Hey everyone, I’m looking for a new PC to edit footage from my DJI drone and Osmo Mobile.
I was thinking about getting a Lenovo mini desktop, but my girlfriend suggested a Mac Mini. Would love some advice on what specs I should aim for.
Some extra thoughts:
I like the idea of a mini desktop because I already have a solid monitor and workstation setup for work. Unfortunately, I can’t plug personal hard drives into my government-issued laptop, so I need a separate machine. A mini desktop would keep my setup clean and be cheaper than a full desktop or a second laptop. I’d just need another docking station and could easily move it to a TV or projector when needed.
If you want the best value for your money, Apple isn’t the way to go. Also, make sure whatever you buy doesn’t have integrated graphics—that will slow you down big time.
Kip said:
If you want the best value for your money, Apple isn’t the way to go. Also, make sure whatever you buy doesn’t have integrated graphics—that will slow you down big time.
Appreciate the advice! Honestly, I always struggle with MacOS on my girlfriend’s laptop, so I’m not exactly sold on switching to Mac anyway.
I edit 4K video every day for work. My setup: i7-11700K, RTX 4070, 64GB DDR4 RAM. The CPU is a bit older, but it still does the job well. I could probably get by with 32GB RAM, but I mess around with After Effects sometimes, and that eats RAM like Alex Jones downs vodka.
The biggest issue with DJI footage is that it’s in HEVC, which is terrible for editing performance. Even high-end systems struggle with it. You’ll want to transcode the footage to ProRes or DNxHD, or use proxies to make editing smoother.
Good video editing software will take advantage of hardware acceleration, which helps a lot when exporting. The better the graphics card, the smoother your editing and faster your exports will be. Mini desktops usually don’t have good GPUs and rely on integrated graphics, which is a problem.
Here’s what matters most in order:
Graphics card (at least an RTX 3060 with 12GB VRAM)