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New Laptop Suggestions for Premiere & After Effects

May 4, 2012 12:11 PM

Tags: #hardware #cuda #laptop

I'm looking at getting a new laptop that I'll be using for a number of things (not just Premiere or After Effects) and I went about my search with the following requirements:

  • Needs to be rugged and durable as I'll be travelling very often
  • Nice screen (preferably 1080p)
  • 15.6" inch screen or less
  • Can use hardware acceleration in programs like Premiere & After Effects
  • Good battery life (5+ hours preferably)
  • Will also be good with virtualization programs like VMware
  • Preferably uses the newer Ivy Bridge processors
  • $1500 or less

 

So far, the best option I've found is the following Lenovo W520 (which does not have Ivy Bridge)

 

  • Intel Core i7-2760QM Processor (2.40GHz, 6M Cache with Turbo Boost up to 3.50GHz)
  • 15.6" FHD (1920x1080) LED Backlit AntiGlare display, with Wireless WAN Antenna
  • NVIDIA Quadro 1000M Optimus Graphics technology (2GB)
  • 8 GB PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz SODIMM Memory (2 DIMM)
  • 500GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
  • 9 Cell 2.8Ah Li-Ion Battery
  • Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 AGN

 

My main hesitation is that it has a Quadro 1000m (which is not on the compatibility list but has 96 CUDA cores and can be added from what I understand.

 

Does this seem like a reasonable system or are there other similarly priced systems from other manufacturers out there?  I also have the option of getting late-2011 15" i7 Macbook Pro for $1500

955 Views   5 Replies   Latest reply: JFPhoton, May 5, 2012 8:07 AM
 
Replies
  • Harm Millaard
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    1. Harm Millaard,
    May 4, 2012 12:19 PM   in reply to fegul
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    Looks like a decent laptop if you add one or preferably two 7200 RPM SATA disks. It still will be way slower than a desktop, but you want luggability. 5 hours of battery life will be impossible, you need a wall outlet. Such a laptop will be at least 5 times slower than a desktop, so exporting a one hour timeline will take much longer than 5 hours, not enough for a 8 Ah Li-Ion battery, let alone a 2.8 Ah one. The Quadro 1000M is decent for a laptop and will not make any difference on export, since that is a CPU matter, not GPU.

     
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  • fegul
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    2. fegul,
    May 4, 2012 12:38 PM   in reply to Harm Millaard
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    Thanks Harm, I'll actually be adding an SSD that I have as the primary and keeping the 500 GB drive in the bay for additional storage.

     
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  • Bill Gehrke
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    3. Bill Gehrke,
    May 5, 2012 7:21 AM   in reply to fegul
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    If you want to see how laptops (and your Lenovo) run Premiere Pro look and Harm and my PPBM5 test results pages.  Make sure you are comparing only the same version of Premiere because there is a caching difference between them.  Go to the "Version" Tab and select either 5.0.x or 5.5.x.  Do the same thing on "Computer Type" and select Laptop.  Unfortunately we have not yet had anyone submit an Ivy Bridge laptop.  You can also find many other high scoring laptops, and of course you can see how much slower they are than desktops. 

     

    P.S. the SSD for the boot/OS/Applications does not improve performance, you would be better off adding more memory or upgrading the CPU.  There are a lot of Ivy Bridge Laptops now available

     
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  • JFPhoton
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    4. JFPhoton,
    May 5, 2012 8:02 AM   in reply to fegul
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    ....as someone who has been using a beefy laptop successfully for over a year now with PPro CS 5.03, I can say the Asus I7 model I have works great. Mine is now an oldie from 18months ago and has the ancient 740qm cpu, however,with 14gb ram, 2hdd internal bays and a big 17.6 inch 1920x 1080 display, I can edit canon dslr natively on most occasions and sometimes I will use the free DNxHD codec to edit more complex timelines with no problem,( even though it triggers the evil 32 bit QuirkTime).  I use an Ssd for boot and OS and programs only, important to have a good write speed on that ssd.....mine is an old Corsair F120 that does over 200MB / sec read and write.. In the second hdd bay I have used another Corsair f120 or a momentus xt. Finally, athird hdd connected via a USB3 docking station really helps

    as well

     
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  • JFPhoton
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    5. JFPhoton,
    May 5, 2012 8:07 AM   in reply to fegul
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    ...forgot to mention the NVidia 460m video card using the"hack" for mercury acceleration....

     
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