Hardware question

[Eireann]

I'm looking at getting into color grading. This is something I know I can do. It also requires a much more powerful computer than the one I have now. I'm looking at 4TB SSDs, 16GB graphics cards, and muscular GPUs. What is the best hardware for such a computer? And what brands are at the top?

[RealUnimportant]

Something very expensive is the answer to all those questions, especially with LLMania driving the prices up and availability down. The obvious choice IMO would be a Mac Pro or a Mac Studio if you want something prebuilt, which is probably the simplest way to get something that can definitely run all industry software without having to mess with drivers or parts shortages. Pros start at 7k, Studios start at $2k but have a much wider variation of specs, and to get one equivalent to the basic Pro would be closer to $8k without the future expandability the Pro affords, and that's with the basic 4TB drives - if you're looking at this as a home working machine, you probably want to plan for far more than that, plus you'll need fiber internet to download and upload the files you'll be working on, if they're not just shipped to you on external drives to begin with, and of course your own software licences which can be in the hundreds per title. For a job that starts at $20/hr, you're looking at spending a good portion of a year's wage on this machine.

Do you have a decent portfolio of graphic art work and filming? Without rising through the industry ranks to get to this position, you'll need some knockout work.

[Eireann]

I don't use Macs. I'm looking at PCs. I've been looking at various recommendations, and there's some company that has a list of the best hardware. It looks like the SSD and the graphics card will cost the most; a PC case is more reasonable. And, of course, I'll need a motherboard and a good cooling unit. I have what I hope is a good portfolio of photo work.

[RealUnimportant]

If you don't want to work on the industry standard machine with some of the industry's favourite programs, it's going to be that big harder to get going, but anything can be done if you throw enough money at it.

Cases are always reasonable, they're just boxes. You'll also need RAM (which is also very expensive right now), a power supply, potentially a sound card (because even if you're only planning to do visual work, there may be sound cues to need to match events with, as well as all the other things a computer can be used for which use sound), a processor to go between the cooling unit and the motherboard, possibly high-speed USB and above ports to connect to external drives (motherboards tend to support the normal USB levels, but not so much Thunderbolt or other high speed, high data throughput connections), possibly a new monitor depending on the quality of your existing one - or even if you have one good one, you may need another, and both will need to be able to be calibrated to a high level and match the clients' setup. Your existing keyboard and mouse should be fine. And again, software licences.