Can anyone suggest the best configuaration of a MacPro for editing 4K video? Seems unlike the old Mac Pros there is no room to do much adding to this new version.

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Can anyone suggest the best configuaration of a MacPro for editing 4K video? Seems unlike the old Mac Pros there is no room to do much adding to this new version.

Hi.

Think my "title" says it all. Can anyone suggest the best Mac Pro configuation for editing 4k video? With the older Macs you could always add components if you realized you needed something with more power, capacity etc. But by the looks of it the tower version is more like an IMac - once you buy what you've got, theer's not much change you can make other than adding some RAM etc.

Thanks

OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)

Posted on Jun 3, 2015 9:49 AM

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Answer 1

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The hatter

Level 9

60,990 points

Jun 3, 2015 9:55 AM in response to Canada John

nM 6,1 black cylinder Late 2013?

Classic Mac Pro 2009-2012 can easily be, and are tower models

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Answer 2

Rysz

Level 8

44,391 points

Jun 3, 2015 10:07 AM in response to Canada John

Mac Pro is built for Video editing, so there's not much you need extra, aside from Storage. Expansion is via the 6 Thunderbolt 2 connectors, each of which can daisy-chain up to 6 devices.

http://www.apple.com/thunderbolt/

http://www.apple.com/mac-pro/

http://www.apple.com/mac-pro/specs/

http://www.apple.com/mac-pro/performance/

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Answer 3

Jun 3, 2015 11:42 AM in response to Canada John

The internal SSD is the Boot Device. Don't even THINK about putting substantial 4K video on it.

If you intend to run Windows as well, you probably need larger than the default Boot SSD. Windows must be on the Boot Drive to get installed, but can be cloned to another drive later, if you prefer.

Your files are moved off to ThunderBolt devices. You can have one or two USB-3 devices before they start to slow way down.

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Answer 4

Canada John Author

Level 1

102 points

Jun 3, 2015 3:20 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Thanks for the info. Sorry but I don't know what the SSD is. I won't be running Windows.

As I look through the specs of the two versions of the tower advertised on the Apple Store page I see that one can make choices of processor, memory, storage and graphics card. I'm pretty sure the tower will allow the addition of more memory later, but what of the other categories? Could one change the processor, storage and graphics card later if for some reason one felt the need to?

Thanks.

John

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Answer 5

Jun 3, 2015 3:46 PM in response to Canada John

The Mac Pro 6,1 late 2013 comes with a non-expandable 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB Solid State Drive inside. It is intended as the Boot and Applications Drive, not the 4K Video storage Drive. There are no more internal slots except for the four memory slots, which are expandable to 128GB.

Apple's 'spin' on expandability is that this one already has TWO hot graphics cards inside, so you buy at the level you desire (300, 500 or 700) and you don't need to deal with future issues with adding or replacing or powering or cooling multiple hot graphics cards. And that via ThunderBolt, you can add as many fast drives as you desire -- you are not limited to any fixed number of slots and power cables.

The processor chip is in a socket, so it is possible to change it later if your needs expand. You can get more processors on that chip, but it is already running as fast as it can. (and most 'ordinary' workflows do not benefit from additional processors).

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