.....check out Asus models.....recently, a killer laptop was on sale for $1,399 at tiger Direct. Downside is the risk of dealing with their unacclaimed customer service if anything goes wrong. However, if you visit the PPBM5 benchmark for video editing website, created by Harm and Bill , and select the tab for laptops, you will see my old i7 Asus G73jw sitting at 4 or 5 from the top. You will notice that even the fastest laptop is still two to three times slower than the fastest desktop system.
Decent performance can be had in a laptop if you get :
1. 1920x1080 min. resolution screen.....to see all user interface
2. Minimum 16 GB system ram.....I use CS 5.03 still and that is adequate,but, CS6 demands even more from what people are saying....best with 32GB...
3.NVidia ONLY video card...680m is great....must have more than 1GB memory on that card.....DDR5,too....will enable "Mercury Playback" for performance
4. Min. 2 7200 RPM HDDs.....my laptop scored best with 2 QUALITY onboard SSDs, ( one for OS, programs, pagefile...2nd for all else )
* Newer SSDs with MARVELL controllers...not Sandforce... will handle the " uncompressible" video files without a loss in the write speed.,(best : Plextor Pro, Corsair Pro...cheapest: Crucial M4).
5. Fastest new i7 you can find with hyperthreading...3610 beats the hell out of my 740QM....CPU is king processing the difficult AVCHD and other codecs.
6. fast external ports for connecting a third drive....I use a cheap USB 3 dock to get higher speed connection....eSATA is better,( with proper controller), but, the
newer Thunderbolt connection will be fastest...( not really available yet on Windows laptops.....that I know of!)
7. HDMI out for connecting larger external monitor,or, TV to get full screen monitoring,etc.
8. Expect a high performance laptop to be heavy..... 8-9 lbs. with power brick
9.Expect to be near a 120v outlet.... my battery has never lasted more than an hour and a half.....maybe new laptops are a little better.
