I Need Help building a Video Editing iMac.

[OculitiX]

SO basically I want to build a custom iMac for Video Editing use, but I'm trying to figure out what's the best configuration for my needs seeing as I'm a beginner and this will be for my own time hobbies. It's strictly for website management, picture and video editing. I want to make youtube videos.

FIrstly i want an imac 27 Inch, i7 Processor 4.0 GHZ
8gb of ram & 512gb flash storage. AMD Raedon r9 m395x 4gb Video Memory

Basically the issue is that I don't know if I need the M395x or if I should just settle for the M395 what's the difference between the two & will I feel the difference? Also the flash storage is an issue too, I want to get the 1tb, it will give me more space and also have a better resale value In the future, but is It worth it? I plan to have external hard drives holding my projects, can somebody explain to me how many prograEd, music, pictures and videos 512gb can store. Also can I feel the difference?
Regarding the ram, I plan to increase it on my own, retail price is too expensive.

Also as I stated before. I want to use this for youtubing, main programs are Photoshop & Final Cut Pro. Also I will be streaming on Twitch.

Would it be a better idea to wait for the next year iMac to come out instead?

The current total for the iMac I described earlier is $4,562 CAN

p.s it's an extra $800 for 1tb Flash Storage

 

[torquer]

I personally don't think the upgraded GPU is worth it for what you are doing. If you were doing professional video editing (beyond YouTube videos and other basic stuff) its possible it would make a difference but in my opinion not enough to justify the upgrade price. Depending on the resolution and length of the videos you are making/editing, you may find the 512GB SSD to be insufficient. Thankfully USB 3.0 external drives are cheap and plentiful.

 

[JustMartin]

If your media files are all going to go on external hard disks, than 1Tb of SSD is a waste. Sounds to me like 256 would be plenty for your requirements in terms of OS and application files. Have a look through some emails on here - especially ones with titles like 'help me choose', you'll find your questions are not unique.

 

[OculitiX]

If your media files are all going to go on external hard disks, than 1Tb of SSD is a waste. Sounds to me like 256 would be plenty for your requirements in terms of OS and application files. Have a look through some emails on here - especially ones with titles like 'help me choose', you'll find your questions are not unique.

Lol 256!? That wasn't even an option. I'm deciding between 512 and 1tb. 256 is less than my xbox ones storage. I have to still store programmes and temp files on the ssd. - Well I did look around and found older posts in 2013 relatable questions, but they aren't regarding recent hardware parts like the new video cards. So yep

 

[Xteec]

Video editing creates a lot of cache and proxy files for smooth editing. The internal SSD is super fast for these operations and is really nice. External storage you need to be RAIDing 3-4 spinners to get that kind of speed. To give an example 10 gigs of h.264 video files can easily spawn anywhere between 5-40gigs of proxy/cache files for editing (depending on the software and settings). I am often surprised at how fast my disk space disappears during an editing session.

But for beginners any of those options is more than enough to get you stated. Good luck.

 

[Zwhaler]

First of all, get more than 8GB RAM. Get 16GB minimum. The GPU upgrade isn't that expensive so I would get that as well. If you plan on using external drives at all, then 512GB storage is okay given the 500$ price difference between that and 1TB.

 

[Bubba Satori]

First of all, get more than 8GB RAM. Get 16GB minimum. The GPU upgrade isn't that expensive so I would get that as well. If you plan on using external drives at all, then 512GB storage is okay given the 500$ price difference between that and 1TB.

That right there is the most important for video work. 32GB would be my choice, 64GB if you think you want to edit 4K someday, but get the extra memory from OWC and not the greedy bastiges in Cupertino. The 4GB GPU is next in benefit for driving a 5K display. I voted for the 1Tb SSD, but once I saw what A$$le charges for it, I strongly recommend against it.

As far as waiting for the next one, this one is plenty fast so I wouldn't recommend waiting for a performance reason. However, if you'd like to save a good chunk of money, waiting till the next model comes out and buying this generation in the refurb store could save you a lot of money.

Good luck.

 

[torquer]

That right there is the most important for video work. 32GB would be my choice, 64GB if you think you want to edit 4K someday, but get the extra memory from OWC and not the greedy bastiges in Cupertino. The 4GB GPU is next in benefit for driving a 5K display. I voted for the 1Tb SSD, but once I saw what A$$le charges for it, I strongly recommend against it.

As far as waiting for the next one, this one is plenty fast so I wouldn't recommend waiting for a performance reason. However, if you'd like to save a good chunk of money, waiting till the next model comes out and buying this generation in the refurb store could save you a lot of money.

Good luck.

OP did mention he was planning on upgrading the RAM himself.