Laptop Suggestions for Video Editing

Hey, recently i've really gotten into editing videos and gameplays and I need a better laptop that can handle HD video footage. I will hopefully be using the newest version of sony vegas... I've heard that Macs are best for editing video footage, but i'd really like to get a good laptop that could handle some games like Starcraft 2. Naturally, it's going to need a large hard drive. i suppose i could upgrade it later, but i'd really like to just start out with a larger one, hahha. Any suggestions? Oh and my price range is anything below $1200. Thanks everyone

Anything with a quadcore, lots of RAM, and a fast hard drive. That also means such a laptop will have lousy battery times. ASUS should have a quadcore version in its G series which have 8800GT level GPUs and 7200rpm hard drives.

I honestly don't know much about computers and stuff. what amount of ram are you talking?

I honestly don't know much about computers and stuff. what amount of ram are you talking?

Basher9

6 GB should be fine. Here's what I'd recommend short of an Alienware lappy:

ASUS G73JH-RBBX05 at Best Buy for $1300

and benchmarks:

ATI Mobility 5870 at notebookcheck.com

Battery life is pretty lousy at 2 hrs, 27 min max. But considering what you want to do with it, it's going to end up being plugged in most of the time anyway and you might have a big external monitor hooked up. The GPU is almost as quick as my desktop HD 5770.

I personally like this one. The only one I'd like better is a laptop with a GTX 460M at the same price or cheaper.

Thanks so much for the help. There is one more thing though.... this laptop will have to last me through college and i'm not sure it would be a good idea to have such short battery life if i am going to need it for class.... Are there any other laptops that will allow me better battery life? From what i read about the one you recommended, it seems like it's a bit of overkill hahaha. I have heard good things about that new Optimus technology (Nvidia?). Any other suggestions?

Hey, recently i've really gotten into editing videos and gameplays and I need a better laptop that can handle HD video footage. I will hopefully be using the newest version of sony vegas... I've heard that Macs are best for editing video footage, but i'd really like to get a good laptop that could handle some games like Starcraft 2. Naturally, it's going to need a large hard drive. i suppose i could upgrade it later, but i'd really like to just start out with a larger one, hahha. Any suggestions? Oh and my price range is anything below $1200. Thanks everyone

Basher9

You can play SC2 on the mac...

@Urworstnhtmare: yeah, but i just don't like macs in general. I'd much rather go with a pcBasher9

Ok. Just checking you knew...

Thanks so much for the help. There is one more thing though.... this laptop will have to last me through college and i'm not sure it would be a good idea to have such short battery life if i am going to need it for class.... Are there any other laptops that will allow me better battery life? From what i read about the one you recommended, it seems like it's a bit of overkill hahaha. I have heard good things about that new Optimus technology (Nvidia?). Any other suggestions?

Basher9

It is an overkill for regular uses. But, for video-editing, there's no such thing as overkill for video-editing and gaming. Transcoding video will suck up all the CPU power you can throw at it, especially HD footage. Games usually stress the GPU as well. The best compromise would be similar to the dual GPU approach the MacBook Pros use buth with a beefier discrete GPU for the gaming part.

Me personally, I'd have that ASUS plugged in all the time when gaming or doing some video-editing and go with a separate netbook for classes.

Yeah that would be ideal if i could get the money, haha. How about this one? It seems powerful enough and i really like it. the only thing is that it only has 4 GB RAM. Still good enough? http://www.amazon.com/N71JQ-X1-17-3-Inch-Versatile-Entertainment-Laptop/dp/tech-data/B00352LR0M/ref=de_a_smtd

Thanks, hahah, this will probably be my last question, haha.

If you're worried about video editing ask yourself one question. Do I need it to be portable?

If you're worried about video editing ask yourself one question. Do I need it to be portable?

Chopmo81

I guess not necessarily but seeing how i will have to get a laptop in the near future anyway, i thought it would be cost effective.... how much would i be looking at if i went with a desk top for video editing?

[QUOTE="Chopmo81"]

If you're worried about video editing ask yourself one question. Do I need it to be portable?

Basher9

I guess not necessarily but seeing how i will have to get a laptop in the near future anyway, i thought it would be cost effective.... how much would i be looking at if i went with a desk top for video editing?

A desktop will be more cost effective. You should also ask yourself if you can build one. You're asking how much it would cost, well I suppose you should ask yourself how powerful you want it to be. Then down the road get a laptop that doesn't have all the power if you need portability.

Thanks so much for the help. There is one more thing though.... this laptop will have to last me through college and i'm not sure it would be a good idea to have such short battery life if i am going to need it for class.... Are there any other laptops that will allow me better battery life? From what i read about the one you recommended, it seems like it's a bit of overkill hahaha. I have heard good things about that new Optimus technology (Nvidia?). Any other suggestions?

Basher9

Honestly, I'm even more torn on what to do than i was when i started. It doesn't help that I know very little about computers in general. I'm thinking it may be a better solution to get a nice desktop and then a cheaper notebook for college. Are dorms in college big enough to fit a desktop in? And what would be a good desktop purchase if i decided to go with one? I hate to sound like some undecided fool but I'm spending all my money on this and i really don't want to regret this. Any more help or are you guys sick me yet? haha....

Honestly, I'm even more torn on what to do than i was when i started. It doesn't help that I know very little about computers in general. I'm thinking it may be a better solution to get a nice desktop and then a cheaper notebook for college. Are dorms in college big enough to fit a desktop in? And what would be a good desktop purchase if i decided to go with one? I hate to sound like some undecided fool but I'm spending all my money on this and i really don't want to regret this. Any more help or are you guys sick me yet? haha....

Basher9

Well you shouldn't have a problem with a desktop in a dorm. If your not into building a computer shop around. Depending on your budget i'd go with about 6 gigs of ram, core i5, i7 processor and a decent video card. Great thing about this it'll double as a gaming machine.

I'd also go with a netbook for portability for school. Netbooks have great battery life. If you went for all this in a laptop you'd only have an hour or so of battery life.

Honestly, I'm even more torn on what to do than i was when i started. It doesn't help that I know very little about computers in general. I'm thinking it may be a better solution to get a nice desktop and then a cheaper notebook for college. Are dorms in college big enough to fit a desktop in? And what would be a good desktop purchase if i decided to go with one? I hate to sound like some undecided fool but I'm spending all my money on this and i really don't want to regret this. Any more help or are you guys sick me yet? haha....

Basher9

That's the thing with laptops. Battery power and performance don't mix. If you want long battery power, forget about heavy gaming. Starcraft 2 would fall under heavy gaming based on the recommended specs for it. Video-editing is a heavy duty application. You don't want the battery to run out of juice while transferring a video from the camera to the hard drive. From my travels both domestic and abroad, I always ended up transferring video from the camera to the laptop only when both are plugged in to wall outlets.

If you do take up video-editing classes find out exactly what you need first, what's provided and what's not. The instructors would know. Chances are you'll need a beefy laptop anyway unless all the computers are provided in class. More than likely you'll have an outlet available to plug it in. There really isn't a one-size-fits-all solution yet. You'll have to compromise performance for battery life or go with a beefy laptop/desktop pc (performance) + netbook (long battery life) solution.

Desktops definitely more cost effective, agreed. I'm from Australia so im not sure about parts over there, although i have seen a lot of forum builds and such with US parts, i reckon you could get an i7 860 or i7 930 (hyperthreaded for video encoding), or i5 750 (all of these are quad cores)... or a x6 1055t or x6 1090t, these are all the fastest for your budget for video editing, and all overkill for gaming. And with the left over money you could get a video card, say a 5850/5770/gtx 460/gtx 470/5870, ...please specify what resolution you wish to play your games at. Also in future i don't recommend posting these sort of threads on gamespot, but a computer site forum, tomshwardware, guru3d and such, they actually give out specific build advice, instead of vaguish advice like this :(. However this would go over $1000 with periphirals i reckon, so feel free to downgrade whatever you like.

Check out this thread:

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1512716

If you do go the i5 option, 6GB isnt an option, it actually makes it slower (due to channels or such), however for i7, yes go 6GB

Also in future i don't recommend posting these sort of threads on gamespot, but a computer site forum, tomshwardware, guru3d and such, they actually give out specific build advice, instead of vaguish advice like this :(.

iliuminator

Ok, most certainly the desktop. The one im on right now is horrendus. Absolutely horrendus. So.... what I'm hearing is to get an i5 or i7. I have no skill in building these and i don't want to mess around with installing the OS and stuff. So preconstructed. and then i want a good video card (again, any suggestions would be good) and at least 6gb RAM. The best thing would be if i could get suggestions of retail desktops that would work for me rather than having to pick out everything seperately. Anything under $1300 would be great. Thanks so much guys, i honestly didn't think anyone would actually care, hahah

Ok, most certainly the desktop. The one im on right now is horrendus. Absolutely horrendus. So.... what I'm hearing is to get an i5 or i7. I have no skill in building these and i don't want to mess around with installing the OS and stuff. So preconstructed. and then i want a good video card (again, any suggestions would be good) and at least 6gb RAM. The best thing would be if i could get suggestions of retail desktops that would work for me rather than having to pick out everything seperately. Anything under $1300 would be great. Thanks so much guys, i honestly didn't think anyone would actually care, hahah

Basher9

Check out cyberpowerpc.com Here's a sample of what I configured.

Win 7 Home Premium 64-bit, keyboard and mouse, internal USB flash memory reader, 600w PSU, DVD Burner also included. Shipping is extra.

CPU definitely needs to be a quadcore for traditional video-editing apps.

Hard drive also needs to be quite fast to keep up while transferring HD video

RAM... the more the better

GTX 460 - I went with an nVidia card because the next big thing coming for video-editing apps is GPU-processing which is nVidia's CUDA and ATI's Stream. From what I've seen and tried, CUDA is just a bit slower than Stream. But, it has better image quality. Both types were quicker than i7 processing by a significant margin. That card also is plenty fast for SC2 and has longer legs than say, the HD 5770 in my sig. No monitor unfortunately. You may have to use your old one or save up a bit and buy one of those $165 23" Acer LCDs at best Buy.

CyberPower X58 NVIDIA Edition (NO MONITOR) $1,233.00 × Qty Total: $1,233.00 Configuration

• CPU: [Special] Intel® Core™ i7-950 3.06 GHz 8M Intel Smart Cache LGA1366
• HDD: 1TB SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 64MB Cache 7200RPM HDD [+50] (Single Hard Drive)
• MEMORY: 6GB (2GBx3) DDR3/1333MHz Triple Channel Memory [+63] (Corsair or Major Brand)
• MOTHERBOARD: Asus P6T SE Intel X58 Chipset CrossFireX Mainboard Triple-Channel DDR3/1600 SATA RAID w/ eSATA,GbLAN,USB2.0,IEEE1394a,&7.1Audio
• SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
• VIDEO: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 768MB 16X PCIe Video Card [+134] (EVGA Powered by NVIDIA [+5])

Alright, you can get your PC custom built from NCIX US, and although this will cost you a tiny bit more you'll have to do it if you don't want to build it yourself.

Go for an i7 930, 6GB RAM, GTX 460, 1TB 7200RPM HDD. give more details on your budget and we can help you out more(also include if you need just the tower or the monitor, kb+m, and speakers as well.

Alright, you can get your PC custom built from NCIX US, and although this will cost you a tiny bit more you'll have to do it if you don't want to build it yourself.

Go for an i7 930, 6GB RAM, GTX 460, 1TB 7200RPM HDD. give more details on your budget and we can help you out more(also include if you need just the tower or the monitor, kb+m, and speakers as well.

Cheesehead9099

I pretty much need the whole she-bang. All my stuff is crap right now and if i'm gonna get a new comp, imma do it right! haha, ok, this has helped me so much! I've got the RAM and the Hardrive and processor all figured out. The one thing I'm still unsure about is the graphics card. (Noob question: Is a video card the same as a graphics card?) I've heard so many different suggestions and i have absolutely no idea what to go with. It doesn't help that all their names sound the same. That Stream one sounds kinda good?

[QUOTE="Cheesehead9099"]

Alright, you can get your PC custom built from NCIX US, and although this will cost you a tiny bit more you'll have to do it if you don't want to build it yourself.

Go for an i7 930, 6GB RAM, GTX 460, 1TB 7200RPM HDD. give more details on your budget and we can help you out more(also include if you need just the tower or the monitor, kb+m, and speakers as well.

Basher9

I pretty much need the whole she-bang. All my stuff is crap right now and if i'm gonna get a new comp, imma do it right! haha, ok, this has helped me so much! I've got the RAM and the Hardrive and processor all figured out. The one thing I'm still unsure about is the graphics card. (Noob question: Is a video card the same as a graphics card?) I've heard so many different suggestions and i have absolutely no idea what to go with. It doesn't help that all their names sound the same. That Stream one sounds kinda good?

For ranked beginners, it's probably a good idea to look through a stickied thread in this forum: pictured thread about building a PC. It'll give a good idea of what each component should look like and an overall feel of what it takes to build one (whether physically by you or online).

Graphics cards and video cards are the same. Where any confusion may lie will be on the type of graphics subsystem. There's the graphics card which is an actual expansion card that fits on a slot on the motherboard. Then there's integrated graphics or discrete which are on the motherboard itself with no chance of being upgraded/replaced. The only type you need to be concerned with for this time is the expansion card type.

It takes a lot of research, an awful lot of research, to find out which individual component is the most suitable for a particular PC especially when there's a price limit. Most of us here attempt to get the best "bang for the buck". You'll figure more and more as you attempt to configure a PC online. As for video cards names sounding the same. Yup. It sucks to have so much different sub-models. One thing is true though. The higher end the video card is, the more expensive it is. I recommended the GTX 460 as did several others because it is the latest mid-end card. It's reasonable priced yet have very decent performance.

I specifically recommended the nVidia GTX 460 not just because it'll run games like SC2 pretty good and it'll last you longer. I also recommended it because in video-editing, you'll be coming face to face with stuff like OpenGL which is used in many 3D particle effects. Both nVidia and ATI(AMD) support OpenGL. But, I've seen cases where ATI cards have had problems supporting a certain feature of OpenGL which nVidia cards had no problems with. I felt it safest to stick with nVidia cards. CUDA and Stream are just fancy names for the graphics card GPU doing the job a CPU would normally do. There is a difference in their output, though. Here's an example:

The original followed by a conversion done through Stream. I don't have the CUDA image since my nephew had long since deleted it from his PC. But, as you could see, the Stream image has spots of blurriness in it. The CUDA image was very hard to tell apart from the original.

Ok so i went to that cyberpower site and built a pc i believe would be perfect for me. I think it's all good, but i'd like to quick post the specs for you guys to have a look at just to confirm that this isn't going to cause me troubles or anything....

It starts from their Gamer Infinity Series if that mattters:

-Intel® Core™ i7-950 3.06 GHz 8M Intel Smart Cache LGA1366

-NZXT Liquid Cooling System 120MM Radiator & Fan (Enhanced Cooling Performance + Extreme Silent at 20dBA)

-3-Way SLI Support) MSI X58 Pro-E Intel X58 Chipset SLI/CrossFire DDR3 Mainboard

-6GB (2GBx3) DDR3/1600MHz Triple Channel Memory Module

-NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 768MB 16X PCIe Video Card

-600 Watts - XtremeGear Power Supply - SLI/CrossFireX Ready

-1TB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD (do i need a hard drive cooling fan?)

-Sony 24X Double Layer Dual Format DVD+-R/+-RW + CD-R/RW Drive

-22" Widescreen 1920x1080 Sceptre X226W 5ms (Viewable 21.5 inch) LCD (Black Color) w/ Built-in D-Sub & DVI Input

-External USB hub (i wasn't sure how many the comp would actually come with if i didn't get this.)

-Windows 7 and office.

So, what do you guys think? And a few quick questions: Do i need a Flash Media Reader/Writer?

-Do i need a network card if im using a wired connection?

-IEEE1394 Card necessary?

-Will i have to install OS or will it come installed?

This could be the final step guys!!! I can't believe how much you've helped me. Honestly, i didn't realize how clueless i was at the beginning. I be screwed without all this help.

Ok so i went to that cyberpower site and built a pc i believe would be perfect for me. I think it's all good, but i'd like to quick post the specs for you guys to have a look at just to confirm that this isn't going to cause me troubles or anything....

It starts from their Gamer Infinity Series if that mattters:

-Intel® Core™ i7-950 3.06 GHz 8M Intel Smart Cache LGA1366

-NZXT Liquid Cooling System 120MM Radiator & Fan (Enhanced Cooling Performance + Extreme Silent at 20dBA)

-3-Way SLI Support) MSI X58 Pro-E Intel X58 Chipset SLI/CrossFire DDR3 Mainboard

-6GB (2GBx3) DDR3/1600MHz Triple Channel Memory Module

-NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 768MB 16X PCIe Video Card

-600 Watts - XtremeGear Power Supply - SLI/CrossFireX Ready

-1TB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD (do i need a hard drive cooling fan?)

-Sony 24X Double Layer Dual Format DVD+-R/+-RW + CD-R/RW Drive

-22" Widescreen 1920x1080 Sceptre X226W 5ms (Viewable 21.5 inch) LCD (Black Color) w/ Built-in D-Sub & DVI Input

-External USB hub (i wasn't sure how many the comp would actually come with if i didn't get this.)

-Windows 7 and office.

So, what do you guys think? And a few quick questions: Do i need a Flash Media Reader/Writer?

-Do i need a network card if im using a wired connection?

-IEEE1394 Card necessary?

-Will i have to install OS or will it come installed?

This could be the final step guys!!! I can't believe how much you've helped me. Honestly, i didn't realize how clueless i was at the beginning. I be screwed without all this help.

Basher9

The network card, IEEE1394 or firewire are all part of the motherboard. No need to buy separate ones of those. The flash media reader is mainly for photos and video footage stored in the memory cards of cameras and camcorders of which there are so many types. If you already have or want an external USB2 flash memory reader instead, you can skip the internal one. No need for a hard drive cooling fan either.

Honestly, I have no idea how cyberpowerpc works. I usually order parts and assemble the PC myself. You may or may not have to install Win 7 yourself. You could check out their FAQs.

Also, I'm the kind of guy who likes to keep things simple. Personally, I'm happy with the conventional heat sink and fan cooling for a CPU. Liquid cooling strikes me as more maintenance intensive. If there's ever a leak, then it could get hazardous. Then again, I've been out of touch with liquid cooling for years now. Perhaps it's improved. But, my preference is still the conventional HSF method.

As for MS Office, I'd wait until you're already in campus. You may get huge student discounts and save over buying one right now. That's just me though.

Yeah, i just read you have to change the liquid in the system, so imma go with fans. But otherwise, this should be able to run Sony Vegas 10 and get through all HD footage right? And also, this stuff all works together im guessing. It seems to me that configuring all this ish together would cause problems, but idk. I think im gonna buy this if it all works.... also, should i get a graphics card with a higher video memory or is that good enough? They have another GTX 460 with 1gig video memory for only 20 bucks more....

Yeah, i just read you have to change the liquid in the system, so imma go with fans. But otherwise, this should be able to run Sony Vegas 10 and get through all HD footage right? And also, this stuff all works together im guessing. It seems to me that configuring all this ish together would cause problems, but idk. I think im gonna buy this if it all works.... also, should i get a graphics card with a higher video memory or is that good enough? They have another GTX 460 with 1gig video memory for only 20 bucks more....

Basher9

The 768mb GTX 460 should be fine unless you're going to run games at insanely high resolutions. I don't think Sony Vegas has Cuda or Stream support yet. I think Adobe Premiere Pro does. But Vegas can still count on the i7 processing power. Here'a sample of transcoding times CUDA (or Stream) vs i7. It's simply stupendous:

So basically, this is a green light? Not like im putting this on you, hahah, im just asking if you think this would be a good purchase? Oh its price is $1383. Also, it asks if i want "Xtreme Performance in SLI/CrossFireX Gaming Mode Supports Single Monitor" or "Non-SLI/Non-CrossFireX Mode Supports Multiple Monitors" under the multiple video card settings... i plan to only have one moniter atm, so should i choose single? or doesn't it matter because i don't have multiple video cards? Aaaannnddd the final question. How many USB ports would come with this? It never really asks, but it has to come with some right? On the motherboard expansions it mentions USB slots, so would i have to get an expansion card?

So basically, this is a green light? Not like im putting this on you, hahah, im just asking if you think this would be a good purchase? Oh its price is $1383. Also, it asks if i want "Xtreme Performance in SLI/CrossFireX Gaming Mode Supports Single Monitor" or "Non-SLI/Non-CrossFireX Mode Supports Multiple Monitors" under the multiple video card settings... i plan to only have one moniter atm, so should i choose single? or doesn't it matter because i don't have multiple video cards? Aaaannnddd the final question. How many USB ports would come with this? It never really asks, but it has to come with some right? On the motherboard expansions it mentions USB slots, so would i have to get an expansion card?

Basher9

Checking the specs of that MSI board through Google..... It should have 6 USB2 slots at the back. Plus, I noticed there's one or two sockets on the motherboard to connect USB2 ports on the case. That's pretty much standard nowadays. If you don't two video cards don't worry about SLI or Crossfire options. That's what those two options are for. All video cards nowadays can support at least two monitors since they have at least 2 video ports on the baseplate.

Yup. I'd say stick with this purchase for now. It's a fine PC, certainly much better than mine. I would get familiar with the hardware since it would be very similar to what most Do-It-Yourself (DIY) PCs are. That way when you're ready, the next PC you get will be one you assemble yourself.

As a parting shot...... don't get rid of your old PC unless you plan to buy a laptop/netbook as well. It pays to have a backup just in case. Or just keep the relic and see if there's some things you can improve for cheap. Worst case, you can always tear it apart and practice putting it back together.

Alright, i just ordered it. I want to thank all you guys for everything you have helped me with, especially Jun_aka_pekto. I'll post a follow-up on the comp when i get it, and perhaps send you guys a pm so you can check. Thanks again for everything.

Alright, i just ordered it. I want to thank all you guys for everything you have helped me with, especially Jun_aka_pekto. I'll post a follow-up on the comp when i get it, and perhaps send you guys a pm so you can check. Thanks again for everything.

Basher9

Let me know it goes. The next PC I assemble may have similar specs (with probably a newer video card) while my current one will be handed down to the kid.