I need a lap top that will be able to run the following.

- Canon Consule (capturing direct to laptop) from XLH1

- Adobe Premiere CS3 with Cineform Prospect HD

- Adobe After Effects

Perhaps I could add an external Blue Ray later. However, I could always transfer my mastered video to my editing PC to author the blue ray DVD's.

See below.

Extensa Laptop 1.9GHz 2GB 160GB DL DVDRW WiFi

Processor Brand: AMD
Processor: AMD Turion(TM) 64 X2
Processor Speed: 1.9GHz
Display Type: WXGA widescreen LCD with CrystalBrite technology (1280 x 800)
Screen Size: 15.4"
System Bus: Up to 1600MHz
Cache Memory: 512KB + 512KB at die Level 2
System Memory (RAM): 2GB
Type of Memory (RAM): PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM
Hard Drive Type: Serial ATA (5400 rpm)
Hard Drive Size: 160GB
Optical Drive: Double-layer DVDRW/CD-RW
Digital Media Reader or Slots: Yes, digital media card reader
Graphics: ATI RADEON X1250
Video Memory: Up to 896MB HyperMemory
MPEG: Yes
Modem: 56 Kbps* ITU V.92
Networking: Built-in 10/100/1000Base-T Ethernet LAN (RJ-45 connector)
Wireless Networking: Built-in high-speed wireless LAN (802.11b/g)
S-Video Outputs: 1
Speakers: Built-in Acer 3DSonic stereo speakers
PCMCIA Slots: 1 ExpressCard/54
USB 2.0 Ports: 4
IEEE 1394 FireWire Ports: 1

I really could use some advice here. This will not be my primary video editing machine. I'd like to use it with Console + edit a bit while I travel.

Thanks...

Most of the specifications aren't relevant. Those that count are the processor, RAM and hard drive.

Your processor and RAM look fine.

I would get an external hard drive, though, to keep your videos from cluttering/fragmenting the internal system drive.

With one FireWire port, I would choose a USB2.0 external drive to keep the FireWire port free strictly for the camcorder.

John-

Thanks I appreciate it. If I were to use an external hard drive via USB-2 would it keep up with Premiere CS3 editing?

Also- pardon my lack of computer knowledge... would I be able to connect an external Blue-ray DVD burner at some point?

Thanks again!

Tim

During the editing itself - i.e., when you are actively doing stuff at the keyboard - it won't matter much. During rendering/previewing, it *might*. If the rendering etc is pushing both processor cores to the max (i.e., Premiere shows up as using nearly 100% in Task Manager) then the number crunching is the bottleneck. If the processor useage is much less then it indicates a different bottleneck such as the reading to/writing from disk.

You could copy your active files to the internal drive for editing and render out to the external as well as store all the source files you aren't using on the external drive.

I don't know about the Blu-Ray - what interface does it have?

Ok..

Here are the specs... link

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=7812646#Specifications

I'm still trying to determine if I could use an external blue-ray burner at a later date.

Thanks again!

A burner like this:

http://www.lacie.com/us/products/product.htm?pid=11054

should be fine (it has both USB2.0 and FireWire options).

Whether it will work directly with your software depends on the software.

External Blu-Ray burners seem to be a very rare and expensive commodity right now.

John.

John-

Thanks again for your help. I'm not sure if I'll ever use a Blue-Ray burner with this laptop. It looks like I could possibly do so if I go down that road.

This burner is a bit pricey...

Thanks again. I really appreciate your help.

Tim