4k Editing hardware for smooth, fast edits.

[steve Reed]

I am interested in knowing what you think is minimum, maximum, useful, useless hardware for editing 4K video.
I have a PC 16gb ram, Internal 7200 rpm hd, USB 3 external 2 tb drives, I7 processor, desktop, 27" RGB monitor, good video card w 2 mb ram not a $59 nor a $1,200 card but some where in the $300 range. I find it hard to handle a 4K video in Premiere Pro 6. One of My questions is will a SSD internal drive help? Will a SSD external help with a USB 3 connection? Is More ram a better investment. I can edit 4K but with just enough jumping in the ap to drive me crazy. Suggestions...

 

[IrishSights]

I don't do a lot of editing but do use PPro occasionally. Here is a link to a video that explains proxy workflow which is designed to manage editing of hi resolution video.

PFAW Holder
BNUC-S Qualified

 

[Casey53]

I just bumped my gamer's notebook up as I ran out of SSD drive space for editing. It came with a 256GB SSD, but video files were too big along with the programs and the OS and I got the "Disk Full" messages on trying to work with them. RAM is 32GB and the nVidia 980M graphics card has some storage too. Just it needed more space on the SSD card.

I found the SSD card in mine was 3.3 volts. There are different voltages as well as the Sata 1 or 3 and some newer PCIe x ? buss or something that is even faster like the Samsung E950 series if your computer will handle it and they cost twice as much too. Mine was also a M.2 2280 size format , single-sided, B key vs. M key slot, and the Sandisk X400 1 TB SSD fit it perfectly and fit the requirements of the motherboard and BIOs both. Cost me about $350 for the card and the USB Sata 3 card burner to put it into and then copy or clone the internal off onto it like an external USB hard drive. I used Macrium Reflect 6 as the clone software and it worked fine. I did have to merge the 1TB a bit as the clone read 256GB like the old one pulled, but after the merge it is now a fast 1TB drive with more editing room.

The notebook also has a second 1 TB hard drive in it too as a storage drive. I ran a speed test between the 1TB SSD and the 1TB mechanical hard drive also inside of it for comparison and the SSD is multiple times faster as the following image shows:


Not that hard to do and really gives you some space for editing and multiple times faster than a mechanical hard drive. However, the repair shop guy who works on bank servers told me the SSD drives will fail if used a lot and they cannot use them in the bank servers as they fail in a few months over the industrial mechanical H-Ds they use which sounded odd to me. For Joe Consumer, the SSD may last 4-5 years, but in the banking climate not so well. Just be careful on the SSD selection on size, key notches, voltages, current, buss type/speed, dual or single-sided fitment, etc. I almost made a costly purchasing mistake on the Samsung PCIe model which mine would not have taken as it is Sata based.

Good luck!

 

[DaBone]

However, the repair shop guy who works on bank servers told me the SSD drives will fail if used a lot and they cannot use them in the bank servers as they fail in a few months over the industrial mechanical H-Ds they use which sounded odd to me. For Joe Consumer, the SSD may last 4-5 years, but in the banking climate not so well.

An SSD is sustainable for a certain number of MB writes to it. The larger the SSD is, more writing can be done.

Currently I have 2x SSD in my workstation and one of them can handle 70GB / day for 5 years. Now I don´t write 70GB / day, as it is very unevenly how much I have to do..
So I expect that it will last many years, after the warranty expired..

My SSD:s
Samsung SM951 (512GB) PCIe SSD Review
Intel SSD 750 PCIe SSD Review: NVMe for the Client


On topic:
To handle 4K, you should probably have a lot of RAM (minimum 32GB) and a relatively good graphics card. When you later want to export your movie, you should have a good processor.

 

[gsafarek]

In Premiere cc2017, in Media Browser, just tick Ingest option, go to settings if needed and it will automatically make proxy for edits. at export, it will automatically use original hi res files.

 

[molder101]

I've been too cheap to "rent" PP, but I use Powerdirector 14 for 4k and it works smooth on my system:

i7 5820
32gb ram
980ti card
EVO ssds

All pushed to a 28" 4k display.

Definitely important to have the right equipment. Allows you to focus on doing the work instead of being subject to it.

I guess the main thing is your editing computer should be primarily for that. You don't want the family doing their websurfing, etc on it. Try to keep it as "clean" as possible. The computer is new, but I usually like to do a fresh install of windows at least annually to keep systems fresh.

You should be able to get a 980 card within you budget... Though now the 1070 is supposed to be equivalent or better. Use those as a starting point.