Mobile Workstation

H

Homey

Active member
Hello there,

I hope this is the best section to ask about this.

Although I don't like the idea, I'm going to have to acquire a laptop for work and off course I need roughly the same performance of my desktop computer. Looking through all the options out there I am confused over choosing a workstation laptop or a high performance multimedia laptop, the latter being a lot cheaper.

Thing is, workstation laptops such as HP Elitebook, HP Zbook, Dell Precision M4700 seem great but offer less than multimedia laptops such as Asus N750JV and others for a lot more money. Certain configurations, mind you.

So, is having a great display, Quadro graphics cards and military tested chassis as important as lots of ram (16gb), well performing game oriented geforce cards? Does anyone have first hands experience with mobile workstations and is it worth the extra cost?

I am going to be running Adobe Photoshop, Premiere Pro and off course After Effects. I currently have a pc running Mac OSX 10.6.8 , AMD Radeon 6870 (no cuda :( ) , I7 quad core, 16gm of ram, ssd etc.
 
I too have a custom built PC for "heavy iron" editing.

My current "road warrior" setup is a loaded Macbook Pro. They really do give pc laptops a run for the money.
 
Then buy an HP Elitebook.

But it won't be as fast nor as light.

I regularly cut Raw Red 4k footage on mine with no problems.
 
mcgeedigital said:
I regularly cut Raw Red 4k footage on mine with no problems.
Click to expand...

That's not bad at all. I actually prefer the Mac OS operating system (currently running on a hackintosh) but still, I don't think I will be buying a Macbook. Thanks for you input though.

The Lenovo features many things mobile workstations are known for but it does fall in the same price category as the others in its class.

So, coming back to the workstation vs multimedia laptop for editing and compositing question, I have yet to discover the difference in performance, only the difference in build/screen quality.
 
I'm having a beastly laptop made from mythlogic right now for on the road davinci. Out the door price with of $2600.[TABLE="class: summary_table, width: 400"]
[TR="class: row1, bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]
[TH]Mobile Chassis:[/TH]
[TD]MYTHLOGIC Pollux 1613-Black Chassis (Clevo P150SM)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: row2, bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]
[TH]Mobile Display:[/TH]
[TD]15.6" Full HD (1920x1080) Matte 95% NTSC Color Gamut LED Backlit LCD (Pollux)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: row1, bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]
[TH]Dead Pixel Guarantee:[/TH]
[TD]MYTH Pixel Perfect Guarantee[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: row2, bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]
[TH]Monitor Calibration:[/TH]
[TD]Free MYTH Professional Monitor Color Calibration[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: row1, bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]
[TH]CPU:[/TH]
[TD]Intel Core i7-4800MQ 2.7GHz, 6M L3 Cache, 22nm, DDR3L-1600MHz, Quad-Core Mobile Processor[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: row2, bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]
[TH]Thermal Compound:[/TH]
[TD]Free IC Diamond Thermal Compound[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: row1, bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]
[TH]System Memory:[/TH]
[TD]16GB (4 x 4GB) , PC3-14900, 1866MHz SODIMM Quad-core processors ONLY![/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: row2, bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]
[TH]Video Adapter:[/TH]
[TD]NVIDIA 780M 4096MB GDDR5 DX11 Compliant Video Card[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: row1, bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]
[TH]Optical:[/TH]
[TD]Notebook Black 8X DVD+RW/CDRW Combo Drive[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: row2, bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]
[TH]mSATA Solid State Drive:[/TH]
[TD]Samsung PM841 (840) 128GB mSATA Solid State Drive[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: row1, bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]
[TH]Hard Drive:[/TH]
[TD]1TB 7200 32MB Cache SATA Notebook Hard Drive[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: row2, bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]
[TH]Hard Drive:[/TH]
[TD]1TB 7200 32MB Cache SATA Notebook Hard Drive[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: row1, bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]
[TH]Keyboard:[/TH]
[TD]Standard Backlit Keyboard - NON Chiclet[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: row2, bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]
[TH]Network Card:[/TH]
[TD]Onboard Gigabit (10/100/1000 Mbits/sec) LAN subsystem[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: row1, bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]
[TH]Wireless Card:[/TH]
[TD]Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 3*3 802.11 a/g/n 450MB Total Bandwidth[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: row2, bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]
[TH]Bluetooth:[/TH]
[TD]Integrated Bluetooth 4.0 with Intel 7260-AC and Killer 1202[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: row1, bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]
[TH]Operating System:[/TH]
[TD]Windows 8.1[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: row2, bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]
[TH]Anti-Virus Software:[/TH]
[TD]Microsoft Security Essentials[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: row1, bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]
[TH]MYTHLOGIC Assurance:[/TH]
[TD]MYTH Lifetime Assurance with Lifetime Labor + 3 Years Parts Warranty, 3 Yrs 2-Way Shipping Cont US[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: row2, bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]
[TH]Phoenix Upgrade Plan:[/TH]
[TD]Lifetime Phoenix Upgrade Plan[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]


After being a long time Mac user I'll tell you how the switch goes!
 
Hi

Biggest difference is paying for the Quadro card. Not needed for video work. Quadro = mostly better software drivers for modeling programs like Auto cad and more precision in hardware math. Neither applies to most video.

Next is Xeon CPU. Not needed unless you are going dual CPU.

Memory is error correcting. Also not needed.

Build quality = always nice.

Basically save your $$ and get a gaming laptop.

Suggestions for video laptop:
Get fast I7 CPU. Just below fastest is usually the value point versus performance.
Only get Intel CPU. Get I7 to get 4 real cores and 4 virtual cores. Make sure you see eight cores.
Intel makes all sorts of crippled low voltage mobile CPUs. Stay away for video editing. big performance hit.
The new Haswell CPUs may give you up to twice the run time without a low voltage performance hit. These are good.
Watch out you still could get a low voltage Haswell.
I think the low voltage CPUs are marked U or V. I am not sure. You should Google any CPU you are considering and look for reviews.
Yes, RAM is good. After Affects loves RAM.
GPU. Different specs for gaming, video and modeling.
For video you need bandwidth and memory. Look at the specs and buy according to those two numbers.
Of course you are only looking at Nvidia.
Panel. Look for IPS panel that will get you true blacks instead of grays.
Drives. C: drive = SSD if you want fast boot and program loading.
Second internal drive. If you want to cut multicam and you are not making full length movies get a big SSD as an E: drive (D: is your optical drive).
Use USB 3 external drives for everything else.
Windows 8.1 is not ready for laptop prime time yet as of the date this was written.
Windows 8.0 may be if you are an optimist.
Windows 7 is ready.

The above is just my opinion. If you want me to explain these choices, just ask.
I wish you good luck and happy editing.
 
Blit said:
Hi

Biggest difference is paying for the Quadro card. Not needed for video work. Quadro = mostly better software drivers for modeling programs like Auto cad and more precision in hardware math. Neither applies to most video.

Next is Xeon CPU. Not needed unless you are going dual CPU.

Memory is error correcting. Also not needed.

Build quality = always nice.

Basically save your $$ and get a gaming laptop.

Suggestions for video laptop:
Get fast I7 CPU. Just below fastest is usually the value point versus performance.
Only get Intel CPU. Get I7 to get 4 real cores and 4 virtual cores. Make sure you see eight cores.
Intel makes all sorts of crippled low voltage mobile CPUs. Stay away for video editing. big performance hit.
The new Haswell CPUs may give you up to twice the run time without a low voltage performance hit. These are good.
Watch out you still could get a low voltage Haswell.
I think the low voltage CPUs are marked U or V. I am not sure. You should Google any CPU you are considering and look for reviews.
Yes, RAM is good. After Affects loves RAM.
GPU. Different specs for gaming, video and modeling.
For video you need bandwidth and memory. Look at the specs and buy according to those two numbers.
Of course you are only looking at Nvidia.
Panel. Look for IPS panel that will get you true blacks instead of grays.
Drives. C: drive = SSD if you want fast boot and program loading.
Second internal drive. If you want to cut multicam and you are not making full length movies get a big SSD as an E: drive (D: is your optical drive).
Use USB 3 external drives for everything else.
Windows 8.1 is not ready for laptop prime time yet as of the date this was written.
Windows 8.0 may be if you are an optimist.
Windows 7 is ready.

The above is just my opinion. If you want me to explain these choices, just ask.
I wish you good luck and happy editing.
Click to expand...

If you want 10bit colour in Windows, you have to use a Quadro or FirePro card. Lots of monitors support 10bit colour, but without a Quadro card, you won't see it.
 
This is great to see all this input. I am looking at getting a laptop for editing Premiere CS6 on the road. Some multi-cam stuff will be a part of the mix. Am looking at a Dell Precision M6800, with:

8GB RAM, GB Nvidia Quadro K3100Mgraphics card, and an "Intel i7-quad core 4700MQ 2.40Ghz Turbo 6MV 47W, w/HD graphics"

1TB "Hybrid"drive.

It goes fo $2449 from Dell. I could add some more memory and an SSD drive. D you think this could do the job? My primary editor wil sill be my monster HP desktop, but or road trips, does it have the guts? I would guess yes, but would appreciate feedback on this.


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Last edited:
That's great info, thanks so much Blit! I ended up having the same thoughts after a lot of research. I was only sceptical about the panel but it seems IPS is the way to go if you' re not going to have a true 100% sRGB monitor. Let alone 10bit. By the way, HP workstations offer dreamcolor option for their laptop panels for whoever is interested.

Jon, that's a beast of a machine you built and it will surely outperform any Mac. Only downside is the os and the lack of Prores if I'm not mistaken. Please let us know of your experience with it when you get it.

To sum up, I agree with Blit. If your workflow, level of expertise and in general your place in the professional video and effects market doesn't justify the purchase of a top notch professional workstation then go with the gaming/high end multimedia option. At least that's my case. Otherwise I wouldn't even start this conversation and would have gone straight to buying a pretty great but expensive machine.

I will let you know of my purchase and perfomance of the machine. Thanks for the feedback!
 
mcgeed, homey, thanks for the fast responses! Really appreciate the input. Will order it tonight.
SW
 
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