With all the talk of computers...

BolderPro

BolderPro

Member
Hey guys, So I have started to see more and more threads on what computer to get or threads similar to that and thru looking at them I have realized that i know nothing about computers and because of my growing interest in photo and video I think it would probably be beneficial to learn a little bit more about them.

So basically all I know about is space on the computer (gb,mb,etc.) besides that, i am clueless about any thing else

I want to learn about how to optimize my computer for editing (mostly movie photo doesn't take that much power). I have an iMac, with a 2.7 GHz intel core i5 processor (is that good?), memory of 4gb 1333 MHz DDR3, and AMD Radeon HD 6770M 512 MB graphics, I also have a tb external drive where i keep all of my video and pictures from the camera, I really don't know what any of that is because my dad bought this computer and i had no part in knowing whats good or bad.

The reason why i want to see if its as good as i need is because i have been running photoshop and bridge on here for a year know and everyonce in a while they will run really slow or not respond or act up like that and now that i got bigger set of programs (Cs6 production suite) I would like to see if i could do anything to lesson that stuff

Summed up: The point of this thread is I'm looking for help on how to make my computer the best it can be for smooth workflow with my editing software.

+k for help
 
Well with macs you already have a real good setup. I mean the only thing you can really do is put more RAM into it. Thats about all I can think you can do with iMacs. Hope this helped !

-Guse
 
Yea thanks this helps and I've done a lil bit of looking on rams and is there like a good place to buy them or a certain brand or what?
 
Basically you have these main parts of your computer:

Processor: you have a 2.7ghz i5. 2.7ghz applies to the speed (and something else, im sure someone can chime in) and the higher the number, the faster your processor. i5 is a quad core processor(unless yours is the 2 core version, depends on your computer) the more cores the faster your processor. You'll find that 2 core processors will be up to 3ghz while quad cores will be under 3ghz (unless you ball out) and even tho the number is lower on the quad core, its still faster than the dual core with a higher number. Basically, you want more cores, you want a higher number.

Ram: every mac comes with 4gb of ram, which is pretty much a minimum for any computer now days, alot have 8gb. If you are feeling up to it (very easy actually) you can add more ram. Upgrading to 8gb (2x4gb sticks) is like 50 bucks and 16gb (2x8gb sticks) is like 150? maybe less. Like processors, the high the number the better. The ram is where the computer stores temporary memory (Random Access Memory) and the more ram you have, the faster your computer will operate.

Graphics card: every mac has a pretty decent graphics card and youre kind of just stuck with whatever apple choses. One thing you can control is the amount of vram (video random access memory? i think) and most computers now come wiht 512mb but having 1gb is very useful. But really, graphics aren't that big of a deal with video/photo shit, unless you're doing 3d animation shit or gaming (which im assuming you wouldnt do with a mac)

Hard drive: now days, most laptops come with 500-750gb hard drive and desktops are up to 1tb at 5400rpm or for a little extra 7200rpm. Again, not a huge deal if you dont have 7200, i have one and its definitely a little quicker to boot and shit than my old 5400 mbp, but not exactly something you need to worry about. Flash hard drives are starting to become more affordable but really, its like 400 bucks to upgrade to a 265gb hard drive and like the 5400 vs 7200 there is a difference, but not as much as you would really be able to notice on a daily basis. flash drives are nice for laptop cause theyre more durable, but for a desktop its whatever cause they sit still.

External hard drives are another topic, but its good you have one, its much better to run your photo/video on an external than on your internal HD.
 
Just to clear this up, because I was almost gonna buy that RAM for my mid 2010 macbook pro.

The RAM in that link is good for 2010 and newer iMacs, but not for 2010 Macbook pro's, which need 1066mHz RAM, which is significantly harder to find a 16gb kit for.

I know OP has an iMac, but just wanted to clear this up so nobody does the same mistake I almost did.
 
Alright thanks this clears up my question I think i will upgrade the ram on mine to 16gb eventually and also not that important to me but I'm just wondering if you can put a new processor in an iMac? I don't plan on doing it anytime soon but with all the talk about the sandy bridge processors I am just curious if you can put those into an iMac?

and again thanks for the help
 
Most things have been said but a few have been missed.

Regarding Ram your not only looking at the amount but also the speed. The speed of the Ram will determin how fast information can be written and retrived. Now adays you want to look for 1600 ram or above, but this will depend on what your processor and mother board can handle.

Ram is super cheap now, so really 16-32 is the norm now for video work. but again the amount used is determined by the motherboard and also by the operating system.

Processor wise eheath more or less has it. The faster the GHZ the better and also the more cores the better. How ever the higher the cache the better too. I5's are good, but if you look to upgrade go for an i7.

Somthing like a i7 3820 runs about $300, but its standard clock rate is 3.6GHZ which is pretty fast. It has 4 cores but has hypertheding. This means in programs which can use multi threading it acts as 8 cores significatly speeding things up. When hyperthreading can not be used it can overclock the used cores to 3.9GHZ. this means you can have a fast processor whatever situation the CPU is used in.

Top end machines will use Xeon proceesors. These are intels Server grade CPU's. They run slower then I7's but you can use them in a multiply CPU setup. This means youcan use 2-4 processors together. This means you could have a system with 32 cores. So the slower clock rate is made up for by being able to use more cores. They also can use ECC ram, this is error checking ram, which can be more stable hoever is more expensive.

Graphic card wise it used to be true that it did very little. Its still true for things like 3d, but its changing in video editing. Take CS6 for example. Premiere now uses the mercury playback engine. This means that the GPU can be used to take some strain off the CPU and create faster playback in the viewport.

However to use this there are some limitations, firstly it needs a Nvidia card. CS^has been updated so that certain ATI radeon cards found in Mac Book pros can be used, but unfortunatly you still cant use it on a ATI card in an Imac.

The card also needs at least 1GB of Vram. This does limit the amount of cards that can be used. Also unless you get a card which is offically suported by Adobe, you have to do a simply little change to a text file, in the premiere contents.

For after effects in CS6 there is now a raytrace render engine. This basically needs the same requirments as PP, so if your good to go in PP, AE will work too.

Hard drive wise it comes down to speed. Genrally now SSD are the faster and should be used for operating system, programs and files you are currently working on. This allows files to be read and written very fast when you are working on them. There is also the option to use a Raid system for this drive. This is where you use 2 standard hard drives and they work either mirrored or in conjuction. But its genrally accepted now that SSD is the way to go.

You would then want a larger hard drive for storage. a 7200 should be fast enough for this as now work will be done directly from this drive.

Hopefully that helps somewhat. Let me know if you have any other questions.
 
^ just noticed an error, i meant to say about the secondary drive, that you can get away with a 7200 drive as NO work is done from the drive, not now.
 
You techinally could put a new processor in the iMac, but it would be extremely hard to do. You would have to take apart the whole computer and then hope you could get it back together. With the ram, there's a small slot in the side of the iMac that quickly lets you change it.
 
Unless you upgrade to a pretty similar processor, which would be kinda pointless, I don't think you could do it. Usually major CPU upgrades also require a new motherboard, which on a mac would be way more trouble than just getting a new computer.
 
I was going to make a thread about this but I just ask here instead. I have a iMac with 3.2GHz Intel Core i3 processor and 4 GB ram (2x2 GB) and are going to upgrade the ram but I am not sure how much to get. I have two free spaces for ram so I was thinking to get two 4 GB which would give me 12 GB total, but I have heard that all the ram should be the same size, in that case should I just buy a 4 GB set and upgrade to 8 GB total or do I need 4x4 GB for video editing (final cut)?

 
your processor uses dual chanel memory so you will be best going for either 8gb (4x2 or 2x4), 16gb (4x4 or 2x8) or you could go for 32gb (4x8). With your computer 32Gb would probably be a waste so I would say either get 2 more 2gb sticks or replace the 2 sticks you have with 2, 4gb sticks.

However check to see if your using a 64bit version of Osx. If its a 32bit version then upgrading will make no difference.
 
^ looks ok, shame macs cant use standard 240 pin memeory, you could get faster ram for cheaper, but if you need 204pin ram I guess your stuck with what is available.
 
Didn't want to make a new thread and thought it would go along with this one so How can i tell if my system (iMac mid 2011, Processor[/b] 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5, Memory[/b] 32 GB 1333 MHz DDR3, Graphics[/b] AMD Radeon HD 6770M 512 MB) has these requirements?

My main questions are the the opengl 2.0 (how to tell if i have it), 7200 RPM hard drive (is that external or already in the computer), java runtime 1.6?, Dedicated GPU card, and do i have 64 bit support?

Mac OS

Multicore Intel processor with 64-bit support

Mac OS X v10.6.8 or v10.7

4GB of RAM (8GB recommended)

10.5GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required during installation (cannot install on a volume that uses a case-sensitive file system or on removable flash storage devices)

Additional disk space required for disk cache, preview files, and other working files (10GB recommended)

1280x900 display with 16-bit color and 512MB of VRAM; 1680x1050 display required and second professionally calibrated viewing display recommended for Adobe SpeedGrade

OpenGL 2.0–capable system

7200 RPM hard drive (multiple fast disk drives, preferably RAID 0 configured, recommended)

DVD-ROM drive compatible with dual-layer DVDs (SuperDrive for burning DVDs; Blu-ray burner for creating Blu-ray Disc media)

Java Runtime Environment 1.6

QuickTime 7.6.6 software required for QuickTime and multimedia features

Dedicated GPU card recommended (for optimal performance in SpeedGrade and for GPU-accelerated features in Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects: NVIDIA Quadro 4000 or other Adobe-certified GPU card with at least 1GB of VRAM recommended); visit www.adobe.com/products/premiere/extend.html for supported cards

Optional: Tangent CP200 family or Tangent Wave control surface for SpeedGrade

This software will not operate without activation. Broadband Internet connection and registration are required for software activation, validation of subscriptions, and access to online services.* Phone activation is not available

[/list]

 
Well what version of OSx are you using, is it 32 or 63 bit. On a windows machine you go to control panel and can bring up the computer components and view them.

Do you have a graphics card in there? Again look in the system settings, what are you looking to use on the computer, is there one speficic program you want to use?
 
Sorry I actually want to figure this stuff out I just never saw that you replied on it so I know Im a little late but...

I run OSx 10.8.2, It is 64 bit, and I think this is the graphics card AMD Radeon HD 6770M 512 MB?

Since I made the thread I have also picked up a Apple cinema display If that does anything

but I use Adobe video editing programs (speed grade, after effects, premiere) and I always have to force quit and restart when my projects start to get "heavy"

I dont know what can help me with this (clearing anything, getting something?) but I would like to figure it out.
 
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