A good laptop for video and sound editing?

oneinthemiddle

Hi folks,
I'm about to purchase my first lap-top with a view to using it to sample, record, mix, and edit video and sound...but, being completely green as far as what to buy to do the job, I need a littlehelp with reccomendations. Any ides? I have about five to seven hundred euro to spend. I'm not interested in gaming really, but will need to connect external devices (samplrs and loop staion, projectors etc.)
All help much appreciated

ED E

oneinthemiddle wrote: »

Hi folks,
I'm about to purchase my first lap-top with a view to using it to sample, record, mix, and edit video and sound...but, being completely green as far as what to buy to do the job, I need a littlehelp with reccomendations. Any ides? I have about five to seven hundred euro to spend. I'm not interested in gaming really, but will need to connect external devices (samplrs and loop staion, projectors etc.)
All help much appreciated

Hate to say it, but get a Mac.

xsiborg

HP laptops I have found usually to have the best connectivity options, and they do AMD processors as well as intel, which if you go with the intel option will inevitably cost you a lot more than choosing AMD, also as a multimedia laptop they do have options such as HDMI which means you can hook it up to modern tv's for an extra large monitor with digital sound.

in saying that though, mac's do seem like the more popular choice for hardcore multimedia enthusiasts (im more of an all rounder). if you're used to windows operating system i wouldn't let that put you off buying a mac, i myself had long been put off mac's because i thought the learning curve was too steep, but having recently spent time on one, i have to admit i was pleasantly surprised- a rather intuitive interface and very easy to find my way around, AND, now you can even install windows on them, so they're a good investment that way too!

for €700 you have a good lot of options but for an extra €100 these links should hopefully give you some idea of what to look for in a bricks and mortar shop like pcworld or harvey norman (pcworld do a lot of makes including macs, harvey norman tend to concentrate more on hp/sony/toshiba).

http://www.misco.ie/productinformation/~150283~WW~ms~/MacBook%202.0GHz/2GB/160GB/GeForce%209400M/SuperDrive.htm

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/ie/en/ho/WF06b/321957-321957-3329744-64354-64354-4011360-4036147.html

i hope the info helps as i've tried to be as unbiased as possible to better suit your requirements. and dont be afraid to have a good long browse around the shops before you part with your cash!

i just wanted to add, if you do go the windows laptop route, avoid intel celeron and AMD semperon processors as these wont have the multimedia capabilities you require...

ED E

BTW, dont touch AMD if you plan on using Adobe products.

xsiborg

Lethal_Bullet wrote: »

BTW, dont touch AMD if you plan on using Adobe products.

this surprises me Lethal Bullet being honest with you, as I have used Adobe photoshop and premiere for a long time now with no issues, although recently i purchased an AVCHD camcorder so i upgraded to adobe cs4 64bit. no problems on windows 7.

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/508/cpsid_50853.html

i was perhaps one of the lucky ones, but i do see after some research that the problems seem to be with GPU's, not the processor?

i came across this too which would seem to contradict what you say, but, well, im not an expert by any means in this area...

http://enterprise.amd.com/us-en/AMD-Business/Alliances-Home/Adobe.aspx

AMD increases the performance of Adobe Software

codan

lenovo w500

Expensive but exellent hardware. It is alot cheaper if purchased from the USA

leninbenjamin

oneinthemiddle wrote: »

Hi folks,
I'm about to purchase my first lap-top with a view to using it to sample, record, mix, and edit video and sound...but, being completely green as far as what to buy to do the job, I need a littlehelp with reccomendations. Any ides? I have about five to seven hundred euro to spend. I'm not interested in gaming really, but will need to connect external devices (samplrs and loop staion, projectors etc.)
All help much appreciated

Is a desktop completely out of the question? Editing can be really heavy on the CPU and €700 isn't going to a great processor considering the premium for mobility. Look for a Core2 Duo P8700 2.53Ghz I'd say minimum. If you can stretch to €1000 you might be able to find a decent deal on one of the new mobile i7 quad cores but it will be hard going, Dell are charging €1500 for them now from what i can tell.

On the other hand €700 will get you a PC with the new i5 quad core processor that will outperform any quad in a laptop.

xsiborg wrote: »

this surprises me Lethal Bullet being honest with you, as I have used Adobe photoshop and premiere for a long time now with no issues

...

i came across this too which would seem to contradict what you say, but, well, im not an expert by any means in this area...

http://enterprise.amd.com/us-en/AMD-Business/Alliances-Home/Adobe.aspx

That article is misleading.

a) that's about 3 years old
b) it's talking about AMD Radeon Graphics cards (i.e. ATI)
c) it's purposely deceptive. It's talking about a commercial alliance and gives absolutely no mention of any benchmarks whatsoever.

have a look at some benchmarks on the new models, AMD's Phenom II X4 hold their own against the new Intel i5s an i7s for a lot of tasks. Except video editing and Adobe products in general. You're talking a 25% hit if not 33%. AMDs are just a bad idea for this kind of thing at the moment.

CS4 on a 64bit system is a bad idea though, Photoshop has been BSODing like something else on mine... can hardly use brushes at all. It's an absolute joke for a product so widely relied on.

A Mac is just an absurd idea though in this price bracket.

xsiborg

codan wrote: »

lenovo w500

Expensive but exellent hardware. It is alot cheaper if purchased from the USA

That, is a BLISTERING, BUDGET BUSTING BEAST of a "laptop", i use laptop in quotations because, well, phew, that literally IS a mobile editing studio! *me amends my xmas wishlist*

just wanted to add in here without quoting your whole post leninbenjamin that, well, that was fantastic information you put in there! thats what Lethal bullet should have put in his post when he said it, because then i would have understood that he knew what he was talking about and had the information to back it up...

ED E

xsiborg wrote: »

this surprises me Lethal Bullet being honest with you, as I have used Adobe photoshop and premiere for a long time now with no issues, although recently i purchased an AVCHD camcorder so i upgraded to adobe cs4 64bit. no problems on windows 7.

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/508/cpsid_50853.html

i was perhaps one of the lucky ones, but i do see after some research that the problems seem to be with GPU's, not the processor?

i came across this too which would seem to contradict what you say, but, well, im not an expert by any means in this area...

http://enterprise.amd.com/us-en/AMD-Business/Alliances-Home/Adobe.aspx

What lenin said:)

leninbenjamin

xsiborg wrote: »

That, is a BLISTERING, BUDGET BUSTING BEAST of a "laptop", i use laptop in quotations because, well, phew, that literally IS a mobile editing studio! *me amends my xmas wishlist*

It's pretty good specs all right, however it's very overpriced for what you're getting. Anywhere you see the letter X in an Intel Processor's name, forget it. It usually means 'extreme' i.e. this is the top end of our line and we're gonna make you bloody well pay for it.

Secondly, the processor in there is now, for lack of a better expression, 'outdated tech'. As i mentioned above, Intel have new i7 mobiles out and they are a much better piece of kit, better power saving features for the battery and higher clock speeds to boot because of the turbo mode feature. So while the QX9xxxs are still mighty powerful for laptops, the i7's generally represent a much more attractive option.

It's actually the same story with the graphics card in that machine too. Quadro's are essentially bogstandard Nvidia gaming chip's with some additional features and better software support. Unless you have a specific need to avail of their features, you're pouring a few hundred quid down the drain. Avoid any laptop with the label Quadro!

xsiborg

oh now you're just showing off, haha

but yeah, i do remember dell XPS destops having intel "xtreme" processors in them, i think they made news because it was the first time an OEM had officially endorsed an overclocked chip...

on a sidenote though, i think the poor OP's budget has been blown outta the water!

leninbenjamin

xsiborg wrote: »

oh now you're just showing off, haha

Sorry, it's more force of habit.

To bring the thread back within the OP's scope: I've had a quick scan of the net and I can see very little within the OP's budget that would hack some serious audio editing. A Dell Vostro can be gotten with the processor I mentioned (2.53Ghz Core2Duo) for around €750-800. And a few Acer's and a HP on laptopsdirect just shy over €800.