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new entry-level iMac good for video editing?

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Ok iMac users, I'm considering my first iMac, and need your thoughts. The primary purpose of the computer will be casual home video editing (for putting pics of my kids to music, etc.) - nothing professional - iMovie will suit just fine without going to Final Cut (express or otherwise). Will the new $1200 entry-level iMac with an i3 processor, ATI Radeon 4670, and 8MB RAM be good for that? That is, would it render a video in a reasonable amount of time, and not freeze on me?

The $1500 upgraded iMac of course has a much better graphics card, the 5670, but would it really be worth the extra $300 for the somewhat "basic" and non-professional video editing I'm anticipating?

Another option would be a dell studio xps 8100 or 9000, with an i7 processor, ATI Radeon 5770, and 8GB RAM, for the same price ($1200). Would that offer significantly better performance for video editing (I would prefer the iMac if the dell might just spit out my movie 1 minute faster - i'm patient - but i might be motivated by say 5 or 10 minutes).
 
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21.5" iMac, 3.06GHz duo, 4GB RAM, 500GB Hard Drive, NVIDIA 9400M| 8GB iPod Touch
I have last year's 21.5" iMac and it runs final cut express very well. The new iMacs won't even break a sweat with iMovie. For what you're doing the mac mini might actually be sufficient! Also keep in mind that iMovie (and the rest of the iLife suite) is specifically made and optimized for macs, so even with specs that seem low it runs well.
 
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i run the same iMac as iZach does and i use final cut pro and have had no issues. my only advice is to just make sure that your camera is compatible, almost all are, but just to be sure check this list that apple has put out...
iMovie '09: Camcorder Support
 
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chas_m

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Although the Dell has an i7 while the iMac "merely" has an i3 (which is "merely" about 400% faster than my 2007 C2D that I run iMovie on), the Dell doesn't have iMovie or anything anywhere near as good.

Game, set, match -- iMac.
 

chscag

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2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
To add to what chas_m said.....

Dell's tech and customer support has rapidly gone downhill in the past several years. If I had to choose between systems - even if the Dell were that much better, I would still choose Apple. Apple's support is number one.

Regards.
 

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