iMac 27 for video work, how's this setup and is the randomly rebooting problem a concern?

[Saviorrisen]

Attached is my setup. I plan to put in an additional 32gb of ram from OWC. I'm a little nervous to make the purchase because of this randomly rebooting problem with the latest OS X versions (see https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7525161?start=0&tstart=0).

1. What do you think of this setup? Will I be in the clear to edit and colour 4K footage well?
2. Is this randomly rebooting problem a widespread thing or does it only happen to a select few?

Thanks!

 

[redheeler]

1. What do you think of this setup? Will I be in the clear to edit and colour 4K footage well?

Yes. The i7 6700K in the iMac is a good performer and the SSD is screaming fast.

2. Is this randomly rebooting problem a widespread thing or does it only happen to a select few?

I have not experienced any unexplainable random reboots and I know others on here have said the same.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Attached is my setup. I plan to put in an additional 32gb of ram from OWC. I'm a little nervous to make the purchase because of this randomly rebooting problem with the latest OS X versions (see https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7525161?start=0&tstart=0).

1. What do you think of this setup? Will I be in the clear to edit and colour 4K footage well?
2. Is this randomly rebooting problem a widespread thing or does it only happen to a select few?

Thanks!

You have chosen a machine that is designed almost specifically with 4K video editing in mind so yes I'd say you'd be fine.

 

[joema2]

...I'm a little nervous to make the purchase because of this randomly rebooting problem with the latest OS X versions...What do you think of this setup? Will I be in the clear to edit and colour 4K footage well?...

I experienced the random rebooting problem on my 2015 top-spec iMac 27. It was a software problem, possibly a malfunctioning Dashboard Widget. I finally re-installed OS X and the problem went away.

Re 4K video editing, that can be challenging on almost any hardware or software. FCPX is very fast, uses Intel Quick Sync for hardware-accelerated H264 encode/decode and has built-in proxy capability. Other editing software which does not have these features may be slower.

 

[joema2]

I experienced the random rebooting problem on my 2015 top-spec iMac 27. It was a software problem, possibly a malfunctioning Dashboard Widget. I finally re-installed OS X and the problem went away...

The random rebooting problem eventually came back on my 2015 iMac 27. I took it to the Apple store, they ran diagnostics for two days and found it was an intermittent problem on the logic board. They will replace this and test it, which will take several days.

 

[sportsnapper]

I was going for a simlar configuration - but I've just lost a biggish contract and am looking at other options. I've just found a 2014 4.0GHz Quad Core i7 32GB RAM 512GB Flash R9 M295X 4GB for sale at a more afforable price.

Am I going to notice the difference between the 2014 and 2015. I'm mostly a photographer, Lightroom and PS - though I do some 360 VR work. In addition I'm starting out in video - so HD work in premiere, after effects but not 4k (no camera!!)

I realise this is a really subjective question, but the plan was to buy the latest/greatest and make it last. But I'm reconsidering that atm

 

[joema2]

I was going for a simlar configuration - but I've just lost a biggish contract and am looking at other options. I've just found a 2014 4.0GHz Quad Core i7 32GB RAM 512GB Flash R9 M295X 4GB for sale at a more afforable price.

Am I going to notice the difference between the 2014 and 2015. I'm mostly a photographer, Lightroom and PS - though I do some 360 VR work...not 4k...

The 2014 is OK; on some tests the 2015 model didn't thermally throttle as much on typical video rendering workloads. I have not tested the 2014 but I did extensive testing of the 2013 vs 2015 top-spec iMac 27 on my desk at the same time. In general the 2013 did quite well. The 2014 does have the higher pixel count display that can stress the graphics subsystem.

The biggest issue is software. Premiere now has proxy capability which makes a huge performance improvement. It is vital on H264 4k but might be useful on 1080p.

Lightroom can be sluggish on almost any Mac, depending on the workflow and camera. If you are shooting raw with a new-generation high-megapixel camera like a Nikon D810 or Sony A7RII, it can be a bit pokey of you're trying to work quickly. Adobe really needs to improve that. However it is usable on a 2014 or 2015 top-spec iMac 27.

 

[sportsnapper]

@joema2 - thanks for the advice - I've read quite a few of your posts.

I've gone with the 2014 4.0GHz Quad Core i7 32GB RAM 512GB Flash R9 M295X 4GB, and added a Lacie 2big 8Tb raid in striped mode (a damaged box from amazon which was cheaper than the 6Tb!). So far pretty impressed with the speed. Biggest issue is I'm not getting on with the keyboard which is so different from using a macbook!

Migrating data and setting up apps is more time consuming than I though - as I'm trying to preserve space on the 512 SSD - so my home directory Pictures, Music and movies will be moved to the 2Big drive. My work image/movie libraries are in self contained directories.

Next challenge is organising my data, and consolidating and backing it up from the diverse number of disks I currently have. Plan is to have has much current data on the 2Big disk, and back up to a couple of seagate GoFlex disks that I already have, with third line storage on a NAS. But not sure how to arrange the directory structure on a 8Tb disk so it's workable - never had that problem before.