Best laptop for HVX?

i recieved my Dell Precision M90 mobile workstation last Saturday.

2.3 GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 2 Gigs of RAM, 512 Meg Nvidia graphics card, 100 Meg 7200RPM ide drive ( I edit off an external G-RAID pro) and a 17" 16x9 monitor....

1995.00 from the Dell refurbished site.
 
T series IBM thinkpads are tanks - considered by many to be the most reliable laptop on the market for many years now.
Ultrabay feature - allows for hot-swapping multiple notebook drives (swaps with DVD drive).
Great for DVRack capturing. (I'm not sure if this is a common feature on other laptops?)

UltraBay.jpg
 
One of the big Sony models (I think the AR) offered that type of feature; a swappable 80gb hard disk bay (as well as for an optical drive, etc). It was tempting...
 
I got a Dell Latitude D620 and I love it.....14.1", Core 2 Duo, 2GB Ram, 100 GB 7200rpm, Nvidia 256MB, 2x 80GB swappable drives, PCMCIA, 2x 5 hour quick charge batteries......the only thing is no firewire. I use a pcmcia firewire adapter, and I would like an e sata hookup.....It's light and sturdy. I have Avid and the Adobe collection in it.
 
Thanks for all the suggestions.

I decided to go with a Sony Vaio SZ330. The only major difference between Barry's SZ340 and the 330 is the Hard drive (160gb to 120gb). The SZ330 priced on Sony's website came out to $2250. I got lucky and found a return at Circuit City for $1600 in perfect condition.

It runs beautifully! I'm able to view 1080 footage at full screen without skips or bumps. I can download a 4 GB P2 card through the PCMCIA slot in 2 minutes 10 seconds. Very very FAST!

Weighing in at 4lbs it's perfect for when I need to pick it up and run like heck while being chased by some mad man in the middle east!

Jeremy
www.BibleTreasureFilms.com
www.thecreativelaboratory.com
 
Does anyone know how the Sony Vaio SZ330 (or 340) is at working with DVCProHD in Vegas? Can clips be previewed with real time playback?
 
BTW, in my previous post I meant DVCProHD clips converted to AVI through CineForm's ConnectHD...
 
Hey Jeremy,

Congrats and thanks for sharing your purchase decision. I'm considering buying the sz330 or 340. So like KMR, I'm also wondering how has the laptop perfomed editing-wise. I don't have any other workstations, so this one will be it for me. On the fence between the sz340 or the new MacBookPro.

Thanks!
 
BigMike said:
i recieved my Dell Precision M90 mobile workstation last Saturday.

2.3 GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 2 Gigs of RAM, 512 Meg Nvidia graphics card, 100 Meg 7200RPM ide drive ( I edit off an external G-RAID pro) and a 17" 16x9 monitor....

1995.00 from the Dell refurbished site.
Click to expand...


That's one of the best deals I've ever seen on this monster... and that 512MB nVidia Quadro 2500M is C-R-A-Z-Y... the benchmarks are off-the mark... quite possibly the most powerful laptop card out there - on par with the Geforce 7900GTX... congrats... that would be my dream system... although the HP-Compaq portable workstation nw9440 looks better than the M90 and would probably be my first choice... but it costs upwards of $3500 depending of configuration... *sigh*... right now I gotta make do with a Dell Inspiron 9300 with GeForce 6800...
 
Barry,

I like the laptop you have but the monitor is really small. I like Sony, just sold
my 3 year-old laptop and wouldn't mind getting another one this Christmas,
but thinking more like a 15 or 17 inch monitor.
 
Smaller screen was a #1 consideration. I've been hauling a Dell 17" laptop around, and it's so big and massive and clunky that I couldn't justify it anymore (but like I said, I've been doing an absurd amount of traveling; in fact I'm writing this post from Mumbai (Bombay) India!)

15" might be a good compromise; 17" is just too big for portability. I actually wanted to go with the Dell M1210, but no P2 slot killed that one.
 
dsp said:
Congrats and thanks for sharing your purchase decision. I'm considering buying the sz330 or 340. So like KMR, I'm also wondering how has the laptop perfomed editing-wise. I don't have any other workstations, so this one will be it for me. On the fence between the sz340 or the new MacBookPro.
Click to expand...

For editing capabilities I'd rate the SZ330 an 8.5 to 9 out of 10 performance. Sometimes it can hickup a bit, but overall it runs pretty good. I'm use to editing on a monster of a desktop, so I can't be completely satisfied. It's still a laptop and you can't demand the world from it. Oh yeah, I bought an extra "high capacity" battery for it and I can get about 4 or 5 hours out of it. Compared to other laptops this is great. Most laptops get about 60 or 90 minutes.

Trust me, I did a lot of research and I think this is a great buy, even at a $2k price tag. It's lightweight, compact, fast and can download a 4gb p2 card in just over 2 minutes. Who's ya daddy? Just go for it. If you don't like it, take it back within the specified time frame the store allows and get your money back.
 
What are you doing in India, Barry?!

I've been quite impressed with the screen and image quality of the Sony laptops. They're small and lightweight too.
 
David S. said:
no type II PC Card slot
Click to expand...
I was wondering about that because it says 1 Type I/Type II. Does it need to say CardBus? I've seen a lot of notebooks that say 1 Type I/Type II but only some say with CardBus support.
 
You want cardbus or PCMCIA in the specs.

In other words, if it says both or either, you're good to go.

Always best to talk to the manufacturer.
 
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