My HVX friendly PC laptop

S

stabwound

Well-known member
This may be of interest to those who are looking for a PC laptop to use with their HVX200, but have only around 500 smackers to spend.

Consider the Emachine Mx4524 Laptop from BestBuy for $600 Canadian (maybe $500 in the US) --- cheap. I got $30 bucks knocked off for an open box model.

If your prime goal is to download from the p2 in the field and or preview, this may be it.

Of particular interest are:

Amd 3300+ Sempron cpu - don't let that "budget" label that is associated with "Sempron" fool you... it's not the Socket A Sempron cpu... it's a 754 socket, 64 bit cpu with built in memory controller. So it may be possible to run 64 bit windows... (but I'm not sure). But it IS... fast.

[Ok... the L2 cache is only 128 K... but the cpu clock speed more than make up for it... and the smaller cache doesn't seem to hurt performance in video.

Cpu power is important if you want glitchless playback... especially with the wmv files you want to show off. For this reason I didn't consider laptops that use the Intel Celeron D cpu's that are clocked at around 1.5mhz to 1.8mhz.... the slower speeds allow for longer battery life (3 hours).

No, I've not tested the Celeron D... but from my experience (own 6 desktop computers of varying speeds) you'll need something over 3 gigherz to handle HD.]


512 megs memory (upgradeable to 2 gigs)

40 gigs 4500rpm drive (still fast enough for playback... but I may want to upgrade to faster and bigger)

SD memory card reader (great for writing Scene files to SD card)

Cardbus pmcia slot (great for instant viewing p2 card - with Edius 3 software - or downloading (it's fairly quick) from P2 card).

Firewire port.

Wireless Lan

Wired Lan

3 usb ports

DVD burner

Negatives:

Resolution of the lcd screen... 1024 x 768... so even 720p will not be native.

Been testing my laptop / Hvx200 combo for a week now, and I've been delighted so far. Software used is Edius 3 Canopus trial version. Serious editing will be done on my desktop.... battery life is about 2 hours.

Yah, you can spend more and get something better, but IMHO the Emachine laptop is all you need for the HVX.

Hope this mini review is helpful.
 
stabwound said:
Cpu power is important if you want glitchless playback... especially with the wmv files you want to show off. For this reason I didn't consider laptops that use the Intel Celeron D cpu's that are clocked at around 1.5mhz to 1.8mhz.... the slower speeds allow for longer battery life (3 hours).

No, I've not tested the Celeron D... but from my experience (own 6 desktop computers of varying speeds) you'll need something over 3 gigherz to handle HD.]
Click to expand...


isn't the 3300+ sempron clocked at 2G?
 
bosindy said:
isn't the 3300+ sempron clocked at 2G?
Click to expand...

Yeppers... the actual clock speed of the AMD 3300+ is 2G's.

The AMD cpu architecture is much more efficient than Intel's... doing more work per megahertz clock cycle.

In tests the typical 1.8 gigahertz AMD cpu is equivilant in performance to a 3 gigaherz Intel cpu.

For this reason Amd decided to market the 1.8 cpu as a "3000+"... or equivilant of Intel's 3 gigahertz.

In recent years, Intel has been pretty well stuck at around 3 gigahertz because of heat problems and electron leakage. Intel can can only increase performance through other means (dual core etc).

For similar reasons Intel has decided to deemphasize clock speed in their marketing.... and decided to concentrate on slower and lower power cpus, and most of these are found on laptops, with focus on longer battery life.

Great for cruising the net... but for video processing?

If you like to stick to Intel and require performance, you'll need a dual core cpu in your laptop... and spend a lot more.

I'm not an AMD fanboy.... I just buy with Bang for the Buck in mind, and AMD rules in this area.

That may change later this year, as Intel introduces new cpu's.
 
I learn something new each day on this site, thanks. perhaps you could give me your opinion since I have been exploring buying a new laptop and have narrowed it down to the hp 5000 series with everything else being equal either:

AMD turion ml37 (2g)
2G RAM
120 hd 4200rpm
ATI 128 mg Radeon express 200M IGP

or

intel dou t2400 (1.83)
1g ddr2
100g hd 5400rpm
128 discrete 128 shared nvidia geforce go 7400

also, beyond p2 viewer, which is the primary reason for the purchase, I would like to try edius or some other nle as well, will this be enough power? thanks.
 
Bosindy:

Didn't mean to sound like a Laptop Guru, which is what I'm not.

The Sempron laptop I have is my very first laptop purchase... and I only got it because it was good enough, and cheap enough.... and needed for the HVX.

I'm primarily a desktop computer guy... never followed the mobile cpu scene until now.

The two models you're considering are way out of my price range, so I'm not too knowledgable there... but after some quick research....

I'll venture my opinion.... but DO NOT base your purchase on it.

From what I've read here, the Intel Duo will kick the Amd Turion.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=57480

My understanding of video cards suggest the discrete Geforce 7400 will kick the integrated ATI 200M.

I'd get the faster drive.

In other words, package number two (Intel Duo) looks like the winner.... hands down.
 
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