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Time for a new platform/laptop!

Talk about computer software/hardware problems, related to digital video or otherwise.

Time for a new platform/laptop!

Postby rtk1958 » Sat May 13, 2017 4:05 pm

Hi All,

Sorry I haven't been very active in the video production world for a while, but I am now recently retired and plan to start getting back into it. \:D/

But before I do, the Windows gods have conspired to force me to purchase a new laptop as MS no longer supports Vista along with a growing list of other SW providers such as Google Chrome. Together with the worldwide "Ransomware" virus scare for which I can't load a Vista patch, it's time to upgrade.

I plan to upgrade in a fairly big way as my Vista laptop was not a great video editing platform. From my research so far, seems that a "gaming" laptop would fit the video editing bill just fine and as far as gaming laptops go, seems ASUS and MSI are the preferred brands. I'm leaning heavily towards an ASUS ROG (Republic Of Gamers) laptop that will have all/most of the latest bells and whistles: i7-7700AQ Quad core processor, 256GB SSD, 16GB RAM, 7200RPM HDD w at least 250GB (I already have a 4TB 7200RPM external drive I can use), and an NVidia 1050 Ti graphics accelerator/GPU with 4GB of memory. While I'm at it, might as well replace my PE-7 with PE-15 as well.

Any advice out there on laptop platforms for video editing? Am I on the right track or way out in left field as usual.

Any reasons not to go with PE-15?

Thanks,
Todd
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Re: Time for a new platform/laptop!

Postby John 'twosheds' McDonald » Sun May 14, 2017 1:09 am

My personal preference is always a desktop for "grunt" work but I can understand why that may not be everyones chopice of platform so my only added input would be to take into account the screen resolution.

https://www.cnet.com/pictures/more-pixe ... d-laptops/
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Re: Time for a new platform/laptop!

Postby Steve Grisetti » Sun May 14, 2017 7:21 am

No need to get a gaming machine unless you plan to use it for a lot of gaming. In fact, if you're going to work with Premiere Elements, all that graphics power won't even benefit you much. (Pro programs, like Premiere CC, After Effects and Vegas Pro do use graphics power -- but not to the extent gaming does.)

I say focus on the processor. Use this chart and get a processor that rates a good 8000 or more. (An i7 7700 rates 10,000.)
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

Then just stuff it with at least 12 gigs of RAM and you should be good to go for about $700 (for a desktop) or about a $1000 for a laptop.
HP Envy with 2.9/4.4 ghz i7-10700 and 16 gig of RAM running Windows 11 Pro
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Re: Time for a new platform/laptop!

Postby rtk1958 » Sun May 14, 2017 10:10 am

Thanks John and Steve for the input.

The 17" screen resolution will be full HD 1080P. Not really concerned about 4K at this point but could upgrade to a larger 4K external monitor in the future if need be. I already do all my editing on a larger 1080P external monitor.

As Steve confirmed, I was wondering just how many of the 768 GPU "Cuda Cores" of the NVidia 1050 Ti that PE actually uses. So, a bit overkill I guess for PE. I guess gaming is far more demanding of processor power than video editing. The ASUS ROG laptop I'm looking at is $1200 with all the previously mentioned bells & whistles and it can easily edit 4K when the time for that comes. If/when I start using some of the Pro SW like After Effects or Premiere, that'll be covered as well. While I'm not much of a computer game player, with a powerful gaming laptop I may be tempted to experience the state of the art in computer games at some point down the road.

Thanks,
Todd
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Re: Time for a new platform/laptop!

Postby rtk1958 » Mon May 22, 2017 9:12 pm

Ok, focusing on what appeared to be the fastest I7 quad core CPU I could find in a laptop today (i.e. an I7 7700HQ) and lots of memory and a large SSD for the OS and other things, I purchased an ASUS laptop with 256GB SSD and 16GB of memory. Thanks Steve for your advice, it was very helpful.

I discovered that every laptop I could find with an I7 7700HQ in it came with some sort of Nvidia GeForce GTX GPU, usually a 1050 or 1060. Occasionally, you'd see one with an Nvidia Quadro, but those laptops were at least $1000 more expensive more than similarly configured laptops with the GeForce. So, I ended up with a laptop with a GeForce 1050 that qualifies as a gaming laptop. Will have to take full advantage of that in the near future, but for now, the I7 7700HQ, memory, and SSD should vastly improve my PE editing capabilities.

One PE configuration question though: the laptop also has a 1TB 5400rpm internal hard drive, and I connected the 4TB 7200rpm external hard drive I already had via USB 3.0 to the laptop. There's 185GB free space on the SSD after the OS, 930GB on the 1 TB internal drive, and over 3.5TB left on the external drive. Where should I base PE's cache and project files for best performance:

1. PE cache & project files on SSD? Probably the fastest for sure but 185GB may not be enough in the near future.
2. PE cache & project files on the internal 5400rpm drive?
3. PE cache & project files on the external 7200rpm drive connected via USB 3.0?

I'm thinking that USB 3.0 is fast enough that I should use the faster external drive instead of the internal one but am not sure, what do you think?

Thanks,
Todd
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Re: Time for a new platform/laptop!

Postby John 'twosheds' McDonald » Tue May 30, 2017 12:47 am

I would use the internal HDD - others may take a different view.

If it were me then, budget permitting, at some point in the near future I would swap out that 5,400 rpm HDD (the D: drive?) with an SSD. I would put the 5,400 HDD in an external case for continuing use (as a back up device, for example). I can recommend this case; I have two of them:-

https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Tool-fre ... t+hdd+case
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Re: Time for a new platform/laptop!

Postby rtk1958 » Wed May 31, 2017 10:36 pm

Thanks for the advice John. I did change my mind and for now at least will be doing my editing off the internal 5400rpm HDD. USB 3.0 is fast for bulk data transfers but not as good as SATA for shorter transfers, opening/closing files, etc.. Many/most data transfers for video editing with PE may be more bulk transfers, but decided to give the internal HDD the first crack at it anyway.

Todd
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Re: Time for a new platform/laptop!

Postby sidd finch » Thu Jun 01, 2017 9:41 am

will be doing my editing off the internal 5400rpm HDD


The 5400 drive is a bit slow to do editing on and you will notice a lot of lag. John had it spot on using a SSD drive internally to edit. Or, at least a drive that spins at 7200 rpm.

Sidd
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Re: Time for a new platform/laptop!

Postby rtk1958 » Thu Jun 01, 2017 10:14 am

Thanks Sidd.

You think an external 7200rpm HDD connected via USB 3.0 would be better than an internal 5400rpm drive?

In the meantime, will need to look into cost for either upgrading the internal drive to a 7200rpm drive or replacing it with another SSD.

Thanks,
Todd
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Re: Time for a new platform/laptop!

Postby Chuck Engels » Thu Jun 01, 2017 8:55 pm

I'm not sure any external solution would ever be faster than an onboard solution such as an external drive vs an internal drive.
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2. Cybertron PC - Liquid Cooled AMD FX6300, 6 cores, 3.50ghz - 32GB DDR3 - MSI GeForce GTX 960 Gaming 4G, 4GB Video Ram, 1024 Cuda Cores.
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