Going to buy a laptop NEED HELP

Re: Going to buy a laptop NEED HELP

I've been running Premiere Pro on my 2 year old Dell 8500 Laptop which is a P4 2GHz (not hyperthreading), with 640K ram, 15.4" widescreen, and an external 250gig hard drive. Premiere Pro runs fine in real time with very little problems, so the newer systems and chips should run all the more better. I'm planning an upgrade to 1.5GB of ram very soon. I haven't been following Dell's line-up of late, but I would highly recommend getting the model with the widest screen option available. The extra real estate is worth every penny. Also, you will definitely need an external hard drive to capture and store your video files. I purchased an ACOM 250GB for about $260 at Compusa. Just make sure that whatever external drive you pick spins at 7200 rpms (or more) and has at least an 8mb buffer (many have only 2mb). Using the same drive for your operating system, program files, and video files is the surest way to bog down performance.

Good luck!

--Michael
 
Re: Going to buy a laptop NEED HELP

I agree with him. I run Premiere Pro 1.5 on my Dell 8500 and I have no problems what so ever.
 
Re: Going to buy a laptop NEED HELP

I have a Dell home machine and its fantastic. Also their customer service is tremendous. Cant go wrong there in my opinion
 
Re: Going to buy a laptop NEED HELP

Although not well known in the consumer market Fujitsu is unsurppased in quality over any other consumer marketed computer. Things you will find is innovative designs, cutting edge technology (Wifi, etc), Magnesium cases (durable). Go to www.leog.net and they have their own forum targeted specifically at Fujitsu computers... Although I havent yet bought one I have been studying on the perfect notebook computer.. lol ...

Kinda like I shopped six months for the ultimate camera  DVX100 ;)

Im looking at the p7010d series.. It is a subnotebook : 10" screen  ;D
60gig 7200 RPM HD with  pentium M 1.1 gig processor.. They will be integrating the new Dothan chip soon..

Ok so its not a smoking hot 3 gig system that weighs 8 lbs and has a 1.5 hour battery life. P7010D w 3lbs, batt. life 4.5 hours

What I can do however:
*Watch DVDs
*Store and listen too all my mp3s
*use photshop cs
*use Vegas for field editing work
*NEW DV RACK ?
*Use it for field acquisition through firewire external drives.
(I can edit final with customer, use my larger home computer to edit, render and burn dvds etc..)
* use it for Microsoft office, email etc.. (power point presentation)
*Access internet through Wifi
*Macromedia Dreamweaver
* It has a Svideo i can use it  as a monitor or projector.
etc.. etc.. etc..

My main point is I can do most everything on this smaller handy Laptop.. Im so lazy I dream of laying in bed cruzin the net instead of sitting up at my desk for hours every night... lol

I can use my more powerful desktop for rendering and most editing and my laptop for everything else basically. As you can tell I have been doing alot of dreaming about this computer...

Now to come up with the 2,100$.. Im waiting a few more months when its more feasible..
 
Re: Going to buy a laptop NEED HELP

I just went and looked at the computer you had linked there.. Wow! its alot faster than even my home desktop ;D

My above post was just another way of looking at things from a different perspective....

I want to edit on a desktop with two large 19" or larger screens.. dont you'?? Maybe not.. Nice computer your looking at though...
 
Re: Going to buy a laptop NEED HELP

I want a laptop with the performance of a desktop because im going to be traveling alot and need a mobile setup so i can edit on the fly. dvx100a, dv deck, external harddrives, and laptop. I got some input that i should go with either a dell or a sony with a pentium 4 HT processor 2.8Ghz-3.4Ghz. Its hard to find a laptop with the full specs that im looking for, it seems like im either going to have to by one with some of the specs i want and upgrade it.

what im looking for.
15.4" monitor or larger
2.8-3.4GHz Pentium 4 Processor
533MHz-800MHz Frontside bus
upgradable to 2gig memory
256Mb Graphics Card
Decent size Harddrive to Hold Software
Using external Harddrives for video
dvd-rom drive...probably going to use external dvd+-r drive if necessary.

I think that is it, please give me feedback of what you all think.

Thanks
Phil
 
Re: Going to buy a laptop NEED HELP

The Dell seems like it fits the bill. As long as you nail the screen (biggest and brightest) and CPU on the initial purchase, most everything else is upgradable. Even my 2yr old Dell 8500 can handle 2GB of ram, and it's a lot cheaper to upgrade in the aftermarket anyway. And heck, my internal HD is only 30GB, and it holds all my Adobe & MS Office applications, XP Pro and a lot more with no problem. A super high end graphics card isn't even all that important for running Premiere Pro. Far more important is the RAM and CPU.
 
Re: Going to buy a laptop NEED HELP

My friend recently purchased a laptop computer from Sager.

The laptop was pretty cheap, considering it came furnished with 2 GB of RAM, uncountable bells and whistles (an on-board webcam that probably has the responsiveness of a snail's eye), a fast Pentium 4, Radeon 9600 Mobility, monstrous 17" screen, and so on.

Just thought you might want to know about another option. Their site (www.sagernotebook.com) has recently been improved (it was a lot crummier before).

I know they don't manufacture their laptops themselves because of the highly generic user's manual, but I noticed that a certain well-known workstation manufacturer is now selling an identical laptop for about 40% more ...
 
Re: Going to buy a laptop NEED HELP

Yeah I have a Sager 5680..And it is awesome!!! I run Premiere Pro 1.5 with no problems.. I have the whole Adobe Digital Collection and it works great...One suggestion is that you get a 7200RPM drive for your main drive though...Also I would wait like a month or two if you could because the new technology is coming out.....A laptop form Sager/Clevo with PCI Xpress and the Express Card..And DDR2 in it.....So i would definatly wait if you could! I want one of those when they come out! Just IM me or whatever if you need anything else answered. www.PCtorque.com has the best prices on Sagers...thats where i bought mine...and you can check out the most aweosme forums on alot of the uptodate laptops at http://notebookforums.com

Good Luck
John
 
Re: Going to buy a laptop NEED HELP

I wouldn't recommend the Acom as a second external drive. The price is good but mine went kaput after only six months.
 
Re: Going to buy a laptop NEED HELP

I have a 17 inch powerbook. I love it although the 17 inch is not as portable as the 15 it is nice to have. Performance wise A+ it runs better than my G4 tower. Install FCP HD and your good to go.
 
Re: Going to buy a laptop NEED HELP

Dell does not make laptops. They get them from either uniwell or compal in China.

You can get the exact same laptops at pcclub.com for less money and better service.
 
Re: Going to buy a laptop NEED HELP

My 2 piasters:

Screen monitor should be the highest consideration since ours is foremost a visual medium. Sony is known for always having the highest quality monitors so for a Windows box, I might go with Sony. I have seen the Sonys and they look better than anything except the Apple screens. Apple is always a good choice but with the obvious limitations. Toshiba might also be a good choice for Windows since they are also known for high quality screens. Sony has models that are dedicated for video use.

I own a Dell and even their "best" laptop screens are not very good quality and no where near the quality of Sony and Mac. I would not purchase Dell again because of this sole limitation. Compare the brightness when viewing both at an angle (from far on the periphery) and in direct light. You'll see the difference. Dell's prices are lower at least in part because they scimp on their screens. With my Dell I have to crane to get my head dead-center to get acceptable visuals.

I used to do phone sales for Gateway before their corporate meltdown and Dell would always beat our price by $200-300. Because it was phone sales, I could never actually "show" that our monitors were vastly superior. Would not buy Gateway though because I have no confidence since that meltdown continues.

Bottom line: when it comes down to overall dedicated audio and video/grahic quality, Apple cannot be beat but it costs a lot more.

Luck,
Moe
 
Re: Going to buy a laptop NEED HELP

My toy of choice is the Toshiba P25-S676, for about $2500
3.4 GHz P4
nVidia GFX 5700 w/ 128 MB RAM (as much as you're going to get in a mobile chipset)
512 MB DDR, up to 2 GB. (1GB will only cost about $200 more, 2GB may run $800 more)
DVD-SuperMulti burner
80 GB HD
17" wide-screen display

I've had great luck with Toshiba's Satellite family, and they put some great harware in at good prices. The only downside is the battery life. This is a screamin mutha and it has a max batter life of about an hour and a half. However, my plan is to get one and use it as much as possible on indoor shoots (power plugged in), and use it to record directly from the DVX100a firewire in play mode, so I won't actually be using the mechanical heads in the camcorder at all. I did this for a while with a Sony Digital8 handicam and a Toshiba laptop w/ a 1 GHz P3 a couple of years ago, and it worked great.
 
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