which laptop for editing GH1/GH2 footage?

Have this exact laptop and works amazingly! Was going to recommend this before seeing your post.

And you can hack CS5 to support the 360M card quite easily. There are some links to how to do this on these forums.

Cant be beat!

how loud does it get? when the fans ramp up is it really distracting?
do you need to use a laptop cooler with this unit?
 
DELL Studio XPS 16 qud i7 with 8 gig ram, 7200 500 gb hd, blu-ray burner, 1920 x 1080 rgb led screen, 1 gig ati video card..

This thing is KILLER. Not to mention, screw macs, they can't even natively play back avchd... and they are supposedly the video choice of pros? Bull kaka.

i was looking at this one, but only issue is that it has an ati card so i cant take advantage of cuda...
 
This may or may not be helpful but if you get Cineform you may not even need to upgrade. The best editing investment I made. Some disagree as to getting an intermediate codec but it adds so much value beyond just making smooth editing on a modest machine. My two cents.....

what would you consider a modest machine?
i currently have a 2 year old laptop with a c2d 1.5, 2g ram, and video is shared. im guessing this is not enough to playback hd signal even with cineform codec...
 
Certainly Macs can natively play any video format PCs can, if they have the appropriate codec installed. I play AVCHD right off the card with Toast Video Player, works fine.

PCs are great, Macs are great, it's less about the OS these days and more about what GPU, CPU, and RAM you've got installed. Both can run great NLEs like Premiere CS5 with the same plugins, so it's kind of silly to bash Macs at this point, especially since many pros actually are Mac users and still consider FCP their NLE of choice.

DELL Studio XPS 16 qud i7 with 8 gig ram, 7200 500 gb hd, blu-ray burner, 1920 x 1080 rgb led screen, 1 gig ati video card..

This thing is KILLER. Not to mention, screw macs, they can't even natively play back avchd... and they are supposedly the video choice of pros? Bull kaka.
 
I guess he's not up to carrying a TFT with him every time he travels.

reason i opened the question with what he means by mobile. obviously if he's cutting his footage at a starbucks, then yeah, he probably doesn't want to lug that around. but if he's just using it for portability, don't see why a 15" monitor and a fragbox couldn't benefit him more.
 
Dell Studio XPS 15 with the 1920 x 1080 wrgb led screen and quadcore i7.

It is the most amazing beast at the best value... $1500 fully loaded with usb 3.0, a screen that you can see in bright daylight, you can put win 7 ultimate on it, and you can pop your gh1, gh1 hack, or gh2 sd card right in the slot and instantly see your footage and natively edit with Edius 6, Premiere CS5, or Sony Vegas (now up to version 10)

And it is the ONLY laptop that has really good sound, and hdmi out to go to big big screens if you need, AND it supports 3D bu-ray should you want to toy with that.

It's a MONSTER.
 
Dell Studio XPS 15 with the 1920 x 1080 wrgb led screen and quadcore i7.

It is the most amazing beast at the best value... $1500 fully loaded with usb 3.0, a screen that you can see in bright daylight, you can put win 7 ultimate on it, and you can pop your gh1, gh1 hack, or gh2 sd card right in the slot and instantly see your footage and natively edit with Edius 6, Premiere CS5, or Sony Vegas (now up to version 10)

And it is the ONLY laptop that has really good sound, and hdmi out to go to big big screens if you need, AND it supports 3D bu-ray should you want to toy with that.

It's a MONSTER.

is XPS 16 better than the 15 ?
 
the whole xps line was redesigned.... spx 15 is the best choice and the ONLY one to have a true native 1080p wled rgb screen
 
strange.. here in israel they advertize the 16, and it even don't seem to have 1080p

Sorry.. xps not spx...

The XPS 16 was THE goto machine before this redesign, but the new redesigned XPS 15 is the best choice currently:

http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/xps-15/pd?~ck=anav

The graphics cards are redesigned and it now has one of the most powerful graphics cards in a sub $2000 laptop ( an invidia something or other with 2 gig just for gfx memory and 3d hdmi out support). Prices start at $799 with a 720p screen but you would really want to max it out and that is about $1500.00 for the maxed out 1080p screen (the best display screen I have ever seen on a laptop.. or even desktop for that matter).

What's probably going on is that they still have leftover stock of the XPS 16 in Israel and are getting rid of the last of them.

I started blogging and will have a full review up soon when I get mine:

http://blackoutsblog.com
 
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Was the throttling on those machines sorted out?
Due to the entire line not having an appropriate power supply the bios was rigged to throttle when the user was doing intensive tasks like... Video editing..
 
Sorry.. xps not spx...

The XPS 16 was THE goto machine before this redesign, but the new redesigned XPS 15 is the best choice currently:

http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/xps-15/pd?~ck=anav

The graphics cards are redesigned and it now has one of the most powerful graphics cards in a sub $2000 laptop ( a invideo something or other with 2 gig just for gfx memory). Prices start at $799 with a 720p screen but you would really want to max it out and that is about $1500.00 for the maxed out 1080p screen (the best display screen I have ever seen on a laptop.. or even desktop for that matter).

What's probably going on is that they still have leftover stock of the XPS 16 in Israel and are getting rid of the last of them.

I started blogging and will have a full review up soon when I get mine:

http://blackoutsblog.com

http://www.pc365.co.il/product.aspx?p_id=16563 ?

don't mind the language, go down to the specs and see if it's the same (i suppose you mean an 8 giga ram version)
 
Was the throttling on those machines sorted out?
Due to the entire line not having an appropriate power supply the bios was rigged to throttle when the user was doing intensive tasks like... Video editing..
DELL XPS 15?
what do you suggest instead?
 
There is a program that some in the know put together called Throttle Stop. I haven't kept up with news but if you do a search for that key phrase then you're bound to get hits from the xps community. It may not be a problem now but I suspect Dell is still keeping their low power adapters in play and adjusting the amount of throttle incrementally based on the community feedback. My guess is that to extend the life of their units they are playing safe by imposing strict limits on the machine's power consumption and hence heat generation.
It was weird to see the necessary power for all components adding up to more than the power supply's output.
I've been looking into laptops myself recently and haven't crossed of the Dell units but instead of the xps line I was looking slightly skyward at the Precision series. Oh, and if you plan on getting a Dell be sure to contact them first and ask them the maximum you can get for a discount. When I asked about a nicely kitted out M6500, the consultant said 40%!!! It changes month by month but hey!
 
As far as I can tell they fixed everything. A friend got the 17inch but you can't get a 17inch with the 1080p led screen (retarded)

You could go with a maxed out Alienware laptop.. but it will cost twice as much for nearly identical specs....
 
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