Mac Or Pc - Best Bang For The Buck For Video Editing, Encoding?

40Yrold

40Yrold

Wannabie Member
HI

I am admittedly a mac and apple hater.

Windows preferably because I am kind of a cheapo.

if you had to base it on price vs utility.

is mac that much more superior for working with MP4 etc?

Also on the hardware side:
What helps speed up video processing and rendering?
i7 processor? I am currently using an i3
more ram? I have 16 GB right now
I have a nice video card with 4 GB video ram , but it still seems slow.

Will a $1000 macbook that is older in years work better than a custom PC rig that I put together piece by piece?

tons of questions..
Thanks for any direction
 
You don't need a Mac.

Decent PC, processor and memory with dedicated graphics.

Probably worth looking at your preferred editing software and checking the preferred specs on it.
 
Forget a mac, I have been doing everything Mac is supposed to be good at on a PC for years. Parts are cheaper too, so partial upgrades is always within reach.

You don't need more RAM or better graphics card, since its 4GB it should be one of the higher end nVidia/AMD models, details on what model it is would help.
The bottleneck here is the i3 and probably the hard drive. Using a SSD and i5 or i7 would improve speed a lot.
Note that with the processor upgrade you might need a new motherboard, as the socket would be different.
If you go for a SSD, its normal to use it as the main drive for the OS and essential programs, while any hard drive would be the storage unit.
 
Thanks for the help and guidance!

What software are you guys using for videos and why?

Yeah, the guy at microcenter spec'd out a new motherboard, and processor.
I have a SSD for the OS drive already
and 7200 RPM HD for the storage.
 
Hardware is not a huge issue. What you have is fine, however I would get out of the i3 processor. That is your bottle neck. You don't have to have a Mac to do video. Anyone who says otherwise is just ignorant.

It is going to come down, actually, to what you want to use for the editing tools. It comes down to how fancy do you want to get with your editing. Are you going to have to run the full editing suite, or can you get by with the included software? I edited my last video on my iPad using iMovie. Talk about simple and just enough to get the video out. It worked, well enough.

I happen to run on a Mac (2011 17" MBP) and have no need to change right now - it works and is fast enough for me. I dont just edit my motorcycle video on it, I do other short films as well, so I use FCP the most, as that is what I am used to. It isnt all I have used, as I said above, I have edited stuff on my iPad and I have even done some on a windows machine with the GoPro software (as that is all I had at that time).

The key is to pick something and stick with it. The more you learn about the single piece of software the faster you will be at it. I would choose something that is somewhat popular, as there is a better chance at how-to videos being easily available. As in, there are thousands of how-to's for FCP whereas "Bob's free obscure vid app" will have next to nothing. I am not meaning you have to spend $300 on software, but choose something popular.
 
I'm using Adobe After Effects and Premiere, and I got every other Adobe software as well.
A lot of people here use Sony Vegas, Blender has some decent video editing capabilities too.

Sounds like you got it all sorted then.
 
40Yrold said:
HI

I am admittedly a mac and apple hater.

Windows preferably because I am kind of a cheapo.

if you had to base it on price vs utility.

is mac that much more superior for working with MP4 etc?

Also on the hardware side:
What helps speed up video processing and rendering?
i7 processor? I am currently using an i3
more ram? I have 16 GB right now
I have a nice video card with 4 GB video ram , but it still seems slow.

Will a $1000 macbook that is older in years work better than a custom PC rig that I put together piece by piece?

tons of questions..
Thanks for any direction
Click to expand...
Swap the i3 with a decent quad core i5 (4 physical cores, important, not hyperthreaded), if your on a budget, try looking for the same generation i5 as with the i3 that you have right now so you won't have to change your motherboard.

Or if you have a little bit more, you go the AMD fx6300(6 cores) or 8350(8 cores) route but of course you would have to change your motherboard as well, these processors will handle your editing and rendering needs as video editing tasks runs better with more physical cores that you have. (plus its cheap than an current quad core i5s)

Also I would definitely choose an Nvidia Card if that's what you have right now as Graphics acceleration (CUDA Cores) on these cards is superb. I have a GTX 560 (which is really old) but compared to rendering with the CPU alone it is much faster, think 8 mins on my CPU Render became 2 mins with GPU Render.
 
I own both and actually prefer the MAC now!

I tend to change my laptops once every two years but most people who own MACS, have one for years and years!

When my office PC dies. I will move to mac
 
Traditionally, you got a Mac if you wanted to do video/graphics/photo work, you got a PC for gaming. I used to buy in to that, had a PC for gaming and a Mac for photo and video stuff (this is going back some years now, it was a Gen 1 Macbook Pro), but eventually I started doing everything on the PC because as time went on and I put in upgraded parts to keep up with the increase in games requirements, I found it did eveything technically better. Sure, the Mac software was cleaner, for want of a better way of putting it, but it just crawled so badly towards the end.

I sold the Macbook about 6 years ago now and have used a Windows PC since, exactly because it everything I need and didn't involve switching machine to switch tasks. I overhauled the thing middle of last year and it's now a fairly decent gaming rig. I found the jump from i3 to i7 made a difference to my encode times in Premier Pro, but not nearly as much as getting it to use the GPU for encoding did. If you can get your software to use the GPU for rendering, that might be the biggest improvement.
 
Exile said:
Traditionally, you got a Mac if you wanted to do video/graphics/photo work, you got a PC for gaming. I used to buy in to that, had a PC for gaming and a Mac for photo and video stuff (this is going back some years now, it was a Gen 1 Macbook Pro), but eventually I started doing everything on the PC because as time went on and I put in upgraded parts to keep up with the increase in games requirements, I found it did eveything technically better. Sure, the Mac software was cleaner, for want of a better way of putting it, but it just crawled so badly towards the end.

I sold the Macbook about 6 years ago now and have used a Windows PC since, exactly because it everything I need and didn't involve switching machine to switch tasks. I overhauled the thing middle of last year and it's now a fairly decent gaming rig. I found the jump from i3 to i7 made a difference to my encode times in Premier Pro, but not nearly as much as getting it to use the GPU for encoding did. If you can get your software to use the GPU for rendering, that might be the biggest improvement.
Click to expand...
Nice to know, I always used to hear Mac for that as well. I just never liked them. So I am glad all can be done with PC
 
PC all the way. I despise Apple with a passion. After selling their junk for years and ripping countless people off who blindly purchase it, I could never own anything by them.
 
I hate Mac/Apple/iPhone not because of the product, but because of the dumb-sh*t consumers that go all ape-sh*t crazy over their products. Can't fault the marketing people though, they do know how to rope in these iSheeps.

Anyways, after said and done. I got myself a Macbook anyway, and ONLY for the Final Cut Pro X, no other reason than that.

Yeah it costs a bomb, but I got it anyway, call it an investment. But the f*cking piece of sh*t hard drive on it is so damn small and no option to upgrade so I have to use an external one.

@#%#$%#%&#$ Apple.
 
SighBored said:
I hate Mac/Apple/iPhone not because of the product, but because of the dumb-sh*t consumers that go all ape-sh*t crazy over their products. Can't fault the marketing people though, they do know how to rope in these iSheeps.

Anyways, after said and done. I got myself a Macbook anyway, and ONLY for the Final Cut Pro X, no other reason than that.

Yeah it costs a bomb, but I got it anyway, call it an investment. But the f*cking piece of sh*t hard drive on it is so damn small and no option to upgrade so I have to use an external one.

@#%#$%#%&#$ Apple.
Click to expand...
You might want to just sell off the Macbook and just start learning how to use Adobe Premiere Pro or Sony Vegas Pro on your PC. Both just as good, if not better.

I personally only use an iPhone where it comes to Apple products, the rest of them have far more flexible alternatives that I can actually make use of, instead of being a fancy 2k coaster.
 
Apple makes their hardware have "imaginary problems" like the Mac Mini only supporting 2 monitors while it can easily do 3 or 4, only to seem less desirable for professionals, who would then move to more expensive machines with somewhat similar specs but higher pricetags.

I'm glad I know how to build my own PCs. So cost effective compared to factory built machines.
 
A tiny bit of research on the computer would not have left you with "too little drive space" considering the specs are clearly defined. The MacBook Pro 15" is configurable up to 1 TB. If you didnt buy enough, or bought it without looking at all the specs, who can be blamed. This has nothing to do with Mac vs PC. I use both between work and home.

You wouldn't go buy a bike without checking it out completely?

Besides, which Macbook did you get? the consumption device (mac book or mac book air) or the actual usable one for video (MacBook Pro 15")?
 
All manufacturers do that. They built the Mac Mini to a £100 price point. Why would you offer more monitor support?

Car manufacturers do this. That extra for £500 that you can spec is probably already there in the car's computer, you just need a switch fitting to activate it, and that's a £20 part.

Basically by leaving in full support, you devalue your bigger products that are designed to do the heavy work. A Mac Mini is a small Mac, why do you want to buy a small thing if you want the features of a big thing?
 
Lurch said:
All manufacturers do that. They built the Mac Mini to a £100 price point. Why would you offer more monitor support?

Car manufacturers do this. That extra for £500 that you can spec is probably already there in the car's computer, you just need a switch fitting to activate it, and that's a £20 part.

Basically by leaving in full support, you devalue your bigger products that are designed to do the heavy work. A Mac Mini is a small Mac, why do you want to buy a small thing if you want the features of a big thing?
Click to expand...

The only way I can justify disabling software features for no technical reason is to claim that the cost of development is what makes the "better" machine worth more.
Instead of devaluing the product, you increase the value by granting access to already existing features that does come with your machine. Just like with many AAA games where the base game is only partially complete and you have to pay more in "DLCs" for the complete product.

Point is, a Mac Mini can handle 4 monitors, gamedev friend of mine confirmed it with some particular skills of his, they just don't want you to pick it over the twice as expensive Mac Pro as a serious user.
 
You forget intended consumer for the product. A "serious user" is not going to pick the bottom machine for their main computer. The mac mini is meant to fill a certain slot, and that slot is not for serious development or video processing. it is a consumption device, that is what it was marketed for. Can it edit video? Sure, but it wont be the best, most efficient. I have one that sits next to my entertainment center that has a 12 TB drive plugged into it for my iTunes library that I use only for streaming audio and video to my TV or devices. I use my older 17" MacBook Pro for doing videos 90% of the time, the other 10% I use a Surface Pro 2 (not designed to do videos either, btw) for some quick cuts or gopro splicing. But I store all the source videos on an external drive anyway.

Buy the right tool first, rather than bitch about buying the wrong one.

If you have never seen the difference of the Mac Pro vs the Mac Mini in regards to rendering video - night and day. Honestly, same goes with even the MacBook Pro and the Mac Pro - There is a reason for the price on the Mac Pro for doing video, they just freaking scream.

It would be like watching a 50cc scooter try and out run a Hayabusa in the 1/4 mile. Two different bikes for two different purposes. Can they both race? Sure, but not against each other. So if someone who buys a scooter and expects to race a superbike and then loses, why would they blame the manufacturer of the scooter?
 
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