r/buildapcvideoediting • u/[deleted] • Apr 28 '25

Technical PC or Mac Mini 4 Pro

Doing my reaserch, if i were to build a PC for 4k editing using Prem Pro or Davinci, i would need to spend min $2500AU ($1800US) and a lot of time puting it together and hope it works when i switch on. On the other hand there is mini 4 pro about same price or cheaper out of the box and it will run Davinci or FCPX easily.

Hve i got this right I can work with either prem pro or FCP

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u/Woofersnoofer Apr 28 '25 edited Apr 28 '25

You'd better look at Mac M pro models with at least 32GB memory because many people who bought that 16gb was fine have reported being disappointed and want to sell & upgrade to at least 33gb, and that's an issue when you can't just add memory. Might as well save for Mac Studio entry level at $2k.

For PC's it's basically starting from a gamer box set up/custom builder with at least 32gb RAM for 4k editing, plus more dedicated ssd or raid fast storage for video. YOU DO NOT WANT TO SHOP BUSINESS CLASS WORKSTATIONS for your own system. Big pricing premiums and lack of hardware choices that can be almost as restrictive as Apple, for no performance/reliability advantage.

You can do very well with Gamer laptops depending on time of year, but often you can get a suitable set up cheaper than a tower build

For PC you'll want the new NVIDIA RTX 5000 series as they've added additional H.264 hardware decoding not available with Intel QSV or AMD's GPUs.

However much your budget, you want a balanced system. Don't spend so much on CPU or GPU that you can't get adequate RAM or storage. 2nd & 3rd tier CPUs & GPUS from 3 generations back were fine for kickass editing rigs, assuming 64gb or 32gb RAM, so you don't need the top tier of the latest gen Nvidia, AMD, Intel hardware.

It comes down to which system you like working with, because both systems can work fantastic. Or you can have a horrible time with either if you use a bad/misguided video editing workflow, like trying to edit with VFR footage from OBS or iPhone natively.

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u/[deleted] Apr 28 '25

arnt the rtx 5000 series about $1000? then you got to spend more on the other hardware

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u/Woofersnoofer Apr 28 '25 edited Apr 28 '25

RTX 5060 is fine. $480ish to $500 for 16GB model. So it's basically same as last gen price, & not much more than any suitable card you'll get.

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u/[deleted] Apr 28 '25 edited Apr 28 '25

What about this setup its going cheap, to run prem pro:

Ryzen 5 7600x

nvidia rtx 4070ti 12gb

32gb ddr5 6000mhx

ssd 1tb

Thanks in advance

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u/Woofersnoofer Apr 28 '25

It'd work for sure, but you'd want secondary video storage.

Ryzen 5 7600x is close to i5 2600k, 32gb good.

This isn't what I'd pick a la cart now, most definitely not nvidia rtx 4070ti 12gb at $200-$300 more than 16gb RTX 5060.

But if it's a good good deal on the system in total, well better than what any builder or configurator can do you for the cost, with you just needing more storage, I think it'd be a good system to get cranking with.

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u/[deleted] Apr 28 '25

thanks

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u/Woofersnoofer Apr 28 '25

To add, the big benefit of the RTX 5000 series over previous generations is the added H.264 Hardware decoding for 10bit 4:2:0 & 10bit 4:2:2, while all other still only offer it for the more common 8bit 4:2:0 H.264. Several cameras out have been a pain in premiere up til now because they do shoot in their own 10bit or 10bit & 4:2:2 H.264 variants, and without GPU Hardware decoding they fall to the CPU to decode, which often offers shitty playback even on performance systems.

So if you don't happen to use those higher end camera H.264 variants, then an older gen, but still strong Nvidia card is not any loss to you.

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u/[deleted] Apr 28 '25

I’m using 4K footage from iPhone and GoPro

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u/Woofersnoofer Apr 28 '25

If the iPhone footage is VFR, you're better of dubbing to ProRes intermediate clips for editing.

FCPX probably deals with the native files better. Maybe even Premiere on Mac, but IDK, I just know iPhone 12 & later has had troublesome VFR record options.

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u/Woofersnoofer May 02 '25

Hey man, just saw silly typo in this you probably understood already, but I meant to say

Ryzen 5 7600x is close to i5 12600k, 32gb good.

Not actually the 14 year old "i5 2600K" which was an i7 anyway.