Advice: To make my Laptop edit better.

[Cvintila]

I have been editing for about a year now, but now that I am getting into a little more
advanced editing my laptop can't handle it that well especially Adobe products like After Effects
and Premier Pro. Do you have any suggestions on how to get my laptop to handle being able to
edit videos a lot better. I use a Kodak Zi8, so I typically use HD video.

My laptop specifications:

HP Pavillion dv6000
1.83GHz Core 2 Duo
4.0 GB of RAM
250 GB Hard drive (I also have a 1 TB external Hard drive)
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit

I use After Effects and Magix Video Pro the most. Also, what conversion software is best? I
need a new video converter.

Thanks!

[guns1inger]

Ideally you would upgrade to a quad-core machine. Laptops are a poor choice for this type of work because they are not, in most cases, upgradeable - beyond a modest increase in memory. You will also be working from a slow hard drive. Most modern encoders will make use of whatever CPU you can throw at it, so the more (and faster) cores, the better.

As for a converter . . . from what ? to what ?

[redwudz]

Cvintila, in the future, please use a title that better reflects your subject, as per our rules. I have changed yours this time.

Moderator redwudz

[DarrellS]

If someone was looking for one to buy, what would you suggest? My friend wants to buy one to get all his recordings off his Dish DVR, edit and maybe convert. He is working out of town and doesn't have access to his I7 PC.

I assume that there is nothing under $800 that will do this.

He has a couple of external HDDs he can use.

Since the notebook CPUs are totally different than the PC CPUs, I don't have a clue what would work. An I7 I guess but then it starts getting out of his price range. Not sure if they make any quadcore I5s or I3s for notebooks. The guy at Bestbuy told him that they are all dual cores with hyperthreading.

He isn't sure what video to look for either. Something Intel onboard, NVidia or ATI.

[redwudz]

The laptop I am using at the moment has a dual core Pentium 2.2Ghz CPU, and a 500GB HDD. But I still wouldn't use it for HD video editing. But it would probably work for that, just the same. It's a refurbished Asus laptop I got for $400US. If you really have to use a laptop, expect slow editing.

Editing is mostly hard drive intensive if there is no re-encoding involved. This works best with several large, fast hard drives. But if you need to re-encode H.264 HD video or similar, then a faster quad core would be a good choice. Not easy or cheap to get that type of performance on a laptop.

[DarrellS]

Looks like AMD is the way to go with laptops unless you can afford an I7 around $1000 or more. I'm sure he doesn't want to spend that much and I'm not sure he'd want to spend $850 for an AMD quad core.

I'll try and talk him into getting a quad core CPU for his other PC and take that up there. He says it's too much trouble but if buying a laptop is a waste then maybe he'll change his mind. It has a Gigabyte G45 with Intel X4500HD integrated graphics which supports 1080p and a Core 2 Duo. It may be an 8400 but I think it's even smaller. It would be a lot cheaper than buying a quad core laptop and a dual core wouldn't do him any good. He was looking at I3s and I5s for around $600.

His brother works for Intel. I don't know why he doesn't give him one of his quad cores that Intel gave him that he doesn't use.

[redwudz]

The six core AMD computer in my computer details has no problems with HD editing or encoding. I replaced the original motherboard, RAM and CPU for about $425US. I use the onboard video.

$200 AMD X6 1055T CPU (Overclocked to 3.5Ghz)
$135 GIGABYTE GA-890GPA-UD3H Motherboard
$90 Mushkin Enhanced Blackline RAM 4GB DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Model 996782

(Current NewEgg prices not including discounts)
I did add a Corsair H50 for watercooling, but even on air, the CPU temps were managable, especially without the OC. But it's a lot quieter with WC.

[DarrellS]

He's not really into building a new rig. He just wanted something to take up north without having to take a PC up there. His I7 encodes pretty fast. He converted a couple of folders of music videos to H264/ac3 MKV for his HTC when he was here a couple of weeks ago. He was getting speeds around 275 fps.

He is going to buy a new CoolerMaster case and a Corsair H50 liquid cooler though for his I7 machine. His temps were almost 100* Celsius. He needs a full tower because for some reason, he has to have three optical drives, has a card reader, a SoundBlaster that takes up one bay and a floppy drive.

He wants the Cooler Master ATCS RC-840. It's on sale at Fry's for $169.99.

I like the new HAF X RC-942 because it has USB 3.0 but $200 is too rich for my blood. He doesn't care for the side glass and fan on the HAFs. His PC sits in a cabinet under his desk with no room on the sides so he needs good air flow from the front and out the top and back. The ATCS doesn't have the grills like the HAF and my CM 690 II Advanced but it has two 230mm top fans, a 230mm front fan and 120mm rear fan. IMO, Cooler Master makes the best cases on the market.

I think I'll buy myself that Corsair H50 for Christmas and try and overclock my Q6600 to 3.6 Ghz again. I'm running it at 3.2 right now with a CM Hyper 212.

[redwudz]

If you're like me and have a stack of CPU air coolers on your shelf that didn't properly do the job, the H50 is worth trying. But you don't need a case full of fans to take advantage of it. Just decent through flow of air for your other components.

If the OP really wants a high power laptop, then I would consider a refurbished laptop for a reasonable price. I'm quite happy with mine. Mine was a corporate exchange refurb and looks and works like new. Even plays my HD MKVs without a stutter, which my older Compaq couldn't manage. HDMI output, LED LCD screen, 500GB HDD, and for about $400US.

[DarrellS]

My friend does look at refurbished stuff on newegg and his homepage is ebay so a reburbished laptop might be an option for him. I'll suggest that to him. Thanks!

[jagabo]

Here's the laptop you need:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3970/avadirect-clevo-x7200-worlds-fastest-dtr

Six Cores, SSD RAID, and GTX 480M SLI... $5800

[DarrellS]

Wow!

[budwzr]

Cheap and fast laptops don't exist.

I can vouch that the Toshiba Qosmio X505 series will definitely work for you, that's what I use.

[redwudz]

That Toshiba Qosmio appears to be over $1000US. I can build a couple of PCs that can outperform it for about the same price. Maybe not what the OP wanted, but he could also go with a Micro-ATX MB in a small form case. Not as convenient as a laptop and you would have to drag a monitor along, but decent performance at a reasonable price.

But look into laptop refurbs. I don't usually recommend TigerDirect.com, but they have good deals on refurbs at times. Check the specs carefully! Most times they have a 90 day warranty, but you can purchase a longer aftermarket one. Dell or other manufacturers may also has refurbs at times that may may work for you.

[budwzr]

That's great, but for me I can't show up anywhere with a homemade computer, why that would be gauche.