Buying a new PC for editing could be one of the most expensive purchases you make this year, so getting it right and choosing the best tool for the job is extremely important. Many professional photographers and editors end up being overwhelmed at the sheer amount of choice available when it comes to choosing a PC and end up retreating to the relative simplicity a Mac Pro affords, when in reality this usually isn’t the best option for them. The Mac Pro is still using technology forged in 2013. When compared to the latest Intel “Skylake X” and “Coffee Lake” architectures employed in Chillblast PCs, this leaves much to be desired.
An entry level Mac Pro costing £700 more than Chillblast’s flagship Photo OC VIII PC-based system offers half of the performance in video editing and rendering, and 50% less performance in Photoshop or Lightroom.
Fusion Photo OC Lite IV
With two simple systems in the range, choosing a Chillblast photo editing PC is no more difficult than choosing a Mac. Those looking for an affordable solution are well served by the £1500 Photo OC Lite IV. This system certainly isn’t light in specification, with the brand brand new six-cored Intel Core i7-8700K CPU, 16GB of 2400MHz DDR4 RAM, an NVIDA GeForce GTX 1050 video card and an ultra-fast 256GB M.2 solid state drive. Technical gobbledegook aside, that adds up to a system that’s up to 40% faster than the Mac Pro and costs half as much.
Fusion Photo OC IX
Upping the budget brings the Fusion Photo OC IX into contention. This system has double the cores of a “normal” Core i7 computer and that makes it a monster for both photo and video editing workloads. It serves up rendering and video editing performance almost double that of the £3000 Mac Pro, yet costs £700 less.
As well as great performance, a great operating system underpins modern Chillblast PCs. Windows 10 is every bit the match of Mac OS when it comes to stability, security and speed, yet offers a vastly larger software library and enhanced convenience thanks to features like Cortana personal assistant, biometric logins and better multitasking features. And yes, the start menu is back.
All Chillblast workstations are underpinned by the industry’s best warranty; a 5 year package with 2 years collect and return and lifetime UK-based phone support, so if you need a little help in your transition to the Windows platform, Chillblast is ready to lend a hand.
Mac Vs PC in numbers
It is easy to be drawn in by the svelte lines of the Mac Pro, but underpinning this unquestionably attractive PC lies PC architecture several generations behind the Chillblast Photo OC VIII.
| Mac Pro | Chillblast Photo OC VIII | Difference | |
| CPU Cores | 6 x Intel “Ivy Bridge-E” Cores (2013 Spec) | 8 x 2019 Spec Intel “Skylake X” Cores (2019 Spec) | Up to 40% faster |
| CPU Clock Speed | 3.5GHz | 4.3GHz | 23% |
| Memory | 16GB | 32GB | 100% more |
| Storage | 256GB SSD | 256GB SSD + 6TB | 6TB Additional |
| Graphics | 2 x AMD Firepro D500 3GB | 1 x GeForce GTX 1060 6GB | 4x faster |
| Cost | £3000 | £2300 | £700 cheaper |
| Relative Adobe Photoshop performance (transform, resize, filter, edit batch run) | 33s | 22s | 50% faster |
| Relative Blender performance | 501s | 255s | 96% faster |
The Apple system even compares poorly to the entry level Chillblast photo editing option which costs half as much.
| Mac Pro | Chillblast Photo OC Lite IV | Difference | |
| CPU Cores | 6 x Intel “Ivy Bridge-E” Cores (2013 Spec) | 6 x 2019 Spec Intel “Coffee Lake” Cores (2019 Spec) | Up to 25% faster |
| CPU Clock Speed | 3.5GHz | 4.8GHz | 37% faster |
| Memory | 16GB 1866MHz | 16GB 2400MHz | 29% faster |
| Storage | 256GB SSD | 256GB SSD + 2TB | 2TB Additional |
| Graphics | 2 x AMD Firepro D500 3GB | 1 x GeForce GTX 1050 2GB | 2x faster |
| Cost | £3000 | £1500 | £1500 cheaper |
| Relative Adobe Photoshop performance (transform, resize, filter, edit batch run) | 33s | 26s | 26% faster |
| Relative Blender performance | 501s | 357 | 40% faster |
More resources
Check out this article for a look at the best PCs for game development!
