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HD Video Editing - pc or mac?

irish147 · 2012-12-21 21:03:18

I am thinking of getting a powerful laptop for HD Video editing, some people say PC, others say Mac, but I have PC software CS6 What kind of a PC do you use??

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21-12-2012 10:03pm

#1

irish147

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I am thinking of getting a powerful laptop for HD Video editing, some people say PC, others say Mac, but I have PC software CS6

What kind of a PC do you use??

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#2 21-12-2012 11:37pm
Ballyman

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irish147 wrote: »

I am thinking of getting a powerful laptop for HD Video editing, some people say PC, others say Mac, but I have PC software CS6

What kind of a PC do you use??

Michael, I wouldn't really recommend a laptop. I have n i5 and 4GB RAM laptop and it can't render HD at all during editing playback.

You need a lot of power to be able to edit HD properly. I use a PC with an i7 and 16GB of RAM and from time to time it can struggle to render during playback while heavy duty editing but tbh it is perfect for most tasks.

A similar spec'd MAC would work perfectly I would imagine.

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#3 22-12-2012 12:39am
Morph the Cat

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Your laptop sounds like a pussy, Ballyman - no offense.

OP - I have a Dell XPS 17 Laptop that I use for editing when travelling, and it runs Adobe CS6 Suite like a dream - full HD files; Red, MXFs, etc.

It has an Intel i7, 8GB RAM, SSD drive for the OS, full HD screen, and a dedicated GPU. It's a beast and half the price of a Macbook.

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#4 22-12-2012 5:37pm
irish147

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i must have a look at that laptop online...

my laptop is sooo slow...

but a pc would be handy also....

Morph the Cat wrote: »

Your laptop sounds like a pussy, Ballyman - no offense.

OP - I have a Dell XPS 17 Laptop that I use for editing when travelling, and it runs Adobe CS6 Suite like a dream - full HD files; Red, MXFs, etc.

It has an Intel i7, 8GB RAM, SSD drive for the OS, full HD screen, and a dedicated GPU. It's a beast and half the price of a Macbook.

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#5 23-12-2012 9:21am
Tactical

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I have a mac and running FCP.

Wouldn't go that route again as not happy with the output from FCP. Partly it's the mac and I suspect that the FCP codecs are not as good as they should be as even when working on 720p footage I'm not impressed with what I see.

PC with as high a spec as required is they way I will be going rather than a PC with as high a spec as I can afford. Currently can't afford this but as soon as I can I'll be purchasing along with another NLE platform. Probably will go desktop / tower case PC rather than a laptop as I've had displays die on two laptops to date (just die rather than the display get damaged or cracked). Will miss the portability for a quick edit but find it far more comfortable editing at my own place rather than on the road.

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#6 23-12-2012 9:25am
Tactical

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irish147 wrote: »

I am thinking of getting a powerful laptop for HD Video editing, some people say PC, others say Mac, but I have PC software CS6

What kind of a PC do you use??

Firstly find out if your NLE software is what you are going to stick with and use.

If you're happy with CS6 for the PC, then go for a PC rather than a MAC. Look at the minimum required specs of your NLE for editing HD then try to exceed the spec as much as you can afford to allow for future upgrading of your NLE.

My Mac just gets used for editing and nothing else, in other words I have dedicated it to a specific job.

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#7 23-12-2012 7:05pm
ScumLord

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There's no major advantage to using a PC or Mac with the same software. If you're used to using a PC there's little advantage to jumping to a whole new OS for the same piece of software. You'll also get more bang for your buck buying a PC.

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#8 24-12-2012 1:19pm
Crazy World

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Buy the best processer and video card you can afford ( nvidia if you use cuda in premiere ) . Stick to towers. More upgradeable. I bought mine from the uk ( pc specialist ). I don't see the point in going mac if your pc really unless you fancy using FCP in future.

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#9 04-01-2013 9:28am
Bellu

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+1 Dell
one of my friend got a Dell, and it works fine on HD video editing.

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#10 05-01-2013 2:58am
ScumLord

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There's much better value than Dell out there.

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#11 05-01-2013 11:09pm
Chavways

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Get a custom built desktop PC and you'll be sorted. You could get an absolute beast for the price of a Mac. The lads over here will sort you out if you tell them your budget and all of your requirements. Dells are just overpriced for what you're getting.

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#12 15-01-2013 10:09am
Morph the Cat

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Chavways wrote: »

Get a custom built desktop PC

The OP wrote:

I am thinking of getting a powerful laptop

Read his post, FFS. He wants a laptop.

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#13 15-01-2013 1:16pm
Chavways

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Originally Posted by Morph The Cat

Read his post, FFS. He wants a laptop.

irish147 wrote: »

but a pc would be handy also....

How about you read his posts before getting pissed off.

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#14 15-01-2013 4:35pm
Morph the Cat

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Chavways wrote: »

How about you read his posts before getting pissed off.

Never!

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#15 24-01-2013 11:22pm
FreezeUp

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To edit HD properly you need a very powerful system, high processor performance and a lot of RAM. Best bet is building your own system. Operating system is a small factor frankly. A bigger question would be type of processor.

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#16 25-01-2013 7:57pm
gnarlyone

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If Apple hadn't made such a mess of Final Cut, I would have said get a Mac and buy Final Cut Studio. But because of that I'd say it won't really make a huge difference, except for price and additional workflow software that exists on the two platforms. You will get better bang for buck with a PC.

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