Welcome Inspire Pilots!
Join our free DJI Inspire community today!
Sign up

What computer to buy

Joined
Jun 22, 2017
Messages
34
Reaction score
2
Age
74
Location
Northern BC Canada
Now that I have taken a lot of video and pictures with my inspire2 , x4s . I need to do some editing this winter. So want buy a better computer then what I have . I was thinking about 1 with ,i7 Processor , 16 gb ram, 2tb hard drive . Any thoughts out there . ????
 
HDMI output so you can attached a big screen TV to it for display. I'd go for a SSD card for the primary drive instead of mechanical, at least 1 TB in size as it speeds up processing. Decent video card with plenty of RAM too. Basically, build a super-gamers computer and you should be good to go.

Fwiw, years ago I had issues using Toshiba Satellite and video editing. It took days to do a 30 minute processing and often overheated and shutdown. Went to Hollywood to find out what they used and they told me to go to the Sagar Computer shop in City of Industry. They custom build notebooks and can put multiple 2TB SSD drives and top-end gizmos like Blu-Ray disk burners, etc. into them. They have a checklist and the things can get up to $8,000 fast and their website gives you an idea of what is out there to put into one. Their gear seems to be years ahead of most top-ends I've seen. They are heavy too with multiple cooling fans and copper plumbing for a notebook - or more like a desktop replacement yet portable.
 
I've just got a DELL Inspiron 15 7000 (a gaming computer) - most of the spec matches your requirements. Photos and video look amazing! Now I've just got to teach myself post-processing and video editing!!
 
Thanks for the info.. It is just a hobby ,not for sales, I love flying my Drone .So I should make use of the videos now maybe editing then and give them out at Christmas time
 
Now that I have taken a lot of video and pictures with my inspire2 , x4s . I need to do some editing this winter. So want buy a better computer then what I have . I was thinking about 1 with ,i7 Processor , 16 gb ram, 2tb hard drive . Any thoughts out there . ????
There is a good deal of video's on you tube that describe the 4K editing machine... decide if you want a MAC or PC. In either case, decide if you want to edit with Adobe Premier, Dinvinci Resolve (Free and very good), or Final Cut (Mac Only, but doesn't use lots of compute to edit 4k).

The going wisdom in the PC world is to go with a thread ripper (AMD) these days, I bucked the trend and went with an Intel I9. If your going with an Intel i9, its considerably more money than the AMD, but fi you do it, the 7900x (10 cores @ 3.3) works perfect and if you want to spend a bit more cash get a 7940x (14 codes @ 3.1) = lots of tests show that going more than 14 cores slows down Premier / Media Encoder. Not sure what it does for Divinci (which has a free version for personal use which is great).

At the end of the day, decide how much your willing to spend, that will dictate what you will get.

I just jumped off the MAC platform as honestly if your using anything other than Final Cut, its WAY over priced and really slow for either Premier of Divinci. Seems to be better value in a PC if using the Premier or Dinvici. Also, not sure if AMD has it, but the Intel Chips have a technology that encodes H264 for youtube really fast (near real time). I don't know if AMD has this or what it might be called. This is a big help when exporting to YouTube formats.

Also a OpenCL video card seems to be the best choice for best performance for most effects, but check with the video editing software capability list to ensure you get the right video card. I don't buy AMD video cards, but if your going to get an nVidia the 1080ti is the best performance/cost. It works very well with Premier. I went with a TiTAN Xp which is a little faster, but way more money (like twice). I would not do it again.

If getting an i9, you must get all in one water cooler block for the CPU, they are not expensive so don't worry about that.

With all that Said the i7 has a very good value and all the video card stuff still applies.

you got lots of choices, start with money, then pick PC vs MAC, then Pick Video Editor, then pick CPU (Cores # matter as per above), then pick a video card for the system is the basic logic.

I hope that gets you started... I spent months looking at youtube videos to get a sense of what was going on with new video editing PC's - but at the end of the day, its all about how much you can or want to spend, the rest falls into place as per the order in which to make decisions.

as for Video outputs, pretty much all the new video cards hand display port and HDMI, but make sure you get HDMI 2.0 and a TV that supports HDMI 2.0 as that's the only way to get 60 FPS output from the video card for your external monitor, if you get stuck at 30 FPS it looks terrible. Also keep in mind that if your single monitor setup is big enough (I edit with 40 inch displays) you really only need one display for editing.

BTW; I built mine around the ability to play back 4096x2180 @ 60FPS - I record in that now. Youtube also started converting to VP9 (Which is used in place of h264, they don't look like they will support h265/HVEC - so I picked a CPU that could handle the largely software decode of VP9 which playing back 4k youtube content. The i9 CPU I got plays back 4k @ 60 FPS with easy now from both the X4S and YouTube, my Mac could not play it back smooth at all.

Good luck with your decisions....
 
  • Like
Reactions: tailwindproductions
Thanks Drone-video.. I wish you lived next door! would you over a show me more about editing . still learning . No new computer yet . $$$ need to wait. My computer I have now is a desktop Hp a little old 8 GB ram and Amd Phenom IIX4 830 processor and 2 TB drive . Was thinking about buying $100.0 or so Graphics card for it , or even so if I did get another computer I could move the Graphics card to it ..
 
Your welcome.
I would in the mean time do a search on YouTube for budget build 4K editing and watch some of those videos. They have machines for about 500 to 600 usd that works very well that have been reviewed.

Good luck with the research and finding a good machine for your editing purposes.
 
I spent about £2300 about 18 months ago on a new PC capable of editing 4K. It's got and I 5 hex core processor, 32 GB of RAM, I have gone for three separate media storage drives. A 500 GB SSD for holding windows and programs, a 500 GB SSD for short-term storage and a 4 TB HD for long-term storage. I went for the 6gb nvidia 980 ti graphics card and water cooling for the processor.

This was the best I could afford and it can handle 4K with a bit of TLC. I use Premier pro and tinker with after effects.

I have got a couple of upgrades planned for the future which include a m.2 drive for faster load times a 2tb SSD for larger jobs, a 10tb HDD which my PC tower can take4 of. Oh yeah and 2 4K monitors.
 
I decided I was going to use Final Cut Pro--so that meant Mac. When Apple announced they were going to revamp the Mac Pro line, prices dropped on the Mac pro's and there are some great deals in the refurbished apple store (online). I picked up a 4 core/16GB/520SSD for $2100 and am happy with it--it is quite, handles the video from the X4s nicely. I have been thinking about how to store my original footage and have settled on uploading to iCloud--the cost of iCloud storage is relatively cheap and if anything happens at the house, my footage is safe--of course that does mean you need a robust internet connection for moving data around (I average 50MB up, and 250MB down)
 
Last edited:
mmm, does depend on internet speed :( I can only get 1.1 Mb/s upload where I live, so anything cloud based is absolutely no use whatsoever. Just purchased a 24Tb G-tech Shuttle Ev for main storage - to send 12Tb to the cloud if I started tonight and did no other internet based stuff would take 3.3yrs to upload :(

FCPX with an iMac 2015 4GHz with 1 512Gb SSD and the 395x video handles H265 4K without much issue.
 
Thanks again for your info guys . I have been still busy with other things but this winter will be looking at get another computer .. I use a desk top . and that what I will buy.
 
The issue I have with Macs is that everything costs a bomb. Personally I hate Macs with a passion but I know many people that love them. I was brought up on PCs and I just don't get why anyone would restrict themselves to using Mac hardware and software. Apart from Final Cut Pro I don't know of any other software that is Mac only. At least with a PC you can upgrade the internals of the computer without it costing a fortune.
 
The issue I have with Macs is that everything costs a bomb. Personally I hate Macs with a passion but I know many people that love them. I was brought up on PCs and I just don't get why anyone would restrict themselves to using Mac hardware and software. Apart from Final Cut Pro I don't know of any other software that is Mac only. At least with a PC you can upgrade the internals of the computer without it costing a fortune.
As for cloud storage, again why? A 10 TB drive costs £300 but for that amount of cloud storage it would cost you a significant subscription
 
Why macs? Because they avoid most headaches associated with PCs ;)

I spent a lot of a previous professional life looking after IT systems and always laughed at the design dept for using Macs, which gave headaches integrating them into our network, I certainly wasn't (and still aren't) an Apple fanboy. But, When they switched to the intel processors I decided to try them & bought a Mac to run the (then new) Aperture DAM system back in 2006 as I was fed up of using 5 or 6 different bits of non-interoperable software to do my DAM for images.

11yrs on, that Mac is still running, and I've had so little trouble from it in comparison to the PCs I used to look after that I've no intention of going back. It's only ever had OS updates, never had a wipe or reinstall of everything, something that used to happen frequently on windows. I've also a 2009 MacBook Pro which has behaved exactly the same and needed next to no attention other than upgrade of memory, OS and hdd to SSD. My wife has gone through 3-4 pc laptops from work in that same timespan, and every time I've got to sort something out on windows for her it reminds me of how easy (and less stressful) life is without windows. She knows if I'm doing something that involves a PC/windows as the level of swearing goes through the roof, usually accompanied by phrases such as 'creaky crock of cr@p' :D

So, yeah, it cost a bomb upfront, but the Mac pro has probably only cost less than $200/yr across its lifetime so far, and far less in terms of downtime, antivirus software and maintenance of the System.
 
I run our (Windows Sever 2008) network here and I have a MBP myself. Most reliable system on the network. Oldest laptop (late 2013 MBP) where the rest are Lenovo and Dell. Would never switch. Can't wait for my top 2018 MBP.
Then my old MBP will run Apple Server. Windows Server in the bin. What a slow crap
 
The issue I have with Macs is that everything costs a bomb. Personally I hate Macs with a passion but I know many people that love them. I was brought up on PCs and I just don't get why anyone would restrict themselves to using Mac hardware and software. Apart from Final Cut Pro I don't know of any other software that is Mac only. At least with a PC you can upgrade the internals of the computer without it costing a fortune.



Yea! I have never used Mac my desk is a HP and when I go out holidays I have a cheap laptop for checking emails . My next new one will be a HP....
 
The issue I have with Macs is that everything costs a bomb. Apart from Final Cut Pro I don't know of any other software that is Mac only
Macs are expensive, true. But.... No crashes, free updates, no viruses, no bugs, no Trojan horses, very reliable and kick *** performance.
Further... FCPX, Motion 5, Logic Pro. And lots of apps that actually works.
In 2011 I've made the switch. Best switch ever
 
I’ve had drones capable of recording 4K video for over 2 years now, but no way to edit or even view the 4K files because my TV is 7 years old and my MacBook is 5 years old now.

Since I have the Inspire 2 with X5S, I think that’s kinda going to waste.

So I got a new desktop windows computer first. My budget was $1,200 max for just the computer. After shopping for hours it came down to 2 choices:

Computer with 8th gen i7 processor (6 cores) and OK graphics card GeForce 1060 w/3GB - $1,100

Computer with 7th gen i7 professor (4 cores) and GeForce 1070 w/8GB - $1,200

They both had 16GB DDR4 memory and similar SSD + hard drive capacity.

I got the one with better processor. I hope I made the right choice and don’t need to upgrade the graphics card too soon.
 

Members online

No members online now.

Forum statistics

Threads
22,277
Messages
210,655
Members
34,333
Latest member
marve84