Recommended Mac or PC laptop for video editing?

M

msklut

New member
Hello,

I'm in the market for a new laptop at home. I've been using a mid-2010 MacBook Pro 2.53GHz i5 with an NVIDIA 330m graphics card, which I honestly don't know how I lasted this long using it. I mostly work with Adobe Lightroom for RAW photo editing & Adobe Premiere for editing 1080p video. I would like a fairly lightweight laptop (under 5lbs) with an i7, an IPS screen, and graphics card that's suitable for what I do. My budget is about $1500.

I'm thinking of switching over to PCs from Mac unless there are reasons not to. I've looked at these laptops below. Anyone have recommendations?
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834154623
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16834233203
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834234455
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIAD4U5U43704

Thank you,
Mason
 
I've had an MSI GT72 for about a year now. Very satisfied with it. Previous gen 17.3" model.
2.7GHz i7-6700HQ, 16GB ram, 512GB M.2 SSD. Nvidia GTX970M 3GB Vram. USB3 and Thunderbolt 3 ports.
Heavy at about 10lbs, more like a mobile workstation. But runs great. Runs Davinci Resolve with 2k raw from my D16 in real time.
I currently have 6TB of external drives attached to it for video media: A 4TB USB3 drive for offloads and backups, and an Oyen Digital 2TB raid 0 scratch disk for editing with two WD black 1TB drives installed.
You might want to look at the GT series. It is a modular platform with two M.2 PCI-E SSD slots and a standard 2.5" drive slot internally. GPU is on a daughterboard that can potentially be upgraded too.
The 15.6" version is much lighter, but still over 6Lbs I think. But it is the foundation for a serious capable editing workstation that runs as well as many desktops.
Thunderbolt 3 port opens up a lot of possibilities for external storage and accessories.
Runs very cool and quiet with dedicated fans for CPU and GPU.
 
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Razz's machine sounds nice.

I have a couple friends who are happy with ASUS laptops for editing...one on his second (over many years), another on his third, I think. They use laptops designed for gamers, so nice screens and good GPUs. And for someone migrating from Macs, very inexpensive.
https://www.asus.com/us/Laptops/
 
I've owned the 15" Asus ROG and MSI Apache and as someone coming from a macbookpro I can tell you, portability is not the strong suit. At least not what you're used to. The Dell XPS is my favorite of the ones you've selected as it's a decent machine if you want to sit on the couch and work on something light (i.e scripts and billing) but also packs a decent punch for editing. I have no real issues with the ASUS or MSI because they do pack a punch for their cost and for day to day stuff work really well. My only last bit of advice, if you can get your hands on any of these at a local best buy or similar market place, please do. If you've edited at all using your trackpad nothing in the PC world comes close in my opinion save for Razer's Stealth/Blade series.
 
TSDavis said:
I've owned the 15" Asus ROG and MSI Apache and as someone coming from a macbookpro I can tell you, portability is not the strong suit. At least not what you're used to. The Dell XPS is my favorite of the ones you've selected as it's a decent machine if you want to sit on the couch and work on something light (i.e scripts and billing) but also packs a decent punch for editing. I have no real issues with the ASUS or MSI because they do pack a punch for their cost and for day to day stuff work really well. My only last bit of advice, if you can get your hands on any of these at a local best buy or similar market place, please do. If you've edited at all using your trackpad nothing in the PC world comes close in my opinion save for Razer's Stealth/Blade series.
Click to expand...


Yeah, the 17.3" GT72 MSI is a beast. Not really a "laptop" Makes a nice platform for a mobile DIT and editing workstation though.
I don't use the track pad at all. It is disabled when the wireless mouse is connected. I use a Contour Shuttlepro II and keyboard shortcuts for editing in Lightworks. Works for Resolve too, much clunkier less responsive interface.
 
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TSDavis said:
I've owned the 15" Asus ROG and MSI Apache and as someone coming from a macbookpro I can tell you, portability is not the strong suit. ... If you've edited at all using your trackpad nothing in the PC world comes close in my opinion save for Razer's Stealth/Blade series.
Click to expand...

Ya, Razer's stuff looks good. But not all ASUS machines are huge. Check out their ZenBook line (if they're fast enough for you) and some of their newer gaming laptops such as:
https://www.asus.com/us/Laptops/ROG-GL502VS/
 
HP Zbook 15 and 17 workstation is a viable choice to consider. I have owned the Zbook 17 for about 2 years now. Editing 4k video from the Panasonic GH4 and now, GH5 with Avid Media Composer 8.8.5 and extremely good results.
 
Thank you all for the suggestions. I just saw that Costco is offering a special on a new Dell XPS 15 Touchscreen with an i7, 4K UHD, 4GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1050, 32GB RAM, and 1TB SSD for $1999. We'll see, it might be too good of a deal to pass up.
 
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