iMac Mid 2017 4K - does it work with Final Cut Pro X perfectly?

I second everything Martin says as I have a 27" 2017 iMac which works perfectly with FCP using 1080 and 4K footage.

Nine months ago I bought a NEW base model Mac mini M2 (£580) which blows the iMac out of the water. It's 2 - 3 times faster than the iMac and will be able to accept new Operating Systems for years to come.

You will need a mouse, keyboard and monitor which do not need to be Apple.

A wireless mouse and keyboard can be had for under £20 and a 27" monitor will set you back about £110.

The 256 GB SSD is too small for serious editing so you can add a 1 TB SSD with USB connection for £60 - £80.

So the total cost will be around £780 assuming you don't have any of the peripherals already but you will be getting brand new guaranteed equipment as opposed to outdated stuff of dubious quality.

The iMac itself should be fine for running FCPX ... today ... but not tomorrow.

The issues as I see them include -

• A mid-2017 iMac is capped out at Ventura. You will be locked out of future macOS upgrades and probably future FCPX upgrades.
• It's an Intel iMac ... and fine as they are, we are already at year 4 of Apple Silicon. We are already seeing macOS features that are unavailable on Intel Macs.
• It has a 500GB HDD ... that's a small HDD for working with video and you may be underwhelmed by its performance even if your video is not 'choppy or laggy'
• Although FCPX currently requires Ventura 13.5, it won't be long before you won't be able to purchase it unless you are on Sonoma or Sequoia ... and this machine can't run Sonoma or Sequoia. You would need to buy & install asap.
• A 21.5" iMac is small for editing video. You will be far better off with a 27" or larger screen

I would not buy this machine if I wanted to edit video with FCPX. It is, sadly, obsolete for that use case.

Hi,

You should get 2018 or later model of iMac since you can upgrade to MacOS Sonoma or coming soon Sequoia.

The latest version of Final Cut Pro is version 10.8, by the way.