Light use Laptop - please advise

[Drennor]

Looking for advice on laptop for a friend who will be using it for:
Internet Surfing
Zoom
Photo and video editing (mostly movie maker editing of old VHS tapes)
Basic word processing
Storing pics, vids, audio

He will be needing ethernet connection too, but I understand you can get USB converters for that.

Not going to be using external monitor, and budget is £500. I guess we are a little over budget here but it's about as close as I can get based on understanding that CPU and RAM are important regarding video editing. Other than that I know very little about editing so appreciate your thoughts on it.

The specification below has been formatted so you can easily copy and paste this to our forums when discussing your specification. Once you've copied the specification, please click here to continue.
Chassis & Display
Initia Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD 60Hz 45% NTSC LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i3 Dual Core Processor i3-1005G1 (1.2GHz, 3.4GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
8GB Corsair 2133MHz SODIMM DDR4 (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
Integrated Intel® HD Graphics
1st Storage Drive
1TB SEAGATE 7mm SERIAL ATA III 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 128MB CACHE (5,400rpm)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
128GB ADATA SX6000 LITE M.2 2280 (1800 MB/R, 1200 MB/W)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated Micro-SD Memory Card Reader
AC Adaptor
1 x 45W AC Adaptor
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre Cloverleaf UK Power Cable
Battery
Initia Series Integrated 36WH Lithium Ion Battery
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 (2.4 Gbps) + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
1 x USB 3.2 PORT (Type C) + 1 x USB 3.2 PORT + 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS
Keyboard Language
MULTI COLOUR BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KK3-00002]
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 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Keyboard & Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 1MP HD WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Chassis
Clevo NL51LU FHD (i3-1005G1, FHD, 60Hz N4)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 7 to 9 working days
Price: £553.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/initia-15/m55k!S5sqY/

 

[Bhuna50]

Personally I think you will struggle with video editing on a machine in this budget, but must admit its not something I do, so will have to leave it to others to comment on that.

I think, at minimum you should be looking at a better processor 6 or 8 core and definitely more RAM 16 minimum, but maybe 32 depending on the size of the videos.

Again depending on the size of videos then you could be looking at requiring more storage that just 1TB - is this something your friend is doing at the moment and if so, what is he currently using size wise for the conversions?

Looks like the laptop you have chosen though does have a LAN port for ethernet.

Why a laptop as well? can it be a desktop - might be easier to get something in the desktop side that can be upgraded more as they go along

 

[Drennor]

Thanks for your comments.

I'm not sure it falls into the realms of heavy video editing, his old current laptop is managing (not sure how well) but its a bit old now:
AMD A6-5200 (heard would equate to 3rd gen I3 if what I read elsewhere was correct...)

Laptop would be preferred as will be used for other stuff like internet browsing and zoom calls when not in the office. He does have an external HDD which will use that for storage, so don't anticipate him needing more than 1TB. I also checked and the old laptop doesn't have windows 10 so cant save the money on that unfortunately. 16GB I could suggest as a possible stretch, I'm guessing that would probably make the most difference without shelling out for a big CPU upgrade.

Where did you find it had the LAN port? I couldn't see it in the mentioned in the specs but would be good to know where to find it

 

[Bhuna50]

Re windows - what version is he running?

The free upgrade from 7 to 10 I think still works.

What program does he use for photo editing?

Re LAN: Go into detailed specs and also look at the pictures

 

[Drennor]

He is using windows 8.1 on the old one and photo editing he uses the editor that comes with windows so its really basic stuff, but he is considering getting photoshop for it in the future.

Thanks both for sharing how to view the extra details - totally missed that selection across the top!

EDIT: The old machine is on deaths door so that would free up the OS if it could be upgraded for free, so the money saved could upgrade the CPU to I5 and RAM to 16gb (2x8 presumably).

 

[Drennor]

Sorry to resurrect this slightly older thread but I noticed someone mentioned PCS were very soon to be stocking AMD laptops and I actually found one in the configurator so wondering if this would run better than the previously spec'ed I5. Main thing I did to keep it largely same price is dropped the OS M.2 drive from the intel build as I figured it should be OK with just a 1GB SSD over the tiny M.2 and HDD:
[EDIT] I dunno what saved build I was looking at, the price is not almost the same as my post above, I think I was looking at an I5 modified version of the above rather than the I3:

Chassis & Display
UltraNote Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD 60Hz 45% NTSC LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen™ 5 6-Core Processor 4500U (2.3GHz, 4.0GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair 2666MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
AMD Radeon™ Graphics (CPU Dependant)
1st Storage Drive
1TB PCS 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb (520MB/R, 470MB/W)
External DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x Slim USB 2.0 External DVD-RW
Memory Card Reader
Integrated Micro-SD Memory Card Reader
AC Adaptor
1 x 65W AC Adaptor
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre Cloverleaf UK Power Cable
Battery
UltraNote Series Integrated 36WH Lithium Ion Battery
Sound Card
2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 (2.4 Gbps) + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
1 x USB 3.2 GEN 2 PORT (Type C) + 1 x USB 3.2 GEN 1 PORT + 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS
Keyboard Language
MULTI COLOUR BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KK3-00002]
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 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Keyboard & Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 1MP HD WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Chassis
Clevo NL51RU FHD (R5-4500U, FHD, 60Hz N4, Blank KB)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 14 to 16 working days
Price: £691.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/initia-amd-15/VtkSAThr7a/