4K Davinci Resolve editing spec?

I am an enthusiastic amateur video editor. I have experimented with a few laptops paired with my favourite editing software (Davinci Resolve free version) and have never found a successful combination. However, I have not used a 1070 GPU before and hope that this is the missing link.

There are some real experts on this forum and I would be very grateful for a view on the spec below, specifically with respect to 4K video editing. The codec is H264 from a Mavic Pro drone. I would edit the timeline in both 1080P and 4K.

Any thoughts on the quality of chassis (Defiance versus Octane in particular) would also be welcome.

I’m really not an expert on the different type of SSD drives, but the speed of the M2 looked a no brainier. The 1TB ‘traditional’ HDD would only be for storage of finished projects.

Thank you very much.

Chassis & Display
Defiance Series: 15.6" Matte 4K IPS 60Hz 72% NTSC LED Widescreen (3840x2160)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Six Core Processor 8750H (2.6GHz, 4.3GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair 2400MHz SODIMM DDR4 (1 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1070 Max-Q - 8.0GB GDDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1st Hard Disk
1TB SEAGATE 7mm SERIAL ATA III 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 128MB CACHE (5,400rpm)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
256GB SAMSUNG PM961 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 2800MB/R, 1100MB/W)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
AC Adaptor
1 x 150W AC Adaptor
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre Cloverleaf UK Power Cable
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Def. Audio + MIC/Headphone + SoundBlaster X-Fi MB3
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-8265 M.2 (867Mbps, 802.11AC) +BT 4.0
USB Options
3 x USB 3.1 Type A, 2 x USB 3.1 Type C AS STANDARD
Keyboard Language
RGB BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KK3-00003]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Dead Pixel Guarantee
1 Year Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 4 to 6 working days
Quantity
1

Price £1,713.00 including VAT and delivery

I've said this before but I really don't believe you can see 4k resolution on a 15.6" screen....

Any thoughts on the quality of chassis (Defiance versus Octane in particular) would also be welcome.

Click to expand...

I can't speak as to the quality of the chassis, but the octane has a much faster CPU what with it being an i7 8700k. The Octan'es GPU is also faster as it's not a Max-Q variant.

https://tinyurl.com/y8kznc7b

I’m really not an expert on the different type of SSD drives, but the speed of the M2 looked a no brainier. The 1TB ‘traditional’ HDD would only be for storage of finished projects.

Click to expand...

Agreed.

Would Davinci resolve benefit from 32gb RAM?

Thank you for your replies. I fell into a basic trap with respect to the processors. 8750 > 8700 = better, surely? No. Checked the benchmarks - thanks Oussebon! I also put in my spec 1 x 16GB RAM, when I meant to select 2 x 8GB. However, to be honest, I’m not sure why! Is there a significant difference?

Thanks on the screen comment. You may well be right and I may be confusing pixel density with quality of colour etc. However, I prefer IPS and don’t need a 120Hz refresh rate.

32GB is definitely better, but the Davinci system requirement says “minimum 16GB”. With an 8th Gen processor (8700K) and plenty of GPU RAM I’m hoping it’ll be fine. If it isn’t, I’ll have to add more.

If it isn’t, I’ll have to add more.

Click to expand...

The Octane has 4 slots for the RAM, the Defiance 2, so that's another reason to go for the Octane.

I also put in my spec 1 x 16GB RAM, when I meant to select 2 x 8GB. However, to be honest, I’m not sure why! Is there a significant difference?

Click to expand...

2x16gb is preferable as it has the RAM in dual channel. As long as you also still have room to add more if required. If 16gb is listed as a minimum there's a good chance you'll want more. Though with RAM prices as they are I can see why you might not want to gamble on that, depending what your needs are.

8750 > 8700 = better, surely? No. Checked the benchmarks

Click to expand...

This is because the 8700k is a desktop CPU and the 8750 is a mobile one. The Octane's special feature is that it takes a desktop CPU in a laptop chassis.

I do some, although not a lot, of video work and would strongly recommend the Octane. I have the first generation with the i7 4790 but it is still going strong and having a proper desk top CPU make a big performance difference.

How portable do you want your laptop to be? The thing to bear in mind with the Octane is that it is a desk top replacement and at 4kg plus a power brick of some size it is not the simplest to lug about but that is the only down side for me, build quality is good and solid and I have had no problems with mine.

Oussebon said:

2x16gb is preferable as it has the RAM in dual channel. As long as you also still have room to add more if required. If 16gb is listed as a minimum there's a good chance you'll want more. Though with RAM prices as they are I can see why you might not want to gamble on that, depending what your needs are.

Click to expand...

Thank you again Oussebon. Does that mean that if I go for 16GB to start with, you would advise that I go for 1 X 16 to allow a second 16 to be fitted later if needed, of would you advise I go for 2 X 8 to benefit from the dual channel? If I fitted 2 x 8 and needed s total of 32 later, is there space for a further 2 x 8 or would I be ripping the 8s out and fitting 2 x 16? I'm new to RAM upgrades!

Stephen M - thanks. Very reassuring. I don't need total portability, more the option to clear the decks at the end of use.

I'd suggest going for 2 x 8gb RAM for the dual channel, certainly if going for the Octane - because the Octane has 4 slots for the RAM, leaving you 2 more free to add more RAM in the future.

The Defiance only has 2 slots for the RAM - so if you buy 2 x 8gb with the Defiance you would need to replace the RAM to add more in the future.

Thank you again, Oussebon. My prevarication may have been my undoing as the Octane IV appears no longer to exist and the “quote” has been removed from the website!

Rivendell said:

Thank you again, Oussebon. My prevarication may have been my undoing as the Octane IV appears no longer to exist and the “quote” has been removed from the website!

Click to expand...

It's been replaced by the Octane V, just a new chassis and better processors.

Thanks SpiderTracks. Is the 17 inch screen IPS like the 15.6 was? It’s not clear from the website.

Rivendell said:

Thanks SpiderTracks. Is the 17 inch screen IPS like the 15.6 was? It’s not clear from the website.

Click to expand...

You’re right, it’s difficult to tell, I’d give PCS a call to discuss to make sure.

SpyderTracks said:

You’re right, it’s difficult to tell, I’d give PCS a call to discuss to make sure.

Click to expand...

I called and it is IPS. Identical screen to the Octane IV 4K but a different size.

Since my last post they've put up a new 15.6 Octane V ... it's all go at PCS!

Rivendell said:

I called and it is IPS. Identical screen to the Octane IV 4K but a different size.

Since my last post they've put up a new 15.6 Octane V ... it's all go at PCS!

Click to expand...

Awesome!

Could anyone advise on partitions? I have read conflicting advice around the need to partition modern HDDs (SDD or otherwise), so I’m leaning away from doing it. Does anyone have contrary advice?

Rivendell said:

Could anyone advise on partitions? I have read conflicting advice around the need to partition modern HDDs (SDD or otherwise), so I’m leaning away from doing it. Does anyone have contrary advice?

Click to expand...

Personally, if you have 1 drive as the OS and 1 drive as Data, then I would say there's no need for any partitions.

If you've just got 1 drive for OS and DATA, then there's an argument to partition, simply to keep the data separate should you wish to reinstall the OS at any point.

Rivendell said:

Could anyone advise on partitions? I have read conflicting advice around the need to partition modern HDDs (SDD or otherwise), so I’m leaning away from doing it. Does anyone have contrary advice?

Click to expand...

Disk partitioning is a data management tool, it lets you appear to have multiple drives on one physical disk and that allows different data to be allocated to different 'drives' making data organisation a much simpler process. It also allows individual partitions to be formatted and software or data reinstalled without impacting data or programs on other partitions. If you only have a single physical drive for example, it is very useful to partition that into a Windows and programs partition and a data partition. That way you can re-install Windows without impacting your user data at all.

Partitioning is not free however, there is an overall performance hit with it. This is because with two partitions on one physical drive you have two MFTs (Master File Tables) that are separated on the physical disk and thus there is a (measurable) seek time lost (and thus a performance impact) moving between the two MFTs (and the partition table) even before you start trying to read/write any data. The more partitions you have on a physical drive the worse this lost seek time becomes. Generally you don't want more than two partitions on a disk (visible to Windows) and you really only want one of those to be busy, the other should be fairly lightly used. If you have two busy partitions on the same physical disk your I/O performance will suffer noticeably because of all that wasted seek time.

Thank you SpyderTracks and ubuysa. I'm intending to use the SSD for the OS and high resource editing (i.e. projects that are underway but not complete). I will use the HDD for mass storage of completed projects only. On this basis and your advice I can't see any reason to partition either drive further as the partition is effectively created through the use of an SSD/HDD combo.

Rivendell said:

Thank you SpyderTracks and ubuysa. I'm intending to use the SSD for the OS and high resource editing (i.e. projects that are underway but not complete). I will use the HDD for mass storage of completed projects only. On this basis and your advice I can't see any reason to partition either drive further as the partition is effectively created through the use of an SSD/HDD combo.

Click to expand...

Partitioning an SSD is much less of a performance problem than partitioning an HDD. SSDs have zero seek time and every block can be accessed at the same speed, so partitioning an SSD has almost no measurable performance impact. I should have made that clearer, sorry.

ubuysa said:

SSD has almost no measurable performance impact.

Click to expand...

Thanks and no worries! Unless you suggest otherwise, however, I don’t think I’m going to partition.