CS5 on a Laptop/Desktop Replacement
 

I need to get a portable editing solution up and running to complement my workstation.

Is anybody using any of these who can give me feedback on how well they work with Premiere and After Effects CS5? Specifically I am looking for views on how well the Mercury Playback Engine works on them, and how comfortable realtime editing of HDV and EXCAM HD footage is.

Sony Vaio F Series - GeForce GT 330M i7-740QM 8GB RAM

Dell Precision M6500 - Quadro FX 2800M i7-820QM 16GB RAM

Sager NP9285 - Quadro FX3800 i7-960 Processor 12 GB RAM

Clevo 910 - GTX480M i7-970 Processor 12 GB RAM

All these systems have Nvidia graphics card with 1GB+ memory so should run MPE. I am a bit lost as to whether I should be looking for faster processor (the latter two have desktop processors but weigh 6 kilos!) or more RAM. All have eSATA port and I have external eSATA raid so not too worried about disk I/O speed.

If a laptop has an HDMI port, can you configure Premiere CS5 to play the program monitor out to a display via the HDMI port?


Or indeed any other laptop/desktop replacement solution.

Many thanks

Mark

AFAIK Sager is the only one with up to three internal disks and for that reason would have my preference.

Thanks for your reply, Harm. Interesting that that should be a priority. Since they all have eSATA connectors and I have an eSATA external RAID I'd imagined that the disk performance would be the same. Do you think, Harm, that in this case internal is better than external? The Sager and the Clevo both have three discs, but they max out at 12GB RAM. They also come with hex core chip options. Is 12GB enough for a hex core chip with HT?

Performance wise there is no difference between internal SATA disks or external eSATA disks. However there must be a reason to opt for a laptop, even if it is only luggable. Portability for instance. eSATA raid means you need another wall outlet and extra cables to attach and that may be a drawback for portability. Hence my remark.

12 GB is around the practical minimum. We have seen that increasing memory to more than 12 GB gives a significant performance boost with MPEG2 encoding.

All hexcores perform significantly better than quadcores and HT makes a difference too. The reason that my preference would be the Sager is the large degree to which one can build a system to meet ones needs, I admit OTOH that I'm not familiar with the Clevo.

clevo is the company that makes the sagers.
sager is the best known reseller of clevo laptops.
other popular clevo resellers are deviltech, kobaltpc, etc

get a sager 8850

i think it can have a max of 12gig ram
it comes with a 480m gpu and i suggest at least a 920/940 xm
ive used after effects and premiere pro cs5 with a 720qm cpu and its lacking in power for ae/ppro is your doing anything higher than standard def.

Thanks Robert and Harm,

Good to have some real-world experience.


I see that there's a Sager pretty high up the PPBM. Harm, is it possible for me to privately contact the owner of that device to find out the exact specs?

Cheers


Mark

Mark,

Since all submitted data are sent directly to Bill and he has all the mail addresses, I have forwarded your request to him. I assume he will contact 'Sager laptop 1' and ask him to either contact you or allow us to pass on his mail address.

Thanks Harm.

Bill must have my e-mail address too. My submission to the PPBM for CS5 was called Marx Edit. I'm sure Bill can put two and two together!

Cheers!

Mark

Mark,

I have contacted 'Sager Laptop 1' and asked him to contact you directly at your private mail address and to keep Bill Gehrke and myself informed.

Mind you, he is in a far away region and not always easy to contact, due to local circumstances, so you may have to exercise some patience.

Just to be sure it is correct, your address contains an 'x' right before the DOT?

Thanks Harm, contact made successfully. Thank you and Bill for doing that.

Cheers

Mark