Laptop: i5 + nVidia or i7 without nVidia?

[Colin Rowe]

Hey, your probably right, device manager shows 4 processors, Edius sees 4 logical processors when booting up, but I dont know what the heck all that means. All I know is that this very cheap laptop, with basic graphics edits all the footage I throw at. XDCam EX, AVCHD, 1080/50p, Multicam. The cheapest edit system I have ever purchased.

[Randall Leong]

Here's the problem:

Windows Device Manager and Task Manager make absolutely no distinction whatsoever between a quad-core CPU with no hyperthreading ans a dual-core CPU with hyperthreading. Only the system properties will tell you the exact model of the CPU that's installed in that system.

[Colin Rowe]

Guys, as I said above, I dont have a heck of a clue what it all means, and to be honest dont really care. My point to the OP was simply that he doesnt need to spend a fortune on a laptop that will fulfil his requirements.

[Randall Leong]

Originally Posted by Colin Rowe

Guys, as I said above, I dont have a heck of a clue what it all means, and to be honest dont really care. My point to the OP was simply that he doesnt need to spend a fortune on a laptop that will fulfil his requirements.

Agree in general although one should keep in mind that even the fastest laptop is about three to four times slower than a fast desktop.

[Tim Kolb]

The one thing I'd add to all this is don't under estimate the effect of being pinched for RAM...and 8 GB can be a little tight...my Lenovo 520 has 16 GB (quad core HT i7, Quadro 2000M).

The other specs are important too, but RAM gets overlooked quite often. One of the most effective ways to "stretch" an otherwise limited system is to add RAM.

[Sareesh Sudhakaran]

Originally Posted by Chris Estrella

Hi guys,

I have a small budget for a decent laptop that will act as my secondary editing machine (I have a good desktop to take care of the heavy work), and I'm hoping you guys can help me out

I've narrowed my choices to these two laptops (they're both Dell Vostro's...don't shoot me for being cheap,hehe):

1) Intel 3rd gen i5-3230M with nVidia Geforce GT 630M
2) Intel 3rd gen i7-3632QM with AMD Radeon 7670M (unfortunately no nVidia option)

Given that I can "hack" the 630M to work with GPU acceleration (or so I've read...please correct me if I'm wrong), which option would be better for using Premiere? I have yet to use Adobe Premiere so I don't really know how much GPU acceleration will benefit me.

If you're not doing any rendering work, the i5 should be good enough. I have edited DSLR projects on an old (now dead) Acer Core 2 Duo laptop with 4GB and a non-CUDA graphics card.

I used a thumb drive as cache/temp and my source footage was on an external drive, both connected by USB 2.0.

Having said that, if you can afford i7, go for it. The processor counts big time. For basic editing work, the Mercury Playback engine is good to have, but not essential. If you don't mind a little bit of lag here and there you'll be okay.

Remember, many people edit on NLEs without the Mercury Playback engine or GPU acceleration.

Price is of course a factor, and the i7 is of course more expensive. However, with the price difference (about $200), I would upgrade the i5 machine to get an SSD and up the RAM to 8GB. The i7 model already has 8GB but no SSD.

Thanks in advance for your inputs.

An SSD for DSLR work is overkill, in my opinion. It's not a necessity. If I were really desperate I'd look at an i7 with 8 GB RAM and forget the SSD and GPU.

I'd also try to get hold of legacy software, like CS3 or CS4 (if you're not round-tripping projects between your desktop - if that's running CS6, etc.) to edit because they are 'lighter' on your system. In the same vein, I'd also erase all proprietary software that Dell will throw into it and start afresh with Windows 7 64-bit (or the 8 GB would be useless).

Once you make this pay, you can always upgrade to a faster system. Hope this helps.

[Tim Kolb]

"I'd also try to get hold of legacy software, like CS3 or CS4 (if you're not round-tripping projects between your desktop - if that's running CS6, etc.) to edit because they are 'lighter' on your system. "

Um...no, that would -not- be a good idea editing ANY H264-based footage.

First off, PPro CS3 and 4 are both 32 bit programs...less access to RAM...less power to get anything done, particularly using any H264 format.

Second...and most importantly...if you are editing H264 DSLR footage and intend to do that natively, using a version of the software that was released before DSLR video existed...simply won't work. You would have to convert all your footage to CineForm or some other intermediate format to edit it on a version of Premiere Pro that was released 5-6 years ago.

[Sareesh Sudhakaran]

Originally Posted by Tim Kolb

Um...no, that would -not- be a good idea editing ANY H264-based footage.

First off, PPro CS3 and 4 are both 32 bit programs...less access to RAM...less power to get anything done, particularly using any H264 format.

Good point, Tim. I missed that.

Second...and most importantly...if you are editing H264 DSLR footage and intend to do that natively, using a version of the software that was released before DSLR video existed...simply won't work.

I've edited H.264 from Canon DSLRs natively on CS3 without any problems whatsoever.

There's a reason Adobe decided to give away CS2 free instead of CS3. :)

[Tim Kolb]

You would be the first person I've heard of that considers editing DSLR (or AVCHD, or POV camera footage...all H264 based) in CS3 to be acceptable. Most seem to struggle to make it work without transcoding to an intermediate codec like CineForm.

[Chris Estrella]

Feel free to continue the conversation guys, but I've decided on my laptop :)

ASUS G75VW
17.3" @ 1980x1080
i7-3610M
12GB RAM (4 slots!)
750GB hybrid drive + 750GB 7200rpm drive (yes, dual bay HDD's in a laptop!)
nVidia GTX 670M

The only drawback is that I got an earlier version that doesn't have thunderbolt. It would have been a huuuge plus to have TB, but I will be using my second HDD as my scratch disk and swap out projects as necessary.

Yes, I've upped my budget quite a bit to make my original questions obsolete, but thanks to everyone who provided their input. I sure am glad I stayed away from those Dells!

[Kyle Root]

Chris, How's your laptop working out?

I'm needing to upgrade my old Dell Inspirion laptop from 2007 which was great for SD, but can not handle HD.

I've been needing to upgrade for a while but have put it off because I haven't been doing much editing during the day (I have a day job and used to edit during my lunch hour on my laptop)... but now I've got quite a few projects and it would be nice to be able to do some rough cuts, review footage, do basic design stuff...

Thanks for the info! Looks like a nice laptop you got. I'm probably going to a 15.6" one just for size purposes.

[Robert Baynosa]

congrats on your laptop chris. the asus is a nice piece of hw indeed.
the lenovo y580 you mentioned is also a great laptop.
but my preference goes to sager:
XOTICPC | Sager NP9150 (Clevo P150EM)

i prefer 15.6 for portability. and i like the customizability options of sager. some people have used this with a 3940xm overclockable cpu/680m gpu (top of the line for mobile) or a k3000m quadro if you so choose. you can also swap out the dvd/bd player for an hdd caddy to add a third (sata 3). couple that with 32gb ram and a 95% color gamut, anti glare screen plus excellent copper cooling allowing you to overclock your components; and you have a portable workstation.

[Ann Bens]

Originally Posted by Sareesh Sudhakaran

Good point, Tim. I missed that.

There's a reason Adobe decided to give away CS2 free instead of CS3. :)

Adobe shut down the activation computers for CS2. So its actually not free, but for people who have bought the program to continue without have to activate.

[Ann Bens]

Originally Posted by Tim Kolb

You would be the first person I've heard of that considers editing DSLR (or AVCHD, or POV camera footage...all H264 based) in CS3 to be acceptable. Most seem to struggle to make it work without transcoding to an intermediate codec like CineForm.

CS3 cant even import avchd, many people used Cineform instead.
CS4 is a well known fact it cannot handle h.264 in a mov wrapper properlly.