I've found this offer for editing and grading machine... good for handling 12k braw footage on Resolve?

[shooter]

https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/desktop-computers/alienware-aurora-r15-gaming-desktop/spd/alienware-aurora-r15-amd-desktop/wdr15amd50h

 

Any idea if it is possible to find a better route out there?

[eatstoomuchjam]

Without having shot 12K, I'll say that system looks like more than enough (and if it's not, there won't be many systems that are).  The RTX 4090 is the most powerful consumer GPU on the market and that's a really decent CPU.  It might even be overkill (though overkill also means you probably won't be shopping for a better system in 1-2 years).

If you aren't already familiar with PugetBench, Puget Systems have a nice database of results that people have achieved with various systems.
https://benchmarks.pugetsystems.com/benchmarks/

What's not clear on that is how expandable the system is - which was a problem with the Alienware that I had for a while.  There seems to be only one more slot for NVMe beyond the boot drive and the USB ports are only 3.2 and not 4.  The Alienware that I had only had a single free PCIe slot as well.  In my case, it was enough to add a 10g network card and that was about it.

If you want to put 12K footage locally on the machine, 2TB is going to get cramped fast.  Fast USB 3.2 storage will be able to keep up, though as of a year or so ago, flash-based USB 3.x storage arrays were not so common - at least at a reasonable price.

If it were me, I'd look for something with 2-3 additional NVMe slots beyond the boot drive to be able to add more local storage and I'd look for something with USB 4 since it will be compatible with most/all Thunderbolt devices which gives a lot of better/more interesting options for external storage/devices.

[kye]

I've heard that the 12K files are very usable in terms of performance, but it will likely depend on what mode you're shooting in.  Most people aren't using the 12K at 12K - they're using it at 4K or 8K.

Regardless, Resolve has an incredible array of functionality to improve performance and enable real-time editing and even colour correction on lesser hardware.  This is a good overview:

 

[Phil A]

I would definitely not buy an Alienware prebuilt. They tend to have poor upgradability, might use weird custom parts (I think in the past there were custom sized mainboards and/or PSU used in some models) and tend to have no too great thermals.

Building a PC is quite easy and there are part lists available to ensure compatibility between components.

[eatstoomuchjam]

For the most part, if somebody is looking at an Alienware prebuilt, they're probably not the target audience for BYOPC.

At that point, it's better to go with somebody like Maingear, NZXT, or Starforge - they all use off-the-shelf parts, but you'll also pay more for the same specs as you'll get in a prebuilt from one of the big players.  I'd be willing to bet that for a similar price to what you'd pay them for the above system, you'd be able to get a 14" MBP with M3 Max - and then you'd be able to edit on the go too.  😉

[Emanuel]

47 minutes ago, eatstoomuchjam said:

I'd be willing to bet that for a similar price to what you'd pay them for the above system, you'd be able to get a 14" MBP with M3 Max - and then you'd be able to edit on the go too.  😉

It costs about a grand extra... (from the current discounted price today of $2900 for DELL desktop route)

https://www.pugetsystems.com/press/press-release-puget-systems-launches-new-laptops/

https://www.pugetsystems.com/workstations/laptops/c17-g/

 

source

[eatstoomuchjam]

8 hours ago, Emanuel said:

It costs about a grand extra... (from the current discounted price today of $2900 for DELL desktop route)

You misunderstood me because I phrased it poorly.  I was saying that the prices from the builders like NZXT are going to be higher than Dell's prices, to the point where the MBP is a lot closer.  😃

[Emanuel]

1 hour ago, eatstoomuchjam said:

You misunderstood me because I phrased it poorly.  I was saying that the prices from the builders like NZXT are going to be higher than Dell's prices, to the point where the MBP is a lot closer.  😃

I got it : ) A thousand dollars more you buy something to edit on the go.

IMHO that recent release above-mentioned is the best solution as of today.

Well, I am an usual suspect because I always praise mobile stuff as matter of fact :- )

[kye]

It's worth pointing out that the thermals might be the dominant factor here, considering that laptops will throttle down on their performance in order to manage overheating, so a few extra fans in the laptop can make more difference than which model of CPU / GPU you buy!

[ac6000cw]

7 hours ago, kye said:

It's worth pointing out that the thermals might be the dominant factor here, considering that laptops will throttle down on their performance in order to manage overheating, so a few extra fans in the laptop can make more difference than which model of CPU / GPU you buy!

I agree (as someone who has done all my editing for years on either gaming or workstation-class laptops). Generally, decent laptops in both of those categories should have cooling good enough for long-term high CPU and GPU loads, but you do need to choose carefully - and expect them to be noisy when they are working hard!

Also be careful when comparing desktop and laptop GPUs - they can have the same or very similar model numbers, but the laptop version might have different performance specs (and more aggressive thermal management) e.g. :

(info from Wikipedia) The desktop version of the nVidia Quadro RTX 4000 (100-125 watts Thermal Design Power):

...versus the mobile version (60-80 watts TDP):

[eatstoomuchjam]

If you're in the PC world, you're definitely better off editing on desktop vs laptop if you're working with high-res footage or doing effects, etc.  Most laptops throttle down a lot when not plugged in and (in my experience) make a jet engine noise when dealing with a prolonged load on CPU/GPU.  And as ac6000cw says, the mobile GPU's are almost always lesser versions of their desktop counterparts.  Also when on battery, life tends to be very short because CPU/GPU pull a lot of power.

My M2 Max, on the other hand, can handle 8k Canon raw acceptably - and I got the weaker variant of it.  Performance is almost the same whether plugged in or on battery.  Fans do ramp up when working it hard (now that I've added denoising to most of the scenes that need it, the 14-minute short I'm currently working on/grading definitely has the fans running full blast when I run an export).  

Basically, in absolute performance numbers a high-end PC desktop will beat any Mac currently on the market and at a fraction of the cost of a Mac Studio ($3k for a decent Ryzen + RTX 4090!).  A top-of-the-line PC laptop plugged into the wall will also outperform the MBP in absolute numbers (except whoooooosh fan noise)...  but if you want to actually be mobile, the Mac is the hands-down winner.

 

[Emanuel]

Speaking of devil...

«The primary area where we found a notable difference between the 3D V-Cache processors was in thermals and power draw, where the X3D CPUs used around 30% less power and remained around 5-10 degrees Celsius cooler on our test benches.»

source

 

«(...) 7950x can actually support 192GB of RAM at the moment, with the possibility of supporting 256GB RAM soon (BIOS updates are already out)»

source

 

So, any doubts on the best processor out there? ;- )

[Emanuel]

Well, not exactly the fastest...

https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i9-14900KS-vs-AMD-Ryzen-9-7950X3D/m2295306vsm2052977

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/intel-core-i9-14900ks-content-creation-review/

Except for RAW though:

[eatstoomuchjam]

My guess is that the difference in actual user experience of a system receiving a 923 and one receiving 893 will be negligible.  Between the two, I'd choose the one where I get a better deal.

[Emanuel]

And not only RAW, Quick Sync (hardware decoding of H.264/HEVC media) supplied by Intel takes a lead AFAIK :- )