Looking for a baller laptop for video editing

Niall0

Hi,
Getting into video editing lately and getting frustrated with long rendering times with my current laptop. It also gets crazy hot while rendering so had to get one of those cooling usb powered base things.

So anyway trying to figure out where to get a beastly laptop at a decent price.
What elements should i look out for to make video editing easier eg
What effects the rendering time the most?

Ram, Processor, Graphics Card, hard drive type (Solid state?) a big screen would be handy too i guess. dont really care about size and weight as long as its some way portable.

Are Macs better for this kind of thing or are you just paying for something more fancy looking?

Would be willing to splash some cash but trying to figure out where to even start.

MC_G

First, build a desktop

Seriously though, there's a lot of places that can bottleneck rendering/editing performance.

Most important parts on a laptop to get right initially are the processor and gpu because they can't be upgraded later. You'll want an i7 quad with hyperthreading and a 2gb dedicated graphics card.

I bought an Asus n56 when I was looking for a notebook that would be required to do some editing. It had i7 quad, 2gb graphics, 8gb ram, 7200rpm drive, 1080p screen, great audio and great cooling/termal performance for a touch over €900 euro. The balance there meant it was pretty solid for a notebook all around and a great value at the time. I was able to add an ssd, optical drive caddy to hold the original drive and make the dvd external and 16gb of ram for less than all but the most basic 13 inch MacBook Pro (5400 rpm drive, intel graphics, non retina etc)

They still have the n56/n76 (with upgraded processors and graphics) and a newer n550/n750 either of which would be tops of my list if I were to do it again for between €9-1100 depending on options and store.

I'd also consider higher end lenovo and msi models as well as possibly pc specialist custom built cosmo or optimus models.

You could obviously spend less, maybe not get 1080p if you'll always have an external monitor or whatever, but spend whatever you can on processor and graphics now with plans to upgrade ssd/hdd and possibly even an external drive and ram when you can.

beauf

Does it need to be a laptop. You'd pick up a much more suitable desktop with much more video rendering performance for half the cost. You could even use it remotely from your laptop.

Niall0

beauf wrote: »

Does it need to be a laptop. You'd pick up a much more suitable desktop with much more video rendering performance for half the cost. You could even use it remotely from your laptop.

Pretty much im constantly on the go, and alot of the stuff im doing is abroad.

Niall0

MC_G wrote: »

They still have the n56/n76 (with upgraded processors and graphics) and a newer n550/n750 either of which would be tops of my list if I were to do it again for between €9-1100 depending on options and store.

Where can you purchase them?

beauf

Do some research on what mobile cpu and gfx are the most efficient at the jobs you are doing.

MC_G

Niall0 wrote: »

Where can you purchase them?

Komplett.ie

899 N56

999 N56

1199 N550

If you can use Parcel Motel or something they have some at Saveonlaptops.co.uk with the older gen i7 like this for €835

You can find them on Amazon sometimes and laptopsdirect.ie too, but the stock & prices is sporadic it seems.

Komplett's have US international keyboards the " and @ are switched around but that can be switched in windows or left that way, whichever way wouldn't bother you.

They also had a nice selection of the lenovos and some others too, just sort by i7, dedicated graphics and 1920x1080 screens.

Dabs had some too but most either had the U dual core i7s rather than HQ or QM quad cores or non FHD screens.

I'd still consider speccing one on pcspecialist.co.uk too

Good luck shopping