Laptop died, need new PC for T2i work and Adobe production suite 5.5

Saharanturtle

Saharanturtle

Active member
I think it's time to get a new pc :/ my laptop won't turn on for more than five minutes since yesterday. I think it's the batter and charger because they haven't worked well for a long time and I think it costs $150 to buy a new battery and charger so it's not worth it

I was checking best buy and found these four desktops below. How well do you guys/gals think they would work for editing t2i footage and for working in Premiere pro, after effects and other Adobe production premium 5.5?





Asus - Essentio Desktop / AMD Phenom™ II X6 Processor / 8GB Memory / 1TB Hard Drive - Our Price: $559.99


http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+Essentio+Desktop+/+AMD+Phenom%26%23153%3B+II+X6+Processor+/+8GB+Memory+/+1TB+Hard+Drive/2634102.p?id=1218341075428&skuId=2634102



  • VISION Ultimate Technology by AMD
    For cutting-edge, high-definition performance while creating and editing HD videos, manipulating detailed photos, playing graphics-rich games, editing and mixing music, recording live TV or creating podcasts.
  • AMD Phenom™ II X6 processor 1065T*
    True multicore processing for extreme multitasking performance. Cool'n'Quiet™ 3.0 and CoolCore™ technologies and Dual Dynamic Power Management™ for efficient energy usage.
  • Direct Connect Architecture
    Delivers overall system performance. HyperTransport™ technology, AMD Balanced Smart Cache and AMD Wide Floating Point Accelerator for quick access times and improved performance.
  • AMD Memory Optimizer Technology
    For multithreaded software performance, and AMD Virtualization with Rapid Virtualization Indexing to help virtualization software run securely and efficiently.
  • 8GB DDR3 memory
  • 6MB cache memory
  • 1TB Serial ATA hard drive (7200 rpm)
  • ATI Radeon 3000 graphics
 
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Zxander34 said:
Go Mac?
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And spend 3 times as much as the ones that were list in the original post?




I'd say you want a nVidia Graphics card especially if you're working Premiere.

If you go with AMD at least a 6-core, because AMDs do not have hyperthreading.

You're really going to need spend atleast $800 or so to get anything decent for video editing.
 
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I have the amd 1035t 6-core with ati graphics works OK for me. But then again if I were to fit a Nvidea cuda card I am sure it would fly.
 
Andrew McCarrick said:
And spend 3 times as much as the ones that were list in the original post?




I'd say you want a nVidia Graphics card especially if you're working Premiere.

If you go with AMD at least a 6-core, because AMDs do not have hyperthreading.

You're really going to need spend atleast $800 or so to get anything decent for video editing.
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I don't really need anything top of the line because I'm new to this. I only got to edit using premiere on my laptop for a brief period before it died, but it wasn't so bad to edit on that three year old laptop (3gigs of ram, 180 gig hd, and an AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-60 / 2.0 GHz)

well, it wasn't so bad AFTER I converted the footage in cineform;) before conversion I couldn't scrub through the footage at all, it would just show me the last frame when I released the bar

You don't think the Lenovo looks good? is intel i3 too slow for editing, or will it be slow for rendering the final outputs?
 
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Well I took your advice and took the HP quad core and the Lenovo i3 out of the running. Now I'm searching for AMD x6 pc's (they're cheaper than pc's with i5 or i7 processors)
 
The new choices:

Dell - Studio XPS Desktop / Intel® Core™ i5 Processor / 6GB Memory / 1TB Hard Drive - Sale: $659.99
Customer Reviews:
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4.5 Read reviews (16)



http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Dell+-+...41076124&skuId=2633079#tabbed-customerreviews


Asus - Essentio Desktop / AMD Phenom™ II X6 Processor / 8GB Memory / 1TB Hard Drive -Our Price: $559.99
Customer Reviews:
ratings_star_4_0.gif
4.0 Read reviews (24)



http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+...4102&ci_src=11138&ref=39&CJPID=4177994&loc=01


Lenovo - IdeaCentre Desktop / Intel® Core™ i5 Processor / 6GB Memory / 1TB Hard Drive - Our Price:$649.99
Customer Reviews:
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Be the first to write a review.



http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Lenovo+...rive/2817167.p?id=1218353394551&skuId=2817167
 
I very highly recommend the Dell outlet. Real time inventory is tough now with back to school buyers clearing it up, but if you call them, the reps have access to inventory not online.
Also, check the Dell Outlet twitter feed for coupons.

Got my last editing laptop there for a sweet deal:
i5 2.6Ghz
6GB Ram
640GB HD
~$400 and change

It was a scratch and dent model, which means there was basically a cosmetic scuff on it somewhere that I have yet to find (and by now I've added enough scratches and dents of my own that I wouldn't be able to tell anyway). All Outlet models come with the same full warranty as a new Dell, and I've been extremely pleased with my last 3 purchases from them!
Spent about as much over 4 years as one Macbook would have cost me, and have better rendering time and performance.

My philosophy is to not invest too much in a computer at any one time- you will always want/need the next generation as they come out, so it is pointless to spend a lot upfront. Buying a higher end machine might keep it from being obsolete a bit longer, but it will still be obsolete fast enough to not be worth the extra money. Get the lowest end that does what you need now, upgrade in a year or so and sell the old one before it loses too much value. This has worked quite well for me.
 
It's worth the extra $$$ to go with an i7 if you are running Adobe CS5.5, especially for After Effects. Also look for a machine that can be upgraded to at least 12GB of ram or more. I run CS 5.5 on a 2011 MacBook Pro, and the i7 provides a significant a boost over my older four core (no HT) desktop for both editing and rendering.
 
MarcoPolo said:
It's worth the extra $$$ to go with an i7 if you are running Adobe CS5.5, especially for After Effects. Also look for a machine that can be upgraded to at least 12GB of ram or more. I run CS 5.5 on a 2011 MacBook Pro, and the i7 provides a significant a boost over my older four core (no HT) desktop for both editing and rendering.
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Was your previous "4 core" an i5, or the older generation core2 quad?Because while the i7 is an awesome chip, I found the price per performance gain of questionable value compared to an i5 in my real world testing. As I mentioned above, laptops are practically disposable to me in this industry, so I see little value in investing in the top of the line.
 
i5 or i7 doesn't mean a thing, there are i5 processors that are very close to (and sometimes even faster than) some i7 processors; just look at the generation, number of cores, MHz, turbo modes, and hyperthreading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Core_i5_microprocessors#Mobile_processors - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Core_i7_microprocessors#Mobile_processors - and in any case yes, your bottleneck is probably going to be on the HDD, not the CPU, plus: even though I used to be somewhat-ati-fanboy a few years ago (when I did 3D), I think CUDA in premiere 5 is great if you can get that
 
Lol I've never built a computer, so this tech talk is going right over my head for the most part. To keep it simple, what do you guys think of this Asus? Out of the three in the last page its the only one that has 8gigs of RAM:
saharanturtle said:
Asus - Essentio Desktop / AMD Phenom™ II X6 Processor / 8GB Memory / 1TB Hard Drive -Our Price: $559.99 Customer Reviews:
ratings_star_4_0.gif
4.0 Read reviews (24)http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+...4102&ci_src=11138&ref=39&CJPID=4177994&loc=01
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M. Gilden said:
I very highly recommend the Dell outlet. Real time inventory is tough now with back to school buyers clearing it up, but if you call them, the reps have access to inventory not online. Also, check the Dell Outlet twitter feed for coupons.Got my last editing laptop there for a sweet deal:i5 2.6Ghz6GB Ram640GB HD~$400 and changeIt was a scratch and dent model, which means there was basically a cosmetic scuff on it somewhere that I have yet to find (and by now I've added enough scratches and dents of my own that I wouldn't be able to tell anyway). All Outlet models come with the same full warranty as a new Dell, and I've been extremely pleased with my last 3 purchases from them!Spent about as much over 4 years as one Macbook would have cost me, and have better rendering time and performance.My philosophy is to not invest too much in a computer at any one time- you will always want/need the next generation as they come out, so it is pointless to spend a lot upfront. Buying a higher end machine might keep it from being obsolete a bit longer, but it will still be obsolete fast enough to not be worth the extra money. Get the lowest end that does what you need now, upgrade in a year or so and sell the old one before it loses too much value. This has worked quite well for me.
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I'm weary of buying refurbished products because even though you can get a really good deal, you can also have a lemon on your hands that will cost you $100 to ship back to the company
 
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RAM is cheap these days, so you always can add some, but I would shy away from ATI CPUs for editing. It works, but Intel have some extra umph (just try to avoid tec speak).

Frank
 
Saharanturtle said:
I'm weary of buying refurbished products because even though you can get a really good deal, you can also have a lemon on your hands that will cost you $100 to ship back to the company
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Statistically, the same thing happens to a new purchase.
The Dell Outlet isn't "refurbished" in the traditional sense. What you are describing sounds like third party refurbishing, where all the returns are bought up by another company that cleans them up and sells again. Whatever is wrong with the product is likely still wrong with it. But this is Dell selling their own computers, but for whatever reason they can't sell them through the regular channels. It could include models that are no longer for sale, computers that were custom built but then had the order cancelled before shipping (but it is already built so they have to get rid of it), cosmetic defect noticed in the factory (my personal favorites), etc. Refurbished is only one of the options there, and honestly I'd be comfortable buying one from them.

All purchases come with the same warranty and service as a new one. That means they give you the same quality of service- the one time I had a problem (optical drive wouldn't open), they fixed it right away. If that didn't work, they were ready to overnight a new optical drive to me.

But, to each their own. I suppose it is nice to be able to return something to a local store if you're queasy about this.
 
M. Gilden said:
Was your previous "4 core" an i5, or the older generation core2 quad?Because while the i7 is an awesome chip, I found the price per performance gain of questionable value compared to an i5 in my real world testing. As I mentioned above, laptops are practically disposable to me in this industry, so I see little value in investing in the top of the line.
Click to expand...

Yes, but if doubling the thread count isn't a huge cost premium (say perhaps an extra $200 or less), it's worth it for the i7 since the Adobe Suite can make use of them. I maximize the life cycle of laptops, so I'll spend a few extra bucks if it translates into longer hardware viability.
 
I bought from this company for cs5. I do a lot of effects and so forth. You can personalize it to your liking. The good thing about this is your future proofing yourself in a way. With companies like hp or dell the parts can't be as easily upgraded. With this the case should last you a long time. You can easily upgrade things like hard disk. Plus the company is great with service. They know what they're doing and will help you with anything. I'll only buy from them from now on. 2,000 is a little steep but this is for a new intel processor, great chassis, power, 16 gb or ram which will cut through cs5.5, a graphics card that will enhance the process and overclocked safely. Plus I added 3 1tb hard disk. One for programs. One for scratch and one for offloading saved files. You can change the settings to fit your budget or give them a call. They'll work with you. Don't go with the workstations. The gaming line is much cheaper and does a great job. This is for the base model but it comes out being about 2,000 with the extra hard disk and ram I mentioned...

http://www.digitalstormonline.com/comploaddreadnought.asp?id=477436

Search for reviews. These guys are highly rated.
 
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ok, I finally clicked on that asus link... and it is a desktop!! I didn't even realize you were looking for that, I saw "laptop" on the title and just assumed... anyway... that asus tower looks great, I don't know a lot about prices in the US but it looks fine to me; the AMD 1065 is basically on par with the i5 650, which is a very decent CPU: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Prod....42.43.45.46.53.54.55.56.57.58.60.61.62.63.64 - and you can just add an nvidia GPU later on if you wish, for $100 more or so (the cheapest ones won't help CS5)
 
That gateway does look good but Im not a big fan of gateway. My first pc a few years ago was a gateway. One day it died so I do some Google'in and find out that a ton of other people had the same problem. The motherboard is the part that died and gateway can't replace it or fix it so everyone was basically s.o.l.
 
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