System for entry-level video editing

[vibrantvideo]

Hi folks,

So I have two choices at the moment, with two almost identical laptops (both produced by Asus and nearly the same price):

-Asus X555UA-DM111T: i7-6500U (2.5GHz), Intel HD Graphics 520, 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD.

-Asus X555DG-DM057T: AMD FX-8800P (2.1 GHz), Radeon R8 M350DX graphics, 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD.

So, I can either go with the more powerful Intel processor and have to rely on the integrated HD Graphics 520 (with draws up to 1.7GB of RAM from the system's RAM), or I can go with the supposedly weaker AMD processor (though it's their latest one) and the dedicated graphics card (which is actually an R5 M330 plus an R7 graphics card in cross-fire = R8). I'm just not sure which to choose, so if you have any feedback that would be much appreciated thanks!

I plan to start off with entry-level video editing (Cyberlink PowerDirector or Sony Movie Studio - unless you have other suggestions?) and may perhaps later upgrade to Sony Vegas. Other than that, no gaming, just browsing the web, emails and watching vids (youtube).

Which system might you recommend?
Many thanks! D

[TreeTops]

There have been posts of people having problems using integrated graphics (Intel HD Graphics) when trying to edit HD video. If you can afford it look for computers that allow a separate graphic board. Then pick one that works with your editor of choice. So you have some more homework to do.

[vibrantvideo]

Thanks TreeTops!
Were the problems related to any specific versions of Intel HD Graphics (perhaps the newer HD 520 is better)?
I was also wondering if having integrated and dedicated graphics on the same system can cause conflicts...
I see you're in Oregon! Very nice, I've enjoyed time in Ashland

[turk690]

So I have two choices at the moment, with two almost identical laptops (both produced by Asus and nearly the same price):
-Asus X555UA-DM111T: i7-6500U (2.5GHz), Intel HD Graphics 520, 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD.
-Asus X555DG-DM057T: AMD FX-8800P (2.1 GHz), Radeon R8 M350DX graphics, 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD.

Considering you might graduate to Vegas at some point, must you absolutely use these laughtops? They are a bit underpowered, IMHO. Laughtop or desktop, to edit video, I wouldn't be caught dead without at least

• Intel i7 CPU 3GHz minimum
• separate graphics (nVidia preferred)
• separate external high speed storage (USB3) or internal (SATA)
• 16GB of system RAM

The SSD is good for the NLE, but bottlenecks occur in I/O, so captured, edited, converted files should always be in a separate physical drive.

[vibrantvideo]

So I have two choices at the moment, with two almost identical laptops (both produced by Asus and nearly the same price):
-Asus X555UA-DM111T: i7-6500U (2.5GHz), Intel HD Graphics 520, 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD.
-Asus X555DG-DM057T: AMD FX-8800P (2.1 GHz), Radeon R8 M350DX graphics, 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD.

Considering you might graduate to Vegas at some point, must you absolutely use these laughtops? They are a bit underpowered, IMHO. Laughtop or desktop, to edit video, I wouldn't be caught dead without at least

• Intel i7 CPU 3GHz minimum
• separate graphics (nVidia preferred)
• separate external high speed storage (USB3) or internal (SATA)
• 16GB of system RAM

The SSD is good for the NLE, but bottlenecks occur in I/O, so captured, edited, converted files should always be in a separate physical drive.

Thanks turk690
So with my budget, I've found one other option:

ASUS X550JX
-i7-4720HQ (2.6 GHz, Quad-core)
-NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M 2GB
-15,6" Full HD (1920x1080)
-256GB SSD
-8GB RAM
-WiFi adaptor 802.11ac
-2.45kg
-4-cell lithium ion (44Wh)
-Windows 10

What do you think? Better than the previous two systems?
I was wondering if it matters much that the i7 is only 4th gen?
Once I get the laptop, I plan to also buy an external HHD (1 or 2 TB).
Thanks!

[turk690]

So with my budget, I've found one other option:

ASUS X550JX
-i7-4720HQ (2.6 GHz, Quad-core)
-NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M 2GB
-15,6" Full HD (1920x1080)
-256GB SSD
-8GB RAM
-WiFi adaptor 802.11ac
-2.45kg
-4-cell lithium ion (44Wh)
-Windows 10

Good enough to start. Once in the thick of it though, here are other things to consider:

• Editing video is critical with fast desktops, let alone laughtops. During encoding, CPU may reach 100% activity and will run HOT. Proper ventilation is more hit and miss with laughtops than desktops; working space placement of laughtop is therefore very important.
• As much as possible, always keep the power brick plugged in. Batteries can die in the middle of an important editing task, such as a project where you have made numerous changes but have not saved it yet (gasp!).
• You will transfer large files to and from drives, but windows explorer still has many hiccups. A more reliable way to do so would be with teracopy.
• Laughtops are branded computers that can be filled with lots of bloatware from the manufacturer that get installed when first powered up, then put themselves in as TSRs on each subsequent boot. Examples would be wi-fi monitors apps, silly games, little toylike apps (like for impromptu picture-editing). These apps are geared for sheeple to use, but can be disastrous in conjunction with doing something critical like edit video. They occupy precious system memory as well. Use task manager and msconfig to know what these are and to disable them if not needed.
• Windoze 10 has features that may slow down your computer. For example, search "choose how updates are delivered" and turn off the feature that allow other PCs in the vicinity to connect to yours to download updates from instead of from microsoft servers.
• In ALL computers I have put together for myself and others for the past 2 years or so, I have used RAID1 configuration for the system drive C:. This is because all current Intel desktop southbridge chipset SATA controllers support a few types of RAID configurations, so with HDDs now cheap, why not configure for redundancy with a RAID1? All HDDs die sooner or later, solid-state and otherwise. RAID1 has saved the day for me on numerous occasions. Some specialized laughtops do support RAID1 and have physical space for two HDDs, but they are not easy to find and are expensive. On the other hand, this feature is second nature with any recent Intel desktop chipset.
• That laughtop may have a 16GB maximum allowed system memory. If that is the case, upgrade it to 16GB ASAP. You need all the memory you can get.

[vibrantvideo]

So with my budget, I've found one other option:

ASUS X550JX
-i7-4720HQ (2.6 GHz, Quad-core)
-NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M 2GB
-15,6" Full HD (1920x1080)
-256GB SSD
-8GB RAM
-WiFi adaptor 802.11ac
-2.45kg
-4-cell lithium ion (44Wh)
-Windows 10

Good enough to start. Once in the thick of it though, here are other things to consider:

• Editing video is critical with fast desktops, let alone laughtops. During encoding, CPU may reach 100% activity and will run HOT. Proper ventilation is more hit and miss with laughtops than desktops; working space placement of laughtop is therefore very important.
• As much as possible, always keep the power brick plugged in. Batteries can die in the middle of an important editing task, such as a project where you have made numerous changes but have not saved it yet (gasp!).
• You will transfer large files to and from drives, but windows explorer still has many hiccups. A more reliable way to do so would be with teracopy.
• Laughtops are branded computers that can be filled with lots of bloatware from the manufacturer that get installed when first powered up, then put themselves in as TSRs on each subsequent boot. Examples would be wi-fi monitors apps, silly games, little toylike apps (like for impromptu picture-editing). These apps are geared for sheeple to use, but can be disastrous in conjunction with doing something critical like edit video. They occupy precious system memory as well. Use task manager and msconfig to know what these are and to disable them if not needed.
• Windoze 10 has features that may slow down your computer. For example, search "choose how updates are delivered" and turn off the feature that allow other PCs in the vicinity to connect to yours to download updates from instead of from microsoft servers.
• In ALL computers I have put together for myself and others for the past 2 years or so, I have used RAID1 configuration for the system drive C:. This is because all current Intel desktop southbridge chipset SATA controllers support a few types of RAID configurations, so with HDDs now cheap, why not configure for redundancy with a RAID1? All HDDs die sooner or later, solid-state and otherwise. RAID1 has saved the day for me on numerous occasions. Some specialized laughtops do support RAID1 and have physical space for two HDDs, but they are not easy to find and are expensive. On the other hand, this feature is second nature with any recent Intel desktop chipset.
• That laughtop may have a 16GB maximum allowed system memory. If that is the case, upgrade it to 16GB ASAP. You need all the memory you can get.

Wow thank you so much turk690
I think I have some reading up to do as I still have much to learn (teracopy and RAID configuration are new to me).
For sure I will clean up Windoze as soon as I start using the system and also privatize it so it's not stalking me.

Can I ask you for your opinion on one last system (Lenovo IdeaPad Y700) and how it compares with the ASUS X550JX?
Which would you choose between the two?
Thanks again!

Lenovo IdeaPad Y700
-i5-6300HQ (2.3 GHz, Quad-core)
-Nvidia Geforce GTX 960M 2GB
-15,6" Full HD IPS (1920x1080)
-1TB HDD
-8GB RAM (DDR4)
-WiFi adaptor 802.11ac
-2.6kg
-4-cell lithium ion (60Wh)
-Windows 10

ASUS X550JX-DM257T
-i7-4720HQ (2.6 GHz, Quad-core)
-NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M 2GB
-15,6" Full HD (1920x1080)
-256GB SSD
-8GB RAM (DDR3)
-WiFi adaptor 802.11ac
-2.45kg
-4-cell lithium ion (44Wh)
-Windows 10

[turk690]

Can I ask you for your opinion on one last system (Lenovo IdeaPad Y700) and how it compares with the ASUS X550JX?
Which would you choose between the two?
Thanks again!

Lenovo IdeaPad Y700
-i5-6300HQ (2.3 GHz, Quad-core)
-Nvidia Geforce GTX 960M 2GB
-15,6" Full HD IPS (1920x1080)
-1TB HDD
-8GB RAM (DDR4)
-WiFi adaptor 802.11ac
-2.6kg
-4-cell lithium ion (60Wh)
-Windows 10

ASUS X550JX-DM257T
-i7-4720HQ (2.6 GHz, Quad-core)
-NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M 2GB
-15,6" Full HD (1920x1080)
-256GB SSD
-8GB RAM (DDR3)
-WiFi adaptor 802.11ac
-2.45kg
-4-cell lithium ion (44Wh)
-Windows 10

They have similar specs. The Lenovo has an IPS display which may help in editing video, bigger battery, and DDR4 memory, but the ASUS has an SSD. Can the system memory on both laughtops be upgraded to 16GB? Another factor which would matter greatly IMHO is connectivity: the more USB ports (preferably USB3), for example, the better. An ideal interface for an external HDD is eSATA, but is no longer a given on laughtops like it once was. And I bet none of these laughtops have a blu-ray drive (which is important to me).

[usually_quiet]

The i7 is the better of the two CPUs. Both are quad cores, but the i7 has a higher turbo clock speed, and supports 8 threads rather than 4. Power consumption is slightly higher, but I doubt that you will be doing much encoding on battery power alone.

[vibrantvideo]

Can I ask you for your opinion on one last system (Lenovo IdeaPad Y700) and how it compares with the ASUS X550JX?
Which would you choose between the two?
Thanks again!

Lenovo IdeaPad Y700
-i5-6300HQ (2.3 GHz, Quad-core)
-Nvidia Geforce GTX 960M 2GB
-15,6" Full HD IPS (1920x1080)
-1TB HDD
-8GB RAM (DDR4)
-WiFi adaptor 802.11ac
-2.6kg
-4-cell lithium ion (60Wh)
-Windows 10

ASUS X550JX-DM257T
-i7-4720HQ (2.6 GHz, Quad-core)
-NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M 2GB
-15,6" Full HD (1920x1080)
-256GB SSD
-8GB RAM (DDR3)
-WiFi adaptor 802.11ac
-2.45kg
-4-cell lithium ion (44Wh)
-Windows 10

They have similar specs. The Lenovo has an IPS display which may help in editing video, bigger battery, and DDR4 memory, but the ASUS has an SSD. Can the system memory on both laughtops be upgraded to 16GB? Another factor which would matter greatly IMHO is connectivity: the more USB ports (preferably USB3), for example, the better. An ideal interface for an external HDD is eSATA, but is no longer a given on laughtops like it once was. And I bet none of these laughtops have a blu-ray drive (which is important to me).

Thanks turk690

Yep, I think both can have 16GB (the description for the ASUS X550JX says 8 GB (1 x 4 GB + 4 GB (soldered) whatever that means?).
Both laptops have 2 x USB 3.0 (plus 1 x USB 2.0).
How would you weigh up which laptop is best when comparing the differences such as DDR4 vs DDR3, HDD vs SDD, IPS vs non-IPS, i5-6300HQ vs i7-4720HQ, 44Wh vs 60Wh? What's most important, and which laptop would you choose between the two?
Thanks!

[turk690]

The i7 is the better of the two CPUs.

I will take the i7 too. To be more specific, I'd take the IPS display, nVidia, battery, and DDR4 from the Lenovo, then the i7 and SSD from the ASUS. An IPS display is noteworthy in the sense that most laughtops have glossy displays full of glare and less than optimum viewing angles.
All of these should amply show the devil in choosing to use a laughtop to edit video: it's difficult and expensive, if not impossible, to get all the required components in just one package. With that, sorry, none is the best. Up to you.

[vibrantvideo]

The i7 is the better of the two CPUs.

I will take the i7 too. To be more specific, I'd take the IPS display, nVidia, battery, and DDR4 from the Lenovo, then the i7 and SSD from the ASUS. An IPS display is noteworthy in the sense that most laughtops have glossy displays full of glare and less than optimum viewing angles.
All of these should amply show the devil in choosing to use a laughtop to edit video: it's difficult and expensive, if not impossible, to get all the required components in just one package. With that, sorry, none is the best. Up to you.

Thanks turk690

Yep, it's a compromise (mostly with my budget). I'm not planning on doing professional video/media editing but would still like a system with some power and longevity.

I've found that the IPS displays (on all of the Lenovo laptops I've looked at) are quite shiny/glarey so I kind of prefer matte. Perhaps this is different with desktop options or Macs even.

I think I'm leaning towards the Asus with i7 and SSD. Probably not much difference in the batteries, and like I said I find the IPS to be too shiny usually. Not sure if the DDR4 is massively faster than DDR3? I guess the i7 vs i5 would outweigh the difference in speed between the RAMs (DDR4 vs DDR3) right?

Thanks again!