Videographer moving from Mac to PC… Help?

behugs

New member
Hello to anyone this post finds. I make videos for my job and my high spec MacBook Pro 2019 (Intel i9, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD) can’t keep up anymore (sadly).

I want to invest in a PC which will be future proof (as much as it can be). I have attempted PC Specialist configurations but I have no idea if I am overdoing the spec & spending unnecessary money.

Can anyone advise on an appropriate spec for daily editing in Premiere Pro and After Effects (both HD & 4K) as well as daily use of Photoshop and Lightroom. I do also quite often screen record demos and walkthroughs, although this doesn’t require much power from the machine.

I would prefer for the machine to have slightly more power than I need, as Adobe are always increasing the system requirements for their softwares.

I need the machine to have USB, SD, headphone, mic and HDMI.

Bonus if it looks cool too… because why not?

Any help is appreciated :)
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Around the £2k mark
If you can wait until the 15th, AMD are releasing the new 9900x and 9950x which are looking very promising. There are rumours also that they may even be reducing pricing on this generation, it would be a miracle if they did, but given how much trouble Intel are in, it would be a long term play to win over a lot of customers
 

Paul1964

Silver Level Poster
If you need something NOW that you would not go far wrong with something like this. The HDD is included for storage - not for your work files.

We're a week or 2 away from the AMD 9950X which would give you better performance and would be better bang for buck.

Case
CORSAIR 4000D AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X 16 Core CPU (4.5GHz-5.7GHz/80MB CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B650-PLUS WIFI (AM5, DDR5, PCIe 4.0, Wi-Fi 6)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 5600MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
16GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 4060 Ti - HDMI, DP, LHR
Graphics Card Support Bracket
NONE (BRACKET INCLUDED AS STANDARD ON 4070 Ti / RX 7700 XT AND ABOVE)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 4700MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 6500MB/sW)
1st Storage Drive
6TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 5400RPM, 256MB CACHE
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W CX SERIES™ CX-750 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
DeepCool AK620 ZERO DARK High-Performance Dual Tower CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
ONBOARD 2.5Gbe LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
Norton 360 inc. Game Optimizer - Free 90 Day License
Browser
Microsoft® Edge
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (6 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 3 to 5 working days
Price: £1,892.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/nctmuNzKvt/
 

TonyCarter

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
I've resisted commenting on configs until the new CPUs are out, but I'm not sure I'd recommend a Deepcool AK620 nor a CX level PSU to a machine that may be running all-cores flat-out for many hours at a time.
 

Paul1964

Silver Level Poster
I've resisted commenting on configs until the new CPUs are out, but I'm not sure I'd recommend a Deepcool AK620 nor a CX level PSU to a machine that may be running all-cores flat-out for many hours at a time.
Just a starting point. There's room in the £2K for something a bit better. A decent AIO might be the better option thinking about it.
 

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
You'll struggle to hit overpowered on a £2k budget unfortunately. PC pricing is at an all time high, pretty sure the trend is exceeding inflation by quite a bit.

Below is what I would want to be considered high end. I don't think I've stretched any part of the build to be considered over-powered, but there is an argument that the 7950X is the upper end of where it needs to be for editing use, it's more a rendering monster before hitting HEDT.

In your shoes I would definitely consider 64GB of RAM being an important consideration. You'll get longevity from it and it will come into play editing 4k if you're using effects. Photoshop not so much, possibly after effects though (32GB is typically enough but premiere pro will gobble the lot up in 4k with a good preview render).

Went with a 3rd drive as well, to use as a cache across the app suite. This will help with a smooth timeline also. Just be sure to only use it for cache or static storage. You don't want things pulling and pushing from your cache drive.

4070Ti Super is only chosen for the extra grunt and vRAM. The 4070 Super has some good CUDA core headroom as well. The 4060Ti offers excellent vRAM for the budget but I'm not so sure it would be as much of a limitation as with 3d rendering/modelling. 4070Ti Super is the have it all for me, without getting silly.

Case
CORSAIR 4000D RGB AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X 16 Core CPU (4.5GHz-5.7GHz/80MB CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING X670E-PLUS WIFI (AM5, DDR5, PCIe 5.0, Wi-Fi 6E)
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR5 5600MHz (2 x 32GB) AMD
Graphics Card
16GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 4070 Ti SUPER - HDMI, DP, LHR
Graphics Card Support Bracket
NONE (BRACKET INCLUDED AS STANDARD ON 4070 Ti / RX 7700 XT AND ABOVE)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 4700MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SOLIDIGM P41+ GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 4125MB/sR, 3325MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SOLIDIGM P41+ GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 4125MB/sR, 2950MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1200W RMx SHIFT SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR ICUE LINK H150i RGB HIGH PERFORMANCE CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
ONBOARD 2.5Gbe LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 3 to 5 working days
Price: £2,698.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/jWHEywyXz!/
 

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
Compromising on the CPU/GPU/RAM/Lightshow to get within budget but still leaving the room to upgrade those areas in the future:

Case
CORSAIR 4000D AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 7900 12 Core CPU (4.0GHz-5.4GHz/76MB CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING X670E-PLUS WIFI (AM5, DDR5, PCIe 5.0, Wi-Fi 6E)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
16GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 4060 Ti - HDMI, DP, LHR
Graphics Card Support Bracket
NONE (BRACKET INCLUDED AS STANDARD ON 4070 Ti / RX 7700 XT AND ABOVE)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 4700MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SOLIDIGM P41+ GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 4125MB/sR, 3325MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SOLIDIGM P41+ GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 4125MB/sR, 2950MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W RMx SERIES™ - MODULAR 80 PLUS GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR ICUE LINK H115i RGB HIGH PERFORMANCE CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
ONBOARD 2.5Gbe LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 3 to 5 working days
Price: £2,012.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/eMWnVnQfBq/
 

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
I'd go with the P44 SSDs for the better speed.
The primary is the P44. Won't make any odds on the cache or for typical fast storage.

Only real reason to opt for the faster drives as a secondary are for direct access purposes, which is a gaming advantage and still doesn't seem to be fully deployed yet.

4GB/s is still silly quick for 95% of tasks. Even the OS for the most, but every little helps there for paging.
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Was forced to use mac at a previous job and since going on my own i will never spend a cent on an apple product again in my life.
A lot of people try to compare old Intel Macs to new Apple Silicon, they're entirely different products. Intel were a travesty for Apple, the new Apple Silicon products are superb, of course at a ridiculous premium.
 

TonyCarter

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
A lot of people try to compare old Intel Macs to new Apple Silicon, they're entirely different products. Intel were a travesty for Apple, the new Apple Silicon products are superb, of course at a ridiculous premium.
I think a 45W TDP i9-9980HK in a laptop chassis would be seriously underpowered compared to a desktop (or DTR) 9900K. Even the power-restricted version in the iMac of the time was almost 2x the performance (although I decided to go for the i7+Vega 64 GPU as the i9 had overheating problems in the iMac chassis).


BTW, the i9 MacBook Pro scores about 50-60% of what my entry-level M1 MacStudio does in Geekbench CPU-only score (similar scaling of results in Metal/OpenCL benchmarks too).

GB6 CPU.jpeg


The top-of the line M1 MacStudio model has the same single core score but doubles the multi-core score (due to double the cores).

The current top-of-the-line M2 MacStudio model boosts scores by another c.30%.

Of course, if there's anything GPU-accelerated there'll be a bigger difference as my 10-core GPU will not compare very well to the 76-core GPU of the current top-of-the-line M2 model (but that's £5.2k :oops:)...and these are synthetic benchmarks.

It's my GPU cores that lets it down...well when compared to a 3080Ti or 4090...

GB6 GPU.jpeg
 
Last edited:

TonyCarter

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
For a future-proof video editing PC, go with an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X or Intel Core i9-13900K CPU, 64GB DDR5 RAM, 2TB NVMe SSD, and an NVIDIA RTX 4080 or 4090 GPU. Add high-end liquid cooling, a quality 850W PSU, and a stylish case like the NZXT H7 Elite. Ensure the motherboard has USB 3.2, HDMI, and SD card reader ports. This setup will handle HD & 4K editing with ease, keeping you ahead of Adobe's system requirements.
Lucy, are you a bot? Your response seems to be written that way...and why specifically register for a PCSpecialist customer website just to give broad/dodgy advice?

How does a last-gen, overheating, self-destructing Intel CPU on a dead-end platform equate to 'future-proof'?

You also seem to add up power-requirements like a calculator and not a computer builder/enthusiast, as an 850W PSU is not sufficient for a 13900K and 4080/4090 combo.

To 'future-proof' as you put it, you'd wait a couple of weeks and put in a 9950X and a 1000-1500W ATX3 PSU, and do a better job of describing storage & RAM configuration (e.g. include some RAM speeds and SSD speeds).
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
For a future-proof video editing PC, go with an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X or Intel Core i9-13900K CPU, 64GB DDR5 RAM, 2TB NVMe SSD, and an NVIDIA RTX 4080 or 4090 GPU. Add high-end liquid cooling, a quality 850W PSU, and a stylish case like the NZXT H7 Elite. Ensure the motherboard has USB 3.2, HDMI, and SD card reader ports. This setup will handle HD & 4K editing with ease, keeping you ahead of Adobe's system requirements.
Can we nerf the bot?
 

TonyCarter

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
I’m here to provide assistance based on a wide range of information, and I appreciate your detailed feedback. For a truly future-proof setup, you’re right: considering cutting-edge components and ensuring you have enough power are crucial.

For a high-performance and future-proof build:

  1. CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X or the latest Ryzen 9 9950X (if available) would be a solid choice over the Intel i9-13900K for better multi-threaded performance and future upgrades.
  2. GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 or 4090, depending on your budget and needs for 4K editing and high-performance tasks.
  3. PSU: A high-wattage PSU (1000W to 1500W ATX3) is recommended for this kind of setup to ensure stability and accommodate future upgrades.
  4. RAM: Aim for at least 32GB DDR5, with higher speeds (e.g., 6000 MHz or more) for better performance.
  5. Storage: NVMe SSDs like the Samsung 980 Pro or Western Digital Black SN850 for fast read/write speeds, with capacities of at least 1TB for your main drive and additional storage as needed.
  6. Cooling: Ensure you have robust cooling solutions, including high-quality air or liquid cooling systems to handle the heat from high-performance components.
This configuration should offer excellent performance and longevity for your video editing needs and beyond. If you have any specific preferences or requirements, let me know!
So, I was right (y)

Do I get a prize...such as never ever having to work with ASS (artificial stupidity systems)?

@lucy12345, which scraping (sorry, 'learning') algorithm are you based on? I just want to know so that I can advise everyone to avoid it!
 
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