive and interface you will need.
An i7 processor is best if you will be compressing longer form media for the web as it will work much more efficiently. For shorter projects, you can get away with an i5. The air is underpowered for editing work — and the screen is simply too small. The imac is a better buy, unless you truly need the portability. It is too difficult to bring an iMac on an airplane.
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