Which is best configuration mac for Film VFX work within $3000 budget

Look at the new Mac Pros for this work and get the best configuration you can afford.

With a budget up to $4000, you should be able to purchase a nice Mac Pro system for your needs.

Does this price include the purchase of software OR is software another added part of the budget.

If this includes software, then I suggest, but not necessarily recommend, the top of the line 27 inch iMac.

Purchase this 27 inch iMac with the fastest, optional i7 CPU, optional 4 GB VRAM GPU and just the base 8 GB of RAM.

RAM is user installable in the 27 inch screen model iMacs and you can get RAM cheaper from other third party source than from Apple. I am not keen about the new Fusion drive technology in the new iMacs, so I would opt for a standard large capacity internal hard drive and maybe add a third party, externally connected (USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt) high capacity SSD drive, instead.

Also, purchase a large capacity hard drive for backup storage.

Forgot to add, budget for 3 year AppleCare.

And if you are going to do a lot of film work on this computer, ditch the wireless peripherals (big battery wasters and can be unreliable) and look at the various Mac compatible wired keyboards and mice available to use with your new Mac.

If you plan on using Apple's Final Cut Pro X (and I advise you should be) there is a keyboard company that makes a custom keyboard just for using with FCPX.

I am not keen about the new Fusion drive technology in the new iMacs, so I would opt for a standard large capacity internal hard drive and maybe add a third party, externally connected (USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt) high capacity SSD drive, instead.

To offer a different opinion, I'd instead opt for an SSD in the Mac for the OS and applications, and an external Thunderbolt RAID array for storing your work. That's probably going to deliver the optimum performance. This would be the same with a Mac Pro; unless you have just a boatload of cash, a Thunderbolt RAID array of quality hard drives is going to be most cost effective.

Regards.

varjak,

Doesn't Apple charge a much higher premium for an SSD than other third party vendors?

Just like they overcharge for RAM?

That is why I suggested the external SSD route.

Yes, Apple's SSDs are a bit spendy. But unless RichMedia can afford an all-SSD solution, which for video storage will be very expensive, using the SSD internally for the boot drive and an external RAID array for the files will give the best performance and allow the greatest amount of storage for the money. S/he could of course boot from an external SSD and also have an external RAID array, but by the time s/he prices a 512GB Thunderbolt SSD it's probably not going to be a lot less than Apple's price.

Regards.