If you were buying an edit machine today for Premiere and 4k, what would it be?

[FeltSoulMedia]

I think we would be finishing with Resolve as well.

[Hans von Sonntag]

I jus purchased a MacPro with Nvidia Quadro 4000 for my Smoke. I'm fully aware that this configuration is not the hottest on the market but it is powerful enough and very reliable. I'm also using Premier for for offline editing and, as Jeff said, with a fast raid it's a joy to work with - Cuda accelerated, proven and reliable. Don't use a system above OSX 10.6.7 and all is good for the next year or two.

Postproduction is not about technical geekery. It's about getting things done creatively AND in time.

Hans

[Jake Bastian]

I think I just solved the problem that I was referencing to Jeff here - After Effects was chugging and I couldn't take it anymore so I went forum browsing and found a solution for graphical problems in Photoshop related to the GT 120 - basically the driver doesn't update properly in Snow Leopard. Downloaded it from NVIDIA's site and it seems to be working about 1000X better. I feel so stupid for letting it chug for so long given the painfully simple solution...

Oh well, at least I know now...

[nima]

Go Mac, even if they don't deserve it.
Or maybe wait until a new Mac Pro pups up... then they will deserve a purchase.

[Josh Snyder]

Windows 7 and Premiere works way better with RED RAW files than any Mac setup. PC is the best option. Build you own. Build you. PC is you.

[Jeffrey T. Morgan]

You will get much better performance and save a LOT of money going PC. Especially saving money if you build it yourself. This system will let you edit 4k in real time if you add a couple hard drive, Windows 7 and I would bump up the ram and get a decent cooler, personally:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboB...757854-_-Combo

This is better than, but more or less similair to what I have now. It's what I would buy, then put all that saved money into a great monitor or two, then whatever else you might be after.

As a point of interest, I am a Mac guy. I am writing this on my MBP. But when FCP stopped getting updated, and the towers fell behind, I couldn't justify spending $3700+ to have Apple build me a computer I could build myself for $2k. I edit 4k in real time with basic effects. Its awesome.

I hate windows, I hate Windows 7 a lot less than I hated Vista, and I love OSX. BUT, cost and performance are light years ahead on a Windows Machine than the nearest mac. Unfortunately.

PM or Email me if you want to talk more about it: Jeff AT PrometheusMotionPictures DOT com

[Doug Beatty]

If you are considering Hackintosh, I've got a guy in Los Angeles that did a heck of a job building my tower to my specs (prices were back in March, so likely have changed):

Antec Easy Sata Dock: $35
Antec P180 Case: $100
Gigabyte GA-EX58-EXTREME Motherboard: $250
Mushkin Blackline Frostbyte 12GB RAM: $175
Noctua NH-D14: $100
Intel Core i7 980x: $990+TAX
Intel 160GB SSD: $400+TAX/SHIPPING
2x Hitachi 1TB Hdd: $65 (EACH) (I have these on hand)
FW800 card with 2 fw800 ports & 1 fw400 port: $50

Plus, I was able to save on cost by re-using some things from my Windows 7 tower that crapped out on me:

LG GGW-H20L Blu-ray burner
GTX 260
XFX-850W PSU

I did my homework and found some good deals on eBay (Xeon and Intel SSD were new and cheaper) and by shopping around based on his recommendations. I popped in another 12GB of RAM so now I'm running at 24GB. So, I got everything at cost + $650 for his time (he actually dealt with the MoBo manufacturer shipping it to have the Bios flashed)

Everything is running super solid, and the geekbench scores are pretty awesome on it (better than 2009 8 core, slightly less than 2010 12 core Mac Pros)

Total damage was less than $3K on this build. If you're interested and in the LA area shoot me a PM and I can send you the details.