advice on a new laptop to get?

SpiderMonkey

SpiderMonkey

alright well so far i have an asus with everything i need, sick, super fast, runs anyting i need.. but it just seems like its not going to hold up for very long for me.. people have told me asus breaks easily, it already does this wierd loud noise randomly when picked up, the mous freezes and ill have to such my laptop then bring it back up, and all this other stuff..

what other brands are good to get? i need one that can obviousl hold hd film, can run multiple programs at a time, good graphics card, ram, memory, all that, nd obviously something good editing on.. anything suggestions? i could always go the easy, save and effecient way with a mac, but i dot really want a mac..

my price range is around 1000 atm
 
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DDK said:
How are you finding Lion?
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I'm just getting used to it, but so far, it seems great to me. Love the workflow improvements, plus the gesture/swiping additions (all new since my last macbook). I did, however, revert back to the typical scrolling method -- the backwards setting really annoyed me. I can't say much about the whole OS yet... we'll see how it handles Motion, Color, and Final Cut Pro all running at the same time with iTunes playing in the background and web pages up streaming Youtube. :) I'll get back to you.
 
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freedom crusader said:
In your price range, you cannot get a very good video-editing machine.

Usually the best laptops for video editing will be very close to the best for gaming.

What I did is read the advice on the "videoguys" website.
First choice would be to have it made up DIY.
Second is to get an HP workstation, but this is way out of your price range.
Third choice is to get a Sager customized configuration, but this is minimum 1700 USD.
Fourth choice might be to look at the Sony WPCF1590X. With 10% discount discount coupon, this runs under 1300 USD.

With your budget, I would try to get the best B-stock (refurbished) model I could, with the strongest components in all the categories you need.

-You should try to get at least 500 GB hard drive with 7200 RPM
-Intel i7 chip or at least i5
-Windows 7 Professional 64-bit. (People say Windows 7 is worse than XP, but the latest software from most of the major companies will be compatible with products from all the other major companies.)
-very important is the graphics chip: best would be nVidia Quardro FX, but on some laptops it is not available. Upgrading a graphics chip costs HUNDREDS more.
- you probably want a blu-ray reader/burner. This will cost more but if you think you can get by with a DVD drive ok....

Another factor is who your intended market for video is and what their equipment is likely to be. Internet video cannot take High Definition at this point, so you don't need HD for internet.
Standard Definition is still broadcast quality for virtually all television, so you may not need HD depending on your market niche here.

Make sure the laptop has all the ports and capacity you need for the camera you have and the software you will be using. For example -- Sony Vegas editing software probably works best in a Sony machine. Some video cameras coming out now (like Canon XA10) may not have a firewire port, so you may not need this port on you computer. This means you can only transfer your raw footage by USB port, unless you record it onto SD card memory card and put the card into the SD port of your computer. Assuming your computer has SD memory card ports.

Some laptops may have an upper limit on memory card capacity they can handle. The Sony may only be able to take a maximum of 64GB SDXC card. But this card may cost 200 USD or more, so it might be cheaper to transfer the raw footage directly by USB cord from the built-in memory of the camera.
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thanks for that! the laptop i have now is pretty much a gaming computer..

it has 3 hard drives, not sure why.. one is 338gigs, the other two are each 232 gigs.. it has i7 and 8g ram, i hve windows 7, not sure what bit though, and an nvidia geforce gtx graphics card
 
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I understand some people like Mac but, it's definitely not for me.

You end up paying ALOT more for a Mac just for the name, and that's not me being biased it's true I've built PCs with nearly the same exact specs as Macs for much much cheaper.

In the end it's all personal preference, if you don't like Final Cut though, don't get a mac.

Asus is supposed to be good but I always seem to go with Dell.
 
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SpiderMonkey said:
thanks for that! the laptop i have now is pretty much a gaming computer..

it has 3 hard drives, not sure why.. one is 338gigs, the other two are each 232 gigs.. it has i7 and 8g ram, i hve windows 7, not sure what bit though, and an nvidia geforce gtx graphics card
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A Core i7 laptop with 8gigs of ram should run Premiere 5.5, um, acceptably. Runs fine on my e8400 based desktop with half that ram. It's no workstation to be sure, but it serves. Your HDD probably came with funky partitioning from the factory.

That sounds like a fairly new machine, what makes you want to replace it?
 
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AndrewLee said:
I understand some people like Mac but, it's definitely not for me.

You end up paying ALOT more for a Mac just for the name, and that's not me being biased it's true I've built PCs with nearly the same exact specs as Macs for much much cheaper.

In the end it's all personal preference, if you don't like Final Cut though, don't get a mac.

Asus is supposed to be good but I always seem to go with Dell.
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Spec wise sure Mac is no better and you do pay a big premium. The guts are the same now. But the build quality and styling is superior on a Mac. I have a 4 year old Dell and a 4 year old Macbook, guts are about the same but the Dell is junk, the screen flops around, keys stick, it's junk and it's ugly, while the Macbook keep ticking. If you go on the web, the Mac OS is still pretty much virus proof.

But it all comes down to software. Windows supports a lot more softwares.
 
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David.rhsc said:
A Core i7 laptop with 8gigs of ram should run Premiere 5.5, um, acceptably. Runs fine on my e8400 based desktop with half that ram. It's no workstation to be sure, but it serves. Your HDD probably came with funky partitioning from the factory.

That sounds like a fairly new machine, what makes you want to replace it?
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because from the looks of it asus didnt seem to be the most reliable.. it came with a problem from the start which is this weird really loud noise when the laptop is shut, dont know what causees it but its randomly from the way it is sitting on a desk or something.. ill hve to film it to show everyone..

should i get premium over sony vegas? i hear alot of people talking about premium lately...

oh and i found otu that my asus is 64 bit :)
 
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If you have a laptop, you probably don't actually have 3 hard drives in it, but one hard drive that is partitioned (so the system thinks there are three). There are lots of reasons for doing that, although 2 partitions is more common than 3. Anyway, that's beside the point.

A windows laptop will always be cheaper than a Mac. A desktop will always be cheaper than a laptop. Any reason you want a laptop? You can get far more power for the price if you switch to a desktop.

Once upon a time, if you wanted to do media work, mac was the way to go. The software was just better (though for that matter, once upon a time you wanted to go AMIGA). This is no longer the case; often the software is the same or equivalent. I haven't used a recent MacOS, but Win7 isn't that bad, particularly after you shut all the RAM-sucking crap off. We're looking at you, Aero desktop. Hell, these days you can do decent stuff in Linux; I know we've got a few users here on the boards (who may remember the awful *nix media software of 10 years ago, unless you ran BeOS). It really is a matter of personal preference these days.

Oh, as an aisde: you can probably do some system tweaks and/or optimization and get the system you have working for basic editing. Maybe spend some money on upgrading your RAM, an external drive, etc. Unless your computer is seriously bricked right now, you can get some more mileage out of it!
 
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brianluce said:
Spec wise sure Mac is no better and you do pay a big premium. The guts are the same now. But the build quality and styling is superior on a Mac. I have a 4 year old Dell and a 4 year old Macbook, guts are about the same but the Dell is junk, the screen flops around, keys stick, it's junk and it's ugly, while the Macbook keep ticking. If you go on the web, the Mac OS is still pretty much virus proof.

But it all comes down to software. Windows supports a lot more softwares.
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I actually have used both quite extensively for video editing and to tell you the truth I don't really mind either. Windows has the lovely problem of crashing randomly which I don't seem to get on Mac, but I find PCs easier to use. I could go on all day on the pros and cons of each, but the only thing that keeps me away from buying a Mac myself is a combination of the price, and the fact that I don't JUST use my computer for video editing, I play games etc on it.

To each his own I guess :D
 
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SpiderMonkey said:
because from the looks of it asus didnt seem to be the most reliable.. it came with a problem from the start which is this weird really loud noise when the laptop is shut, dont know what causees it but its randomly from the way it is sitting on a desk or something.. ill hve to film it to show everyone..

should i get premium over sony vegas? i hear alot of people talking about premium lately...

oh and i found otu that my asus is 64 bit :)
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Spec-wise your laptop is fine. The noise is most like fan related, which is a minor issue. I suppose it is possible that it is drive noise, but that shouldn't be limited to only when it is closed. Frankly, neither should fan noise, but fan noise is usually more likely. Do you have any tech savvy friends? By that I mean, who is your go-to guy that builds his own computers and baffles you with excited talk of multi-threading, SLI, and so on? If you have one, have them check out the noise.

Software wise, work with whatever makes you comfortable. I will say that performance wise, Premiere's latest version wins, hands down. FCP has to play multi-core catchup now, and I don't know where Vegas stands on that at the moment. But Premiere 5.5 is head and shoulders beyond the previous version in performance.

I will say though, that as a stand-alone product, one looses some of the interoperability that comes with the "production premium" or other "Suite" versions. So that may be a deciding factor.

Your computer is definitely 64bit, as it is a Core i7 CPU. The question is which flavor of Windows did they shackle you with when you bought it? Win7 Ultimate 64 Bit, if you can get your hands on it, is the way to go. Don't settle for all those shitty home versions.

Also, don't believe the Mac hype. They're fine machines, but as an IT pro for 12 years I saw them crash and break plenty. The early iMacs had a greater than 25% failure rate on the power/analogue boards that drove the built in CRTs. Literally. More than 1 in 4 sold would fail within their warranty period. And when they do fail, the process of getting them fixed is draconian at best, inspired by Dali at the worst. Finally, anyone using OSX who claims they've never had a kernel fault is either lying to you or using hyperbole to prove a point. :) Hell, one place I worked there was a graphic designer who would call the help desk because of a crash, then sit there and try to tell me how much better her mac was and how they never broke while I was working on fixing the problem.

All computers crash; all hardware eventually fails. One is Ford, the other is Chevy. Pick one you like. :D
 
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David.rhsc said:
Spec-wise your laptop is fine. The noise is most like fan related, which is a minor issue. I suppose it is possible that it is drive noise, but that shouldn't be limited to only when it is closed. Frankly, neither should fan noise, but fan noise is usually more likely. Do you have any tech savvy friends? By that I mean, who is your go-to guy that builds his own computers and baffles you with excited talk of multi-threading, SLI, and so on? If you have one, have them check out the noise.

Software wise, work with whatever makes you comfortable. I will say that performance wise, Premiere's latest version wins, hands down. FCP has to play multi-core catchup now, and I don't know where Vegas stands on that at the moment. But Premiere 5.5 is head and shoulders beyond the previous version in performance.

I will say though, that as a stand-alone product, one looses some of the interoperability that comes with the "production premium" or other "Suite" versions. So that may be a deciding factor.

Your computer is definitely 64bit, as it is a Core i7 CPU. The question is which flavor of Windows did they shackle you with when you bought it? Win7 Ultimate 64 Bit, if you can get your hands on it, is the way to go. Don't settle for all those shitty home versions.

Also, don't believe the Mac hype. They're fine machines, but as an IT pro for 12 years I saw them crash and break plenty. The early iMacs had a greater than 25% failure rate on the power/analogue boards that drove the built in CRTs. Literally. More than 1 in 4 sold would fail within their warranty period. And when they do fail, the process of getting them fixed is draconian at best, inspired by Dali at the worst. Finally, anyone using OSX who claims they've never had a kernel fault is either lying to you or using hyperbole to prove a point. :) Hell, one place I worked there was a graphic designer who would call the help desk because of a crash, then sit there and try to tell me how much better her mac was and how they never broke while I was working on fixing the problem.

All computers crash; all hardware eventually fails. One is Ford, the other is Chevy. Pick one you like. :D
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hha thank you all for the info and advice, i actually did fix the noise problem. it was feedback on one of the mics so i disabled that one for now, or just muted it.. it was the webam mic so no use for it atm.. ill probbly stay with this laptop i do like it alot.. and i picked a laptop over desktop because i do also game on it nd sht and i always bring it to my friends houses to edit with them show what i have, or just go hard on a computer game haha.. always feels good to have my own laptop with me... even if this thing is massive haha..

right now i dont think i need to get new ram or anything, it did come pretty set with wht i need and runs everything really smoothly, with a few "not responding" things from vegas but i thik thats because its a torrent :x


oh and idk if my laptop is "win7 ultimate 64bit".. but i know it is windows 7 and it is 64 bit..

i might try out premium 5.5 though, does it have like alot of effects and shi? like compared to vegas.. personally vegas is sooooo easy to use for me, but it seems like it lacks a little on the special effets nd transitions you can do, especialy with text, no idea how to do good text
 
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