Which hardware for editing?

[ER1C]

I have a desktop with a Sempron 3100 w/1GB of Ram and a laptop with a DualCore 1.66 w/1GB of Ram. My desktop has a much better video card but I doubt that will make much of a difference.

I never considered my laptop due to its 5400 rpm HD but recently I bought an external 200GB Firewire drive. The laptop has a firewire port so I figured I might be better off making the jump.

Is the laptop a better solution? Will the firewire connected HD hurt performance compared to my desktop with it's internal drive?

Btw- I'm running Premiere Elements.

[Scorpion King]

I don't use my laptop for editing video for the simple reason of heat. That thing gets hot when the cpu load is high.

I would imagine one would need the power A/C plugged in, which builds heat on my laptop, and most editing projects means filtering and encoding which both requires high cpu loads.

Running my laptop on A/C power for an extended period of time under high CPU loads generates a lot of heat.

[edDV]

Other than the heat issue, the laptop might filter and encode a bit faster if Elements supports dual CPU. If not the desktop wins.

5400 RPM is fast enough for capturing or processing DV format.

[ER1C]

Other than the heat issue, the laptop might filter and encode a bit faster if Elements supports dual CPU. If not the desktop wins.

5400 RPM is fast enough for capturing or processing DV format.

I'm editing both mpeg2 and DV with it. Wouldn't the laptop's internal 5400rpm drive hurt Premiere Element's performance?

Btw- is there a significant performance difference between an internal HDD compared to a drive connected via FW?

[GMaq]

Hi,
I do editing and tons of encoding with a Core Duo Laptop and sometimes using an external drive, If you look at mobile HDD specs there is actually little difference between 5400 and 7200RPM unlike in desktops, I highly suggest getting a chill mat for your laptop though, it makes a huge difference in heat, also the duo's run far far cooler than the "M" series processors, You probably want to run your applications on the internal and capture to your firewire drive, I do all MPEG-2 capturing with no problem to a USB2 External HDD, I don't do DV so I can't say if your internal drive could handle it or not.

[edDV]

Other than the heat issue, the laptop might filter and encode a bit faster if Elements supports dual CPU. If not the desktop wins.

5400 RPM is fast enough for capturing or processing DV format.

I'm editing both mpeg2 and DV with it. Wouldn't the laptop's internal 5400rpm drive hurt Premiere Element's performance?

As said above, the differences while filtering or encoding are minimal. The process is CPU limited. You will notice a faster hard drive difference while copying large files (assuming internal) or while "scrubbing" (direct dragging the video along the timeline) while editing.

Btw- is there a significant performance difference between an internal HDD compared to a drive connected via FW?

Yes the internal drive will be about twice as fast as 1394a and somewhat faster than 1394b. USB2 transfers somewhat slower than 1394a but also consumes more CPU capacity for disk control. External "eSATA" will be similar to internal speed since it is working off the SATA hardware disk controller.