Laptop spec

Kev_ps3

Getting a new laptop soon and hopefully going to be using it to upload ps3 gameplay with a HD PVR/Vegas.. Just want to know what I should be looking out for as regards laptop spec etc.

TheChrisD

Seeing as you use a PVR, I don't think that means the specs matter as much as if you had a different device. But when it comes to editing you need to best processor/RAM combo you can get and afford.

I remember on my old crappy Celeron machine with 3GB of RAM, a ten minute 720p video took near enough to four hours to render.

DemoniK

Agree with TheChrisD
PVR does the initial capture/encoding work to H264 so you just need a USB2.0 link to pull the video off..

However for editing - you need RAM, CPU and screen space.
Look for laptops with 4GB of ram at a min - but preferably more. 64Bit Windows a must.
Avoid low power CPUs - you need a decent i5 or i7 based laptop. Get the fastest you can afford.
Hard disks can be important too - SSD are excellent (for pulling all the clips off the disk ) but cost. Get lots of space as well. If you can get a laptop with eSATA it's easy to add too..
The other BIG issue will be when you finally render. You'll now need to encode. A good graphics card will help here. Current Intel stock solutions don't accelerate it, so avoid if buying now (new solutions coming out around xmas will have hardware encode) and get something with ATI or NVidia so you can speed up rendering times.
Don't go for anything less than 720p (1366x768) resolution. Higher the better.

Note: All this is gonna kill battery life, so watch out.

PSKdesign

you might go cheaper on a desktop system...
try to see how much will cost you quad core CPU's
regarding more than 4 gb memory, unfortunately not even windows 7 don't knows to manage more than 3.5 gb, so I don't see the point to get 6gb for instance, 4 should be more than enough, but no less
good luck with this, let me know what are you going for

DemoniK

PSKdesign wrote: »

regarding more than 4 gb memory, unfortunately not even windows 7 don't knows to manage more than 3.5 gb, so I don't see the point to get 6gb for instance,

Not 100% the full story.
With 64bit windows - each application can have 4GB of mem (32 bit app) - so having more is useful so your application can store raw videos in memory, speeding up the whole process. Even more useful if your using a 64bit enabled application which can address much more.
I have 12GB in my desktop - and easily use 6-7GB of physical memory when doing video editing.

Kev_ps3

I was looking at the Dell XPS 15 laptops, would they be good enough to do the job?
http://ireland.dell.com/ie/en/home/Dell-Laptops/xps-15/pd.aspx?refid=xps-15&s=dhs&cs=iedhs1&ref=lthp

DemoniK

If you go i5 or i7 then yeah
Not much difference between the 2 i5s they offer - so small you are unlikely to notice.
They charge an awful lot for memory. Stick with the 4GB they offer - you can get 8GB direct from crucial.com/eu for less than the cost they charge to go to 6GB!!!
HDD is 7200rpm so should be speedy enough
And it had NVidia graphics which will help with rendering.

Kev_ps3

ok thanks for that info lads.

Magill

Im using http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/hp-g62-a44sa-06474308-pdt.html atm and i find it grand. It takes about 1-2hours to render a 10 minute video in 720p with some effects, i just leave it on while im gaming or watching something.

You'll get much better value for your buck if you just go down the desktop route tho, like others have said.

Tallon

Specs do matter alot, for the editing

Make sure its dual core, if you get celeron your head will be wrecked

Also get a few Gig if ram 3+