question about laptops...

[crackthesky]

My parents want to buy me a laptop for christmas because I'm a business major, but from what I've read they are all really slow and aren't good for doing the video conversion that I would want to do with it. I would rather have a desktop but I dont really have a choice. Does anyone know of a good laptop that is fast enough to convert video files without locking up or taking forever to convert? Thanks in advance!!

[shelbyGT]

What's our price ceiling?

[isogonic]

afew years ago laptops may have lagged behind a desktop, but that has changed. a "good" laptop is just as capable as a "good desktop".

http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,121572,00.asp

http://www.pcmag.com/category2/0,1874,9,00.asp

http://reviews.cnet.com/Notebooks/2001-3121_7-0.html

[sitlet]

if youre going to be doing a lot of video editing, i would try to get a pentium 4. the celerons arent as powerful, and the centrino are made for power saving, not power. the only disadvantage with a laptop is the lack of upgradable video cards. so make sure you get one with a dedicated video card by ati or nvida. they will be a little expensive, but youre better off getting one now, cause you cant upgrade later

[ozymango]

I've got a Dell Latitude d550 (at work, through work) that's got a P4 M, 1GB RAM, couple of hard drives, firewire input, and most definitely you can do some serious video editing/converting/whatever on this puppy. For work related purposes only, of course!!!

Seriously, mostly I use my home machine (P4 something, built out of various scraps, good scraps!) for the bulk of my converting needs but the Dell has been extremely useful in a pinch (like when traveling, and some genuine actual work-related stuff). It's definitely fast enough, and with both firewire and USB2 inputs (oh, and PCMCIA of course) I can connect it to pretty much anything I need to input/capture/whatever ... so yeah, it can definitely be done. And if you only have one computer, and you need it to do everything, and you're in school, a laptop is really nice to have, on more than a few occasions.

That being said, if you'll be doing a significant amout of video work, I would very highly recommend an additional external monitor (I prefer CRTs for video, simply for "bang for the buck" reasons) and keyboard and mouse setup, you'll go nuts trying to use your laptop's screen and keyboard if you do a heck of a lot of editing. At least, I do. Go nuts, that is.

Possibly an option, depending on $$$ and space: Any chance you could split the difference and have them get you a slightly lower-spec laptop for school work, and piece together a desktop for the video stuff? My only concern when it comes to having one computer to work with, period, is that if you do any major editing and/or converting, you really take up CPU and memory and you can't really work on a term paper on the same machine at the same time. Not without getting frustrated over how long it's taking, anyway. Even a cheaper P4 desktop (i.e. "used" or "have a friend who's getting rid of his desktop cheap because his folks just got him a new laptop for school") can be really useful for doing "grunt" video work, like leaving it on all night to do conversions and stuff. Not speedy, but you've got your laptop for other stuff.

Anyway, back to the laptop: Definitely you can make one work (and work well!) and definitely get a P4 processor, not a Celeron -- assuming you're in the PC world, that is, if you want a Mac then by all means the new Macs will do video very easily -- and good luck!

EDIT: Oh, by the way, my laptop cost about $3K when new, ouch, but it was top-of-the-line (for 2003!).

[crackthesky]

i would say the price ceiling is around $2000...and im almost positive that its going to be a dell...the extent of my video editing is just converting tv shows i donwload and burning them to dvd...thanks for the advice..i appreciate it!!

[SaSi]

As already mentioned, current crop of laptops can be as fast as state-of-the-art desktops (well, almost). It is not uncommon to find 3.2GHz P4 laptops with 1Gb RAM and 17" screens. They cost much more than a desktop but they exist.

Centrino laptops may appear "slow" in terms of the CPU GHz rating, however the Centrino P4 is a very powerful processor. I own a Centrino 1.8GHz laptop and the performance beats the hell out of an old P4/1.8GHz desktop at work. It comfortably matches my home desktop at 2.8GHz although the lack of multiple disks makes disk intensive jobs slower.

There is a lot to choose from for under $2000 and the first thing to decide is whether you buy a heavyweight, conventional P4 machine with lot's of power, lots of heat and ridiculus battery run time or buy a Centrino with slightly less power for the same money but which runs cool and conserves battery time.

Choose a laptop with XP PRO installed (not XP home).

Choose a model with USB 2 ports. 4 USB 2.0 ports and a firewire are not uncommon these days. You will need these to hook up external disks and video grabbing devices.

Chose a model with a high resolution screen. 1024x768 is med-resolution these days. Top models offer 1400x1050 while some heavyweight desktop replacements show 1600x1200 at 17". High resolution is vital for some video editing and DVD authoring s/w. Even VirtualDUB can benefit from a resolution higher than 1024x768, so that both video windows show in full side by side.

Select a moderately large disk. 80Gb is good enough and in every laptop I know of, HD is user replaceable, so you can change it with a larger in the future. In any case, the ceiling here is 120Gb or so, and you can only find these in top-priced models. You can devise a USB external disk with 300Gb capacity for less than $250, so don't worry about a large internal disk.

My current laptop is a 1.7GHz Centrino with 512MB RAM and 4 USB ports. This current version of it should retail under $1600 and currently has a 2GHz CPU with an X700 portable ATI VGA and an 80Gb drive. Also includes a NEC +/- DL burner rated at 8x. Also sports dual view, with the laptop panel acting as screen 1 and an externaly connected monitor as screen 2. Great for video editing and other taks (e.g. programming).

I did some videoediting last summer using a USB video capture device and external disks. It worked really fine, although hooking up several devices to the laptop defeats the portability factor.

[aanaravs]

First of all, lets clear up some confusion:

1. A Pentium M 2.0 ghz is equivalent to a Pentium 4 3.4ghz w/HT processor. Remember, the Pentium M I am referring to is the newer sonoma chipset with 533 mhz FSB. Anything that does not have the sonoma chipset is NOT equivalent to the Pentium 4 systems.

2. RAM: Get a system with the lowest amount of RAM possible and then upgrade via Newegg. Dell was charging me a couple hundred for 1GB ram and via Newegg, I got it for $70 / gig

3. Videocard: There are very few systems that have good graphics card. Specifically, the higher-end Alienware, Dell and the Sager lines are perhaps the most preferred.

4. Read my video editing & laptops article: http://asvideoproductions.com/video/articles/laptops.pdf

[ROF]

I just configured a Systemax Laptop at Tigerdirect.

15.4" WSXGA Notebook Base w/ Gray Cover
Intel Pentium M Dothan Processor 760 (2.0GHz 533FSB)
ATI MOBILITY RADEON X600 128MB
1GB DDR SODIMM (512MB x 2)
100GB Ultra ATA 5400RPM Notebook Hard Drive
DVD+/-R/RW Dual Drive
1.44MB External USB Floppy Drive Black
3 USB, 1 Firewire, 1 Gigabit LAN, 1 RJ11, S-Video, Wireless B,G

Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2
1 Year Parts & Labor Notebook Warranty

For $1946USD Shipped. Good Price? I think so. Hope it makes someone happy this holiday season.

[Super Warrior]

The Dell cheap labtops look pretty sweet, only drawback is no DVD-RW drive. Otherwise nice with 1.4Ghz Celeron,256MB ram,etc.

Then again thats more of the entry-level comp which would be fine for me but not someone looking to do high-tech stuff with theirs.

[aanaravs]

ROF:
Not a good price....

You can get the Dell Inspiron 9300, which is a much, much powerful system for under $1500.

[ROF]

The Dell 9300 is one of the worst constructed Widescreen Laptops available today. The 17 inch screen is very flimsy and lightly touching it's backing produces distorted LCD Imaging. The under $1500 models do not include DVD burning and much slower processing speed. All 9300's come with only x 300 64MB Graphics Memory as well including the top of the line 9300. Comparable graphics and processing power in the top of the line $2200 would cost you almost $400 customized.

Did I mention all 9300's use XP media Center OS?

[smearbrick1]

I have an Inspiron 600m (I don't think they sell them anymore) and it's freakin' great! I believe it is of the 2.4ghz variety w/ 512MB of RAM and ATI Radeon Mobility. The only downside is the fact that I don't use my 3.4ghz Dimension 8400 anymore.

[aanaravs]

The Dell 9300 is one of the worst constructed Widescreen Laptops available today. The 17 inch screen is very flimsy and lightly touching it's backing produces distorted LCD Imaging. The under $1500 models do not include DVD burning and much slower processing speed. All 9300's come with only x 300 64MB Graphics Memory as well including the top of the line 9300. Comparable graphics and processing power in the top of the line $2200 would cost you almost $400 customized.

Did I mention all 9300's use XP media Center OS?

Umm...Don't mean to be rude, but do you know what you are talking about?

The Inspiron 9300 has an option of using the nVidia GeForce 6800 Go, one of the more powerful cards in available for notebooks.

I haven't seen the distortion that you speak of and neither have the other thousands of owners. Check out the 9300 section at notebookforums.com. The 9300 is perhaps Dell's better built models. As a professional editor, I have to often carry my system from one studio to another and with constant bumps (damn external harddrives), and the computer looks as good as new.

Does not include DVD burning? Are you serious? Look carefully on Dell's site.

No, it doesn't come with only XP MCE. You have the option of selecting XP Home, Pro or MCE.

You are misinformed and I highly suggest that you check out Dell's site.

Edit: You CAN get the 9300 for less than $1500....Hang out at sickdeals.net once or twice a day and you may find a coupon.

[ROF]

Umm...Don't mean to be rude, but do you know what you are talking about?

The Inspiron 9300 has an option of using the nVidia GeForce 6800 Go, one of the more powerful cards in available for notebooks.

I haven't seen the distortion that you speak of and neither have the other thousands of owners. Check out the 9300 section at notebookforums.com. The 9300 is perhaps Dell's better built models. As a professional editor, I have to often carry my system from one studio to another and with constant bumps (damn external harddrives), and the computer looks as good as new.

Does not include DVD burning? Are you serious? Look carefully on Dell's site.

No, it doesn't come with only XP MCE. You have the option of selecting XP Home, Pro or MCE.

You are misinformed and I highly suggest that you check out Dell's site.

I've looked at Dell site, Can you show me a 9300 under $2000 that includes a 2.0Ghz Processor, 128MB x600 or better video, DVD Burning, and XP Professional SP2?

If not, I'm not misinformed in the least. I visit their site often only to show others how much money they are wasting by going with a Dell. After your first post, I visited their site and couldn't find anything comparable in the 9300 to the system I posted for under $2500. Please tell me where I can find the above listed specs on a dell 9300 for under $1500 as you said you could find a much, much more powerful one for that price.

[ROF]

After visiting the notebookforums I see I'm not the only one to notice the problems with the screen on the 9300. I'm also noticing people complaining about the heat and lack of dispersal. There are also people talking about faulty speakers and other such things on this laptop.

Are you sure it's not another Dell you were speaking of that's such a quality laptop?

Also something to note, the high end 9300 is getting 2 hour battery life(excluding those with the 6800 which gets even less) while the Systemax above gets 5-6 hours.

[aanaravs]

ROF,
I for one haven't seen any distortion problems on the screen. But, there are users complaining about the "sparkles"

Faulty speakers: Yes. No doubt about it.

Battery life: I can squeeze about 3.5 hours by underclocking.

Overall: The reason I am saying its a "quality" laptop is because I come from the older Dell XPS notebook line and IMHO it was the worst thing I owned. It got scratched in so many places, could be used as a heater during winter and the battery life was < an hour.

I am sure that there are better laptops out there and my next one is certainly not going to be a Dell.

OP: Take a look at Sager notebooks if you get a chance. They are really powerful and are pretty cheap.

[ROF]

I'm still looking for that Dell 9300 for $1500 that's a much, much better system then the one I listed above? Can you please link me to it or even something comparable for $1500?

Have you seen the quality of Sager notebooks? Yuck is a good word to describe them.

[aanaravs]

I guess Sager is out of play then too...

The $1500 price can only be achieved when Dell releases their special deals and not otherwise. They have a coupon like that once every month or so.

[ROF]

A coupon worth $1000 off? I can't seem to find a Dell 9300 with comparable specs to the above for less than $2300 and that's sacrificing quality construction by purchasing a 9300.

[aanaravs]

Rof,
There are no coupons at the moment. As I said, they are released once a month or so.

[ROF]

While I understand this, you said Dell had a laptop that was much, much more powerful than the one I listed above for under $1500. I've continued to say a comparable 9300 is well over $2300 and you still get shoddy construction.

Does Dell ever offer coupons worth $1000 off their laptops in order to have a comparable system to what I listed or is there one at their site now I'm missing for the price point you posted?

I'm planning on purchasing the laptop I listed above on Thursday for a customer unless someone else can come up with one that's better and cheaper. That's why I keep asking you where I can find this Dell 9300(or any Dell for that matter) $1500 laptop that's much, much more powerful.

[aanaravs]

http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?t=163683&highlight=dell+inspiron

That thread will get you a nice discount.

[ROF]

Now I just need to become or know a qualifying Dell Employee/Affiliate/Faculty/Student or Staff.

[ROF]

I see staples is having a sale this Sunday on an Acer TravelMate TM4402WLMi Notebook for $799.98. With a 1.6GHz Turion 64 ML-30, 512MB DDR, x700 Mobility Graphics, 100GB HDD, DVD±RW DL, Windows XP Pro, 15.4" TFT LCD. These aren't bad machines. Our local staples has it on display. A nicely constructed laptop with a nice keyboard and bright sturdy screen. No Bluetooth however, which was the only difference, but it comes with a 6-in-1 internal media reader. I think I'm going to pick this up and some extra RAM from Newegg and save a ton of ca$h.

The Pentium M is a good processor, but it does use alot of power and exhausts alot of heat when compared to the Turion. I'm no expert on Notebook cpus, does anyone know how these two stack up in real world apps?

[aanaravs]

This MAY help:
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2374

[ROF]

I've read the differences, but I'd like to know if anyone has personal experience with both and could help define the pros and cons of both.