What computer is everyone using to edit 4K video?

[td119]

My current laptop is a Asus windows 7 which has an older I7 cpu running a 2 ghz. I know the issue is with the type of memory and video card. What type of OS is best to edit 4K video? I am looking for a laptop but not sure which OS Apple or Microsoft? And which model laptop?

 

[Shortckt101]

I would like to like to know that also.

 

[MattyDread]

My current laptop is a Asus windows 7 which has an older I7 cpu running a 2 ghz. I know the issue is with the type of memory and video card. What type of OS is best to edit 4K video? I am looking for a laptop but not sure which OS Apple or Microsoft? And which model laptop?

A powerful & expensive one I think.. As I've said on other threads, I wish I'd got the p3a as my desktop pc & tv are obsolete with 4k

 

[sdharris]

Personally I'm an iMac user. But ultimately its down to your personal preference.

One thing I would suggest though is looking at the range and cost of editing application available on each. Windows has a few more options in my opinion and have some quirky capabilities. It does not really apply to this conversation but Windows has more support for 3D video and still images than OS X for example.

That all said, back to me. Nothing beats FCPX on OS X for making you feel like a king.

 

[Mark Stevens]

I would like to know this as well. I'm toying with spending the money for an iMac 5k because I am an apple user but if I could find something cheaper in the windows world I would def take a look.

 

[Dome]

It's very difficult to give a generic good configuration, but about pc the suggestion is last generation i7 cpu and 16gb ram, of course a good nvidia graphic card gtx 7xx or 9xx series. Really suggested is ssd disk for os and video cache. Don't forget a good ips monitor, minimum hd resolution.
Personally I use i7-4790k and gtx760, ssd Samsung, 32gb with premiere pro. My motherboard is asus sabertooth mark I, water cooled.

 

[Adamation]

i7 4770k
16gb Corsair Dominator RAM
500GB SSD drive
Nvidia 780ti

It churns outs 4k like a dream

- Adam

 

[Willie Swyer]

I'm using a 1 year old Mac with 256 SSD and 8GB Ram with another 4Gb on video card. Although it appears sufficiently fast I find that it bogs down from time to time. I try to keep adequate SSD dive space free for faster access by moving unrelated files to an additional external HD from time to time. Once the edited movie has rendered I then send it to an add on specifically made for FCP X called Compressor. You have many more options to choose from for your exported file. This process is pretty straight forward and has options for 4K processing. If you shoot in 4K you can render down to any resolution you like.

 

[sergekouper]

i7 4770k
16gb Corsair Dominator RAM
500GB SSD drive
Nvidia 780ti

It churns outs 4k like a dream

- Adam

Wah! A clean PC.... Really nice!

 

[sergekouper]

I use this: Built it in 2013:

•INTEL WORKSTATION
- Asus P9X79 Pro
- I7 3930K 12 Cores 3.20GHz (3.80GHz TURBO)
- 32 GB DDR3 2133MHZ Ram
- EVGA GTX680 4GB Graphics
- 256 GB SSD System Drive
- 2 X 4 TB Raid0 Media/Projects
- 2 TB Exports
- 2 TB Backups
- Windows 7 Pro
- Adobe CC Master Collection
- Matrox MXO2 Mini
- Blu-ray Writer
- 40 " monitor

 

[MattyDread]

I use this: Built it in 2013:

•INTEL WORKSTATION
- Asus P9X79 Pro
- I7 3930K 12 Cores 3.20GHz (3.80GHz TURBO)
- 32 GB DDR3 2133MHZ Ram
- EVGA GTX680 4GB Graphics
- 256 GB SSD System Drive
- 2 X 4 TB Raid0
- 2 TB Exports
- 2 TB Backups
- Windows 7 Pro
- Adobe CC Master Collection
- Matrox MXO2 Mini
- Blu-ray Writer
- 40 " monitor

Holy fook, nice - how much in pounds 2013, please.

 

[td119]

Thanks for everyone's input, I am not an Apple fan and it was nice to hear that MS has more few more choices for picture and video editing then the Apple platform.

I was looking at the Sager line of game laptops model NP9752-S with a 4K display. It is a little pricey and with a 256 gig SSD boot disk and 1 TB SSD storage disk, NVIDIA® Quadro™ K3100M (4.0GB) GDDR5 video card and 32GB DDR3 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory the cost runs around $3,400.

 

[CallMeAlan]

Personally I'm an iMac user. But ultimately its down to your personal preference.

One thing I would suggest though is looking at the range and cost of editing application available on each. Windows has a few more options in my opinion and have some quirky capabilities. It does not really apply to this conversation but Windows has more support for 3D video and still images than OS X for example.

That all said, back to me. Nothing beats FCPX on OS X for making you feel like a king.

What he said. (Apart from any positive comments about M$ Widows, which is, IMHO, just awful.)
iMac 27" Retina, FCPX, Yosemite. Unbeatable combination.

 

[sergekouper]

Holy fook, nice - how much in pounds 2013, please.

About £2300 + Matrox+ Adobe+screen. I built it myself from different vendors, difficult to remember exactly.

 

[sergekouper]

What he said. (Apart from any positive comments about M$ Widows, which is, IMHO, just awful.)
iMac 27" Retina, FCPX, Yosemite. Unbeatable combination.

REALLY ???................

 

[td119]

Personally I'm an iMac user. But ultimately its down to your personal preference.

One thing I would suggest though is looking at the range and cost of editing application available on each. Windows has a few more options in my opinion and have some quirky capabilities. It does not really apply to this conversation but Windows has more support for 3D video and still images than OS X for example.

That all said, back to me. Nothing beats FCPX on OS X for making you feel like a king.

What Intel core do you have? Apple is offering the iMac 27 in to configurations. Also, what type of storage, it seems the have a 1TB Flash. I prices out a iMac with 4.0GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 4.4GHz, 32GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM, 1 TB flash storare and AMD Radeon R9 M295X 4GB video card, total direct from Apple $4,268 the price does not include any software. It this a over kill for 4K video editing?

 

[MattyDread]

What Intel core do you have? Apple is offering the iMac 27 in to configurations. Also, what type of storage, it seems the have a 1TB Flash. I prices out a iMac with 4.0GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 4.4GHz, 32GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM, 1 TB flash storare and AMD Radeon R9 M295X 4GB video card, total direct from Apple $4,268 the price does not include any software. It this a over kill for 4K video editing?

Hahaha oh the irony - $1k + for the P3 Professional 4k camera & $4k+ for the editing capabilities of the 4k video

 

[sdharris]

What Intel core do you have? Apple is offering the iMac 27 in to configurations. Also, what type of storage, it seems the have a 1TB Flash. I prices out a iMac with 4.0GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 4.4GHz, 32GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM, 1 TB flash storare and AMD Radeon R9 M295X 4GB video card, total direct from Apple $4,268 the price does not include any software. It this a over kill for 4K video editing?

I have the 5K Retina with the i7 quad core processor. 32GB Crucial RAM (Apple prices are too high) and the 4GB video card, primarily I wanted the 5K for still image editing without zooming in and out as it can just about display a 24mp image natively, only a tiny bit of zoom available and you're at 100%. The 4K editing requirement only came up with the Phantom 3.

For disk I have a convoluted system where I keep a months worth of Lightroom library on local disk which is mirrored to my laptop so that I can edit at home and while away. I then move everything off to a thunderbolt drive.

I would suggest SSD or their Fusion drive is fine.

I swapped to Macs about 8 years ago and one thing I always say is Apple Macs have longevity so while they cost a bit more to purchase they last that bit longer.

 

[YolevonALLin]

Ok guys, really really need some input PLEASE! I think my Adobe Premiere Pro 2015 settings are preventing me from having lag free playback during editing. It starts out fine, then 15 or so seconds into playing a clip before I start slicing it up, huge LAG (1080p 60fps and 4K). Here's my machine specs below. I recently did the upgrades in RED, the original specs are the #'d bullets. To clarify the lag is with 1080p 60fps footage.. or all footage mostly. I've tried changing the GPU settings.. Nothing seems to help. Do I need to render the footage first? What's the proper way to start an editing session. I think my laptop, with the upgrades is enough juice to handle it for my simple editing needs and color grading. Nothing huge or major edits here. Just need lag free settings. THANKS!

Asus Q551LN-BBI706 - Convertible notebook.

1. 4th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-4510U processor
   • With a 3MB L3 cache and 2.0GHz processor speed with Turbo Boost up to 3.1GHz.
2. 8GB DDR3 memory (2, 4GB chips, only one is removable and upgradable to 12 total)
   • Expanded to 12GB total (max) with Crucial DDR3 upgrade.
3. 1TB hard drive (5400 rpm)
   • Upgraded to Samsung 500GB SSD (Windows 8.1 and PP2015 saved here here)
   • Moved 1TB HDD to CD/DVD Bay and have it as my media drive
   • I wiped this things clean and started over with a new windows and new adobe products.
4. Nvidia GeForce GT 840M 2GB video card

 

[SteveMann]

Asking for opinions about Editing Software is like asking about religion.

The decision of which program to use depends on too many variables to be selected from other people's experiences. You edit with your brain - the NLE is just a tool.

I am absolutely certain that you will find few unbiased responses to the question: "Which editor should I learn and use"? You are discovering the "Baby Duck Syndrome" which denotes the tendency for editors to "imprint" on the first system they learn, then judge other systems by their similarity to that first system. The result is that users generally prefer systems similar to those they learned on and dislike unfamiliar systems.

My advice is simple. Most of the modern NLE programs offer free trials:

Sony Vegas:
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/download/trials

Avid:
http://www.avid.com/US/specialoffers/product-trials

Premiere:
http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?product=premiere_pro

Corel Video Studio:
http://www.corel.com/corel/product/index.jsp?pid=prod4760101&cid=catalog20038&segid=6700256

Majix Movie Edit:
http://www.magix.com/us/movie-edit-pro/premium/

Lightworks:
http://www.lightworksbeta.com/

Grass Valley EDIUS Neo 3
http://www.grassvalley.com/login?r=/support/downloads/demos

There's dozens of others. All have some strengths and all have some limitations. It costs nothing but time to try all of them with a test project and select the one that best fits your needs.

Finally: Use what works for you and will make your clients happy. Try them out. All the NLE programs are great... and they all suck! They are just tools and in today's world they all will get the job done. But as tools go, some are better than others for certain jobs. The right answer for me could be the wrong one for you.

Hope this helps.