Computer

[ovistana]

What computer is needed for Mavic ...for editing and updates.

 

[MadValley]

Depends on what you want to do. Assuming Windows 10 and working with 4K you want an i7 CPU at least 16GB RAM, a fast GPU, a fast SSD, a fast external drive for rendering, a big monitor (better to have 2) and editing software that does everything you need.

If you're patient and don't mind waiting or working with proxies you can get by with less than this. (or if you're not working in 4K)

I'm using a Lenovo Yoga 900 Pro, 2.2 GHz Core i7, 16GB RAM, 500 GB on board SSD, 2TB USB 3 external drive, Intel Iris Graphics, a 4K onboard display and a 23" external FHD display (which needs to be upgraded to a UHD display. The weak spots in this setup are the mobile processor, the slow GPU, and the FHD external monitor.

 

[Mr. Salty]

You don’t need an SSD drive to edit video, or an external drive. The size of your monitor is irrelevant, too, but obviously larger makes things easier.

 

[MadValley]

You don’t need an SSD drive to edit video, or an external drive. The size of your monitor is irrelevant, too, but obviously larger makes things easier.

Correct on all points! But who wants to sit around and wait...? Or squint to to figure out what you're actually looking at. If you're going to spend a grand on a drone to capture video AND have to buy a new computer to edit on, you can either spend $1,300 bucks and not be very happy or $1,800 and be tickled. JMHO. (I'm just glad the iStuff people haven't jumped in yet...)

 

[Thomas B]

If you use Mac, get i7 as many cores as you can afford to increase speed as graphic work taxes all computers.

 

[Mr. Salty]

Correct on all points! But who wants to sit around and wait...? Or squint to to figure out what you're actually looking at. If you're going to spend a grand on a drone to capture video AND have to buy a new computer to edit on, you can either spend $1,300 bucks and not be very happy or $1,800 and be tickled.

SSD still won't affect the speed of video editing, apart from how quickly the editing program launches. Speed of the processor and GPU are what counts in that regard.

And no need to spend $1,800. I spent $1,100 on a Dell with a six-core i7 and GTX 1050ti GPU. System drive is an SSD but all my video storage is still on an internal HDD because 4K video will fill up an SSD quickly.

 

[AMann]

” I spent $1,100 on a Dell with a six-core i7 and GTX 1050ti GPU”...

Did you add to it or was it off the shelf? Ive been looking for a similar unit. My dream machine would be something like this:

Up to 64 GB RAM
CPU: Octa-core or hexa-core Intel Core i7 CPU, Socket LGA 2011-v3 or 2011 (Broadwell-E, Haswell-E, Ivy Bridge-E or Sandy Bridge-E)

Motherboard: Any LGA 2011-v3 or 2011 model with 8 DDR4 or DDR3 slots and at least 1 PCI Express x16 slot

RAM: DDR4-2133 or DDR3-1600, 8 x 4 GB (32 GB total) or 8 x 8 GB (64 GB total)

GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 Ti, GeForce GTX 1080 or GeForce TITAN X

Or even more than 64 GB RAM with a dual socket Intel Xeon Workstation...

 

[Mr. Salty]

This is what I got, but I did do some configuring from Dell's website: https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/del...tower-special-edition/spd/xps-8930-se-desktop

 

[Johnmcl7]

Did you add to it or was it off the shelf? Ive been looking for a similar unit. My dream machine would be something like this:

Up to 64 GB RAM
CPU: Octa-core or hexa-core Intel Core i7 CPU, Socket LGA 2011-v3 or 2011 (Broadwell-E, Haswell-E, Ivy Bridge-E or Sandy Bridge-E)

Motherboard: Any LGA 2011-v3 or 2011 model with 8 DDR4 or DDR3 slots and at least 1 PCI Express x16 slot

RAM: DDR4-2133 or DDR3-1600, 8 x 4 GB (32 GB total) or 8 x 8 GB (64 GB total)

GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 Ti, GeForce GTX 1080 or GeForce TITAN X

Or even more than 64 GB RAM with a dual socket Intel Xeon Workstation...

Buying workstation-class parts new is pricey although it's potentially worth looking at second hand three year old workstation class machine as it's entirely normal for companies to replace perfectly good PC's every number of years and the old stuff gets sold on cheap. I was looking at an old Precision T7610 for £1200 with dual ten core processors (20 in total and all hyperthreaded) plus 128GB ram or £750 for a T5600 with dual octo-cores and 64GB ram.

Of course there are trade offs, workstation processors with high core counts won't be as fast single core and if a major component like the motherboard fails it's likely to be expensive to repair. But on the other hand you're going to need a big budget to buy high core count, lots of memory and a workstation-class system brand new.

Another point to bear in mind is that not all video editing makes good use of resources, I have a hex core i7 3930K with 32GB memory and it's currently doing a video encode with just one core active and 6GB memory in use.

 

[AMann]

Buying workstation-class parts new is pricey although it's potentially worth looking at second hand three year old workstation class machine as it's entirely normal for companies to replace perfectly good PC's every number of years and the old stuff gets sold on cheap. I was looking at an old Precision T7610 for £1200 with dual ten core processors (20 in total and all hyperthreaded) plus 128GB ram or £750 for a T5600 with dual octo-cores and 64GB ram.

Of course there are trade offs, workstation processors with high core counts won't be as fast single core and if a major component like the motherboard fails it's likely to be expensive to repair. But on the other hand you're going to need a big budget to buy high core count, lots of memory and a workstation-class system brand new.

Another point to bear in mind is that not all video editing makes good use of resources, I have a hex core i7 3930K with 32GB memory and it's currently doing a video encode with just one core active and 6GB memory in use.

My interest is in image processing for mapping- such as with Agisoft’s Photoscan, which is set up to use those (the specs I posted are theirs). What software are you using for your 4k video editing?

 

[Johnmcl7]

My interest is in image processing for mapping- such as with Agisoft’s Photoscan, which is set up to use those (the specs I posted are theirs). What software are you using for your 4k video editing?

I use a few different pieces of software depending on what I'm doing although it's primarily Sony Vegas Pro.

Something to bear in mind is that you don't need to go to a workstation-class machine to get six or eight cores these days, you can now get consumer eight core processors. These not only can use much cheaper motherboards but also feature benefits such as manufacturing supported overclocking and wider ram support.

When I bought my desktop the only consumer i7's went up to quad core so to go beyond that I had to go to a workstation platform as you've detailed in your post. It does the job and was fast for its time but it's very picky over its ram and as the workstation platforms are more slowly developed than the consumer ones, it lacks features so no m2 and no native USB3 support either.

 

[Thomas B]

For economy buy a used one... doesn’t need customization, etc.

 

[AMann]

I use a few different pieces of software depending on what I'm doing although it's primarily Sony Vegas Pro.

Something to bear in mind is that you don't need to go to a workstation-class machine to get six or eight cores these days, you can now get consumer eight core processors. These not only can use much cheaper motherboards but also feature benefits such as manufacturing supported overclocking and wider ram support.

When I bought my desktop the only consumer i7's went up to quad core so to go beyond that I had to go to a workstation platform as you've detailed in your post. It does the job and was fast for its time but it's very picky over its ram and as the workstation platforms are more slowly developed than the consumer ones, it lacks features so no m2 and no native USB3 support either.

I was looking at the Alienware line of 8-core overclocked i7’s , they’re pricy but undoubtedly are well supported and in my case, pre-configured and ready to go.

Any other makers you would recommend?

 

[AMann]

For economy buy a used one... doesn’t need customization, etc.

Used would be a good deal for those who know what they’re buying and facing... I used to know Z80 and 8080 machine coding, DOS commands and now play with Arduino programming, but configuring i7’s and such I’m a newby, so a pre-configured sustem is probably best. O’ve been talked out of considering the workstation idea too.

 

[Johnmcl7]

I was looking at the Alienware line of 8-core overclocked i7’s , they’re pricy but undoubtedly are well supported and in my case, pre-configured and ready to go.

Any other makers you would recommend?

I'm in the UK so I'm not as familiar with what's available in the US, have you looked at the Dell outlet site rather than the main one? The prices aren't as good as they used to be but they're cheaper than the main site particularly scratch and dent ones, these PC's are returns so they're in as new condition. They often do daily reductions with 10-20% off as well which are worth keeping an eye out for.

What realistically is your budget? The spec you've requested is going to be hugely expensive and there's not really any way to get around that. I agree with the suggestion to buy used, you don't need to worry about configuring them as they're already configured. There is a risk of failure although I generally find desktops are reliable in the long term and they're usually economic to repair.

Have you found any user feedback on the software you're wanting to use to see what hardware is working for them? Workstation-class hardware isn't usually that much different to consumer systems in terms of features (aside from multiple sockets, higher core counts etc.) but companies will usually specify a workstation-class system as a requirement as they're a more controlled process with less updates.