Laptop for video editing

Ballyman

Ballyman

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Aindreas
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I have specc'd a laptop that I want to buy and I'd like to see if anyone has any ideas or comments on it and possible upgraded downgrades. My needs are editing AVCHD files in premiere pro cs6 - there is nothing fancy, just cutting and a little colour correction. There will also be some multicam edits of two and three AVCHD cameras.

I currently have a desktop and a laptop, neither of which are very suited to video editing ( the laptop cant do any multicam and the desktop lags a little during multicam) and I want to get rid of them both and replace them with a good laptop. I travel a bit so a desktop doesn't really make much sense for me so no need to suggest one and I'm not interested in an iAnything either!!! Any comments appreciated.

Screen: 15.6" Matte Full HD IPS LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor: Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4720HQ (2.60GHz, 3.5GHz Turbo)
Memory: 16GB KINGSTON SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 970M - 3.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
OS - HDD: 240GB KINGSTON SSDNow M.2 2280, SATA 6Gb/s (550MB/R, 520MB/W
Data - HDD: 240GB KINGSTON V300 SSD, SATA 6 Gb (450MB/R, 450MB/W)
External DVD/BLU-RAY Drive: 8x Samsung Slim USB 2.0 External DVD-RW
Memory Card Reader: Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
USB Options 4 x USB 3.0 PORTS (1 x POWERED, 1 e-SATA COMBINED)

The plan is to use the first SSD for programs and OS, the second SSD as a scratch disk and two external USB3.0 HDD's for footage and exports. I may upgrade the RAM to 32GB also down the line if required.

How does all this sound? Will it do what I ask? Would you change anything else?
 
Is this something you can actually buy/have built for you or just your dream spec?
I feel the GPU is a bit OTT if you're not gaming or does Premiere make use of the GPU?
I would replace the V300 with something better as I've seen many reports about variable quality of the V300. In fact I wouldn't spec Kingston at all when alternatives are available from the likes of Corsair, Crucial or Samsung.
 
Interesting spec. Which vendor is this from out of curiosity?

Aside from the fact that feels like a rather heavy laptop I wouldn't want to personally lug around you should be OK using Premiere on this. I would recommend using external rugged drives if you are on the road a lot. Cooling may also be an issue depending on how much rendering you do and what transfer outputs you are looking for (I have used a few laptops in the past and always find GPU's going bust after a few months - this particular concept of building GPU's into Laptop's still needs work IMHO)

Snapsh0t said:
I feel the GPU is a bit OTT if you're not gaming or does Premiere make use of the GPU?
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Shouldn't be an issue. You can 'unlock' your GPU to be used with Premiere. Will require setting up NVIDIA Optimus enabled in the card's settings.

SSD is a great choice. Defrag frequently!
 
Indeed. It must be possible to do something worse to your SSD but I can't think of anything at the moment.
 
Thanks for the replies. PC Specialist will build this exact spec for me. The weight is about 2.8 Kgs so not exactly like a feather!!

Premiere does make use of the GPU so a high spec'd GPU is preferable for premiere use. I probably could get away with the 960M but from reading on the net, the colour lumetri tool in premiere cc is pretty GPU intensive so that's why I've gone for this one.

Has anyone experience in doing multicam edits in premiere in a laptop, particularly with AVCHD files? How were they, is it nice and smooth? What spec laptop do you have?
 
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Not a PC but I've done similar on a MacBook Pro with similar spec. Not had any trouble except that you would expect from a using laptop rather than a desktop

Can't comment on multicam Premier as I use FCPX, but had no problems at all
 
afasoas said:
Lols. No. SSDs should never be defragged. Should be trimmed instead!
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Take that back not particularly clever use of jargon from me. You are correct.

Snapsh0t said:
It must be possible to do something worse to your SSD but I can't think of anything at the moment.
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Possibly ... too many writes, esp during activities such as what the OP intends to do?

Anyways, I digress. Back to OP
Can't say I have worked on multi-edit's on a laptop. A quick look at recommended spec here https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/system-requirements.html your GPU isn't listed
Suggest you review the spec against the Premiere Pro BenchMark. Two links http://ppbm7.com/ and http://ppbm5.com/DB-PPBM5-2.php/
 
240GB doesn't sound like much - that's less than 12 mins of the video I'm currently editing.
 
Ballyman said:
Anything specific?
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Small screen compared to desktop. Trackpad not always the best tool for accuracy in trimming clips. Sound quality from speakers not ideal for analysing sound track. Not show stoppers , and an external mouse solves problem 2.. However if you have to edit in the field it can be done without much difficulty
 
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