best laptop for editing hd

[andrew glover]

First time visitor to this forum. I am a multi media trainer and am in the market for a laptop which I can edit HD and knock out DVDs during my breaks on location thus saving evenings at home for family.

I am sniffing around the new Acer Aspire Ethos 8951g (i7) which is getting decent reviews and has certainly got the internal oomph to do the job as I'd want to install Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 on board. The 18.4 inch 1920 x 1080 screen is also a big plus.

Big question is should i go for something like this or build one up from scratch. As a relative novice in computer component speak I found myself doing a lot of guessing when I tried to build up a bespoke version on the pcspecialist website.

Any advice or guidance welcome. Thankyou for reading.

 

[Gibbs]

This one is the closest I could get to the Acer spec. It doesn't have the 18.4 inch screen but it does have a slightly higher model Nvidia card and it comes out at £1333 inc. vat. According to Google Shopping, the Acer seems to be coming out at around £1,470 which could leave room for improvement or extras on the PCS model


Chassis & Display
Vortex II: 17.3" Glossy Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-2630QM (2.00GHz) 6MB Cache

Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 4GB)

Graphics Card
1.5GB nVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 560M - DirectX® 11 (17.3" Vortex II)

Memory - Hard Disk
750GB WD SCORPIO BLUE WD7500BPVT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 8MB CACHE (5400 rpm)


2nd Hard Disk
750GB WD SCORPIO BLUE WD7500BPVT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 8MB CACHE (5400 rpm)


DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
SONY BC-5500H 4x BLURAY ROM/DVD WRITER & CYBERLINK SOFTWARE (£79)

Memory Card Reader
Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)


Sound Card
Intel 5.1 Channel High Definition Audio + SPDIF/MIC/Headphone Jack

Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & INTEL® CENTRINO® ADVANCED-N 6230 inc BLUETOOTH

USB Options
2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD

Battery
Vortex Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (3,800 mAh)


Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 220W AC Adaptor


Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)


Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)

Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL

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)


Insurance
1 Month Free Laptop Insurance inc. Accidental Damage & Theft


Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)

Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 5 to 7 working days

 

[Skylinefx]

What you're looking for is a fast processor for rendering, a lot of RAM and a good GPU for editing.
What Gibbs suggested looks good, but is the processor fast enough? I have the i7 2630qm and it took me over 30 minutes to render a 1600x900 3 minute video with Sony Vegas 10. Takes longer with Premiere Pro for me. However, I don't know how other processors perform when rendering videos.

 

[Dealmaster13]

but it does have a slightly higher model Nvidia card

Must better

Don't forget the Silver warranty

What you're looking for is a fast processor for rendering, a lot of RAM and a good GPU for editing.
What Gibbs suggested looks good, but is the processor fast enough? I have the i7 2630qm and it took me over 30 minutes to render a 1600x900 3 minute video with Sony Vegas 10. Takes longer with Premiere Pro for me. However, I don't know how other processors perform when rendering videos.

There will be a difference between the 2630QM, 2720QM and so on, but I'm pretty sure, the gain from the price you pay is minimal. When the processors are pushed to the absolute maximum, which includes video editing and the such, you can probably use these scores to accurately determine the % performance gain: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php

 

[zomo001]

I would suggest going for 8GB Hyper X Kingston 1600MHz RAM, about GPU stay with cheapest possible like 460m its far more then enough for editing and you save some money which you could invest in SSD drive if its to expensive 1x500 GB 7200RPM is enough you can always buy yourself external HDD

 

[andrew glover]

thanks to all those who have replied thus far. Very much appreciated.