Which laptop do you edit on?

Rick Meyer

Rick Meyer

Veteran
Hey gang, I haven't been consistently around in a long time. It's nice to look around the board and see that many of my favorite regulars are still here....


I'm looking to upgrade my laptop situation but need a firewire port. I'm probably going to wind up getting a SONY Vaio because so far, its the only laptop I've found that has an i.link (as Sony calls it) that will allow me to upload footage from my DVX. However, I've never been a fan of SONY. I find that outside of Apple, their design department is about as good as it gets. But I've had a few SONY products that have prematurely failed.

Currently, I have a DELL. It's never been as fast as advertised but it has been solid and for that reason, I'd get another one. However...can't find one with a firewire port.

So, even though I may be forced to go with SONY, I was curious as to what other brands out there people are using and what their overall opinions are of them? What do you think of their performance, speed, screens, longevity, etc. Though, I'm not a mac guy (I use Premiere) , I'd love to hear from the mac users as well?

So tell me (and everyone else who has the same question), what laptops are you using and what do you think of it?

Thanks,
Rick
PS It's nice to be getting back in the swing of things...
 
I use a ToshibaSattellite Core2 duo, 3-years old at this point, running Vista 64 bit with ATI Radeon graphics and two 200GB drives. So far it has worked well, though I am considering whether to replace it or attempt an upgrade to Win 7 and 750GB drives. I hook it to my calibrated LG LCD TV for grading as the laptop display is not good enough for this. Never have liked Dells of any flavor for graphics/media work. This is my second Toshiba and I have been pretty satisfied with them so far.
Depending on your budget, Alienware makes a killer laptop. I would try to find one that can support at least two drives and has an Nvidia graphics chipset. USB3 port for external drive support would be great too.
My Toshiba has an Express Card slot that I have a dual port FW400 card. It also has an miniFW400 port. Mine is an odd model, it has a built in FM radio tuner with a plug in rubber ducky antenna.
 
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Razz16mm said:
This is my second Toshiba and I have been pretty satisfied with them so far.
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Razz, so it's safe to say you'd get another Toshiba and it's performed well? I've looked at Toshiba as well. I haven't seen any with an expresscard slot but figured if I found one, I could get a firewire adapter.
maranfilms said:
asus g-74, 3d
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Same question goes to you...would you buy ASUS again? That brand is new to me although they look VERY nice...
 
Asus has been around for ever, they build many components such as motherboeard, video cards, ect...

I would buy another one in a heart beat. It does not have the express card slot because it has 2 harddrives. But it does have usb3.0 which is awesome.
 
I've been a confirmed PC user for years, but when my Dell laptop died, I was persuaded by friends to get my first Mac. I'd never, ever consider another Dell - I have had 3 over the years and although I do give them heavy use, they have all worn out physically and electronically. The last Dell was not reliable for running editing software - much could be down to the other software on it, I suspect this, but can't prove it. However, what I do know is that this Macbook pro runs adobe creative suite pretty quickly and it is reliable totally. It's a bit of a learning curve, but I'd not go back. I looked at the high spec windows machines, but the faster ones weren't that much cheaper than this Mac - and it's made from metal, has no ventilation slots on the bottom to burn your legs, and the Mac runs windows applications I have via parallels in a way that means mac or PC really doesn't matter.

My Dell laptop, with it's original system restored does edit video - but just not well. It also has the noisiest power supply ever invested, as do most Dells. Connecting a Dell laptop to other equip through the internal sound system is a nightmare - buzzes and strange warbles that vanish on batteries. Talking about batteries - the Mac seems to be happy to run for up to 6 hours on batteries - something my Dell could never do!
 
I bet you most laptops can more or less get you editing. Just really depends on your style. Some guys I know move super fast until they're computer crashes, and curse the machine, force restart... rinse repeat. Others move real slow and just add effect upon effect until they bog down they're system. But for most things, just about any >i5 >4GB ram laptop will do. Especially if you are only ever going to be editing with DVX footage.

If, I use a laptop, I have been using a Mac Book Pro 15" i7 2.2ghz 512MB GFX with 1050p screen. It has a decent amount of screen real estate with resolution to help, but still small enough to justify the term laptop. The 4GB ram is a tad low, definitely upgrade to 8GB or even 16GB if you can. The post 2011 MBP's are my favorite laptop experience to date, for web browsing and getting around the OS, but once you get into Adobe software, all computers are the same.

The iLink, as you know is firewire, there should be firewire 400 to 800 converter cables. That way you could connect your DVX to a mac. But if you are just editing SD miniDV footage, than any laptop with firewire should do. Save yourself the money. And there are some nice PC laptops out there for hundreds less.
 
Rick Meyer said:
Razz, so it's safe to say you'd get another Toshiba and it's performed well? I've looked at Toshiba as well. I haven't seen any with an expresscard slot but figured if I found one, I could get a firewire adapter. Same question goes to you...would you buy ASUS again? That brand is new to me although they look VERY nice...
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Yes I would. They have both been bullet proof hardware wise. I only had to replace power supplies and batteries over the lifespan of the first one, 7 years before the MB failed. I have just replaced the power supply on the current one after 3 years, and the battery is due, down to 28 minute capacity from the original 1.5 hours. Toshiba makes an extensive model line. My current one is a bit of an odd duck and was obviously configured for digital media use. Even has a CF card slot on it. The higher end of the Satellite series seems to have more hardware options.
After 3 years it is a toss up whether to buy a new one or upgrade this one. I use it daily as a technical and business machine to make my living. The new ones are so much more powerful and consume less power. But I wonder if I could find another with the hardware ports this one has. Everything seems to be moving to USB3 in the PC world.
 
To add another drop in the Mac bucket, most MBs will last you years before you have any hardware issues. PCs will always, spec wise, offer more. But they are usually in a clunky large package and have next to no battery life.
On a side note, if your aiming for a PC... then get a Express Card/PCMCIA card adaptor which most laptops take, and you can add in your own Firewire 400/800 and even USB 3 ports.
Then you can probably look at any band laptop.
But if you want something that'll last a few years and can still edit most video, then invest in a Mac Book.
 
I have this here, based on a DELL XPS - I can even edit uncompressed HD on it (yeah, I know, not what everybody needs).

Great bang for the buck. 1920 x 1080 display, i7 Quadcore, 16GIG RAM, e-Sata, USB3, Nvida Cuda card with 2 Gig RAM - just what the good doctor recommends, and for about half the price of a MBP with similar specs (if Apple would offer full HD displays, Cuda cards and USB3). Premiere screams on that baby.

http://frankglencairn.wordpress.com/2011/12/07/my-new-editing-suite-in-a-box-and-dit-station/
 
Postmaster said:
I have this here, based on a DELL XPS - I can even edit uncompressed HD on it (yeah, I know, not what everybody needs).

Great bang for the buck. 1920 x 1080 display, i7 Quadcore, 16GIG RAM, e-Sata, USB3, Nvida Cuda card with 2 Gig RAM - just what the good doctor recommends, and for about half the price of a MBP with similar specs (if Apple would offer full HD displays, Cuda cards and USB3). Premiere screams on that baby.

http://frankglencairn.wordpress.com/2011/12/07/my-new-editing-suite-in-a-box-and-dit-station/
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How's the coffee shop appeal of that beast?
 
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Size, weight, simplicity also come to mind when considering portable solutions.
I use an iMac myself, but when we meet clients, or go on the road, the Mac book screams Professional.
I know it's a really weak point, but marketing...is marketing.
we also own a Sony, but never use that for client meetings.
 
David Jimerson said:
ASUS is the gold standard for motherboards; I use them exclusively and have never regretted it.
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+1. My desktop uses an ASUS P5K Deluxe Wi-Fi and it has been solid as a rock. Currently sporting an overlocked Core 2 Quad @ 3.2GHz and it runs like a champ.

On the laptop side, I've had a variety from HP to ASUS to Sony and now a 2011 MacBook Pro (17"). It's, frankly, the best notebook I've ever owned, but I loved my Sony F series. Highly recommend that range.
 
Indeed. Showing up with specific hardware generally doesn't say anything beyond I showed up with this specific hardware. YMMV.

I'm running a Boxx Technologies quad-core 3.2 GHz GoBoxx, Quadro FX 3700M video card, 8GB Ram, Windows XP Pro. It gets the job done. And makes for one hell of a doorstop.
 
David Jimerson said:
ASUS is the gold standard for motherboards; I use them exclusively and have never regretted it.
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It's odd that ASUS has never been on my radar. For me, they've always been in the background. Then I happened to notice one of their touchscreens over the holidays and was very impressed with the quality. And now, I'm noticing them everywhere. And, they were on the top of my list a couple weeks ago until I realized I was going to have a difficult time finding one with a firewire port.

maranfilms, that asus g-74, 3d is a sweet set up for sure. Unfortunately, more than I wanted to spend.

Thanks everyone for the input. I'm checking out all my options to be sure. Like I mentioned in another thread, leaning towards a SONY VAIO because it offers the i.link/firewire I need, but I'd rather not buy SONY if I don't have to. I'm leery. They are great looking machines but I've had some SONY heartbreaks in my day and I don't know how their laptops hold up.

Anyone have one of these (or have input on one of these two choices below)? They are they only ones I can find with firewire while being at or below the cap of what I wanted to spend. (Truth be told, I only wanted to drop $700-$800. So, I'm essentially willing to drop another $200-$300 for a port.) The only differences I can see between these two below is that laptop 1) NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M 1GB Graphics, no Blu-ray player. Laptop 2) 512MB VRAM NVIDIA GeForce GT 520M, Blu-ray.

Does the Blu-ray player justify getting a lower quality video card with less dedicated RAM? Will I see a difference in performance getting the more VRAM and higher quality video card?

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/822778-REG/Sony_VPCF23EFX_B_VAIO_F23_VPCF23EFX_B_16_4.html

and

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...EdpNo=1164713&SRCCODE=WEBAMZP1&MobileOptOut=1

Thanks all, I appreciate the discussion. It's giving me a lot of good advice and is what this forum is all about.
Rick
 
Always go for the mobile video option that includes 1GB of RAM. Premiere's Mercury Engune requires that if you want to take advantage of an NVIDIA GPU.
 
Gary Huff said:
Always go for the mobile video option that includes 1GB of RAM. Premiere's Mercury Engune requires that if you want to take advantage of an NVIDIA GPU.
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Yeah, if you are using Adobe Premiere, one might as well go with a suped-up Windows machine that taps into everything Adobe has to offer.

Though, if you are just publishing to the web or DVD, don't be deterred from FCPX. It simply does what it simply does. I have very little use with it, but it is not all bad. Then the extra $$$ you spend on a mac, you can save on software. But of course, the same could be said for Sony with Vegas software (I believe you get a discount with the purchase of a Sony computer).
 
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