please comment on this laptop

Areas for improvement:

1. Faster CPU, like the i7-37xx or i7-38xx
2. Increase memory to 16 GB
3. Remove the 5400 RPM disk altogether and replace it with a Samsung 840 Pro 256 GB SSD and add 1 or 2 7200 RPM HDD's internally.
4. Make sure it has an eSATA and/or an USB3 connection.

I have an Asus N56 running Windows 8, it has a quad core i7 3630QM 2.4GHz CPU with 8Gb RAM and a 2Tb hard drive partitioned into two.  Graphics are nVidia 650 with full 1920x1080 native resolution

It now has m/soft Office plus Edius and CS5.5 Production Premium installed on it and it runs all programmes just fine.

No it does not have a 7200rpm drive as standard but it does have 4 USB3 ports, HDMI output and I know that on the Asus forums guys have swapped over the optical drive for a second hard drive.

But, it works, it is far better made than Lenovo, the sound quality is also great (it has its own plug in subwoofer).

In the UK this cost me £830 three months ago.

Just to re-iterate, it works for editing straight out of the box, yes for very complex edits it may struggle but for day to day straightforward tasks it works just fine.

After Effects does not seem to struggle with what I have been doing with it so far.

The laptop spec that Harm has given you is very good, but in a laptop you do get what you pay for.

If you have a look at Asus G75 gaming laptops you will find a spec more like Harm has described, the downside, in the UK that these are about £1500

Good luck and please let us know how you get on.

Laptop Video Editing PC discussions

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[moved to hardware forum]

Michael,  unless you are in a hurry there will soon be the next generation laptops with the i7-47xx CPU's.  If you do a little searching for the Asus G750 series as an example.  Performance difference will be a small increment better but for instance:

1. With the new Intel series 8 chipsets all SATA ports are SATA III.
2. The nVidia card in the units are the newer GTX 7xx series.
3. Memory is expandable  to 32 GB.
4. This new CPU/chipset is supposed to be more power efficient = more battery time.
5. Of course this might make the current Lenovo's or Asus G75's available at bargain prices when the new one's appear.  I am sure Lenovo will also have this new next generation processor/chipset across the laptop lineup very soon

Should I decide not to build my own desktop, I checked out one of these next-genearation laptops as a possbility. However, to configure it right, things sure got expensive in a hurry.

The one I was looking at:

Built on the Clevo P170SM chassis

17.3" Full HD Glossy 90% Gamut Screen

Intel Core I7-4800MQ 2.7 Ghz

32GB 1600 RAM

Nvidia 780M 4GB

6x BD-R / 6X BD-ROM / 8X DVD-RW Combo Drive

1 x Samsung 840 Pro 256GB SSD

2 x Seagate Momentus 750GB 7200 RPM HDD

Win 7 Pro 64bit

After the 3% cash discount, plus shipping, it's right at US$3k -- ouch!

....soon other vendors will offer similar for cheaper.....like Asus,MSI,etc. Although, that rig will smoke EXCEPT for the slow speed of the XT HDD,compared to a Marvell controlled SSD....

Those SSDs can really increase the cost, though. I guess you could leave the two 750GB/7200 Sata2 HDDs out (save $266), then buy a couple of 1TB/7200 Sata3 HDDs and put them in yourself. That would actually be cheaper by $56, assuming you went with Hitachi HDDs, although I'm not sure about Hitachi's drive quality.

.....Iread your post wrong......if the two hdds can be raided together as raid 0,  it would be very fast......for a laptop. However, for the same money,you could build a much faster desktop system using the 3930k CPU with many PCI ,gen.3 lanes available and beefier components

Yes, building a desktop is an alternative which I am considering, but I move around a lot and would really like to avoid hauling a mid-or-full tower and big display panel around with me if I can avoid it.

...be advised any beefy laptop will weigh 8-9lbs. and will require a constant 120v connection......as the battery wont last long editing ....and the CPU may throttle back on battery power with the new Haswell,( not sure if you would have control). In addition.....even a 17.3 in screen is really small and taxing on the eyes.....I am ALWAYS hooked to an external monitor with my laptop, and even use hotel HDTVs as an external monitor with my HDMI cable if editing on road. Sometimes I will make the big TV the GUI display and use the laptopscreen as the monitor ....this allows plenty of space to see all the timeline and audio waveforms,etc.

    Definetly, desktop will give you more for the money....esp. if editing difficult codecs natively like DSLR footage.....using multiple tracks and effects.   However, I would love to see how that Clevo would perform on the PPBM test. If the 2 Momentus drives are in RAID 0 as the " project drive"....that laptop may shatter the current best laptop performance!

I didn't mean to suggest I travel a lot and need to sling a laptop over my shoulder at regular intervals. I do volunteer work and a lot of hiking and I tend to move every year or so and need to travel as light as possible -- my CR-V will only hold so much! So, for the most part, it would remain stationary and always powered by AC. And good point about the screen size and the need for an external display.

If I do go with this laptop, I will probably leave the two Sata2 HDDs out and buy two Sata3 HDDs, but figured I'd use one for source files and one for target files. The only real criticism I have read about is inconsistent fan speeds... and fan noise: overall 36 dB... under load 46 dB... stress test 55 dB. Apparently, that's pretty loud.

See Noise Levels

...if you can wait.....Asus has done a great job in their gaming laptops to control cooling AND they have improved the vent filter system, so the fans dont get clogged and become noisy then burn out....there are serious copper air ducts that cool the CPU and GPU.....maintaining LOW temperatures under HEAVY load.

   I am sure they will have a comparable model to that Clevo soon......I believe the Momentus XT 750 GB HDDs ARE SATA III.......these are relatively new drives, with better performance than the older 500GB model, that I also own. I am using a cheaper Crucial M4 SSD as my large project drive....512GB for ~ $390........it has the NECESSARY Marvell controller that handles incompressible data well when writing. The best SSDs for this are Samsung and Plextor PRO models, ( NO Sandforce controlled SSDs!)

Well, looks like those noise levels aren't as bad as it sounded in the review. Thanks, Harm.

And I'm not up against the clock with this purchase by any means, so I can wait. Heck, it took me six months to finally pull the trigger on my Canon 60D!

I did check out the ASUS G75VW-DH72 laptop, but it couldn't handle three internal drives. Plus, I've read so many bad comments about how Asus quality control has tanked, including an older thread on this board, it kind of scared me off ASUS.

Also, you are correct about the Seagate HDD being Sata3. I totally missed the "XT" when I was looking at the Clevo specs. But the reviews I've read on Seagate make me cautious about their drives.

Okay, don't want to take up any more of your time or overstay my welcome. I do want to say "thanks" for all your help and advice. I'll give it another month or so and see what ASUS offers.

Again, I thank you for your time.

George

If you have some patience, you could wait for the Dell Alienware 18".

It comes (optionally) with a Haswell i7-4930MX overclocked to 4.3 GHz, memory up to 32 GB, a GTX 780M video card, even in SLI configuration, 18" full HD PLS screen and up to 4 storage drives. Prices are not yet announced.

New Dell Alienware laptops, but only in Dutch.

Sounds interesting... and expensive. I'll see what becomes available over the next few weeks and will check the Alienware when it becomes available here in the US. Thanks for the heads-up Harm.