notebook for video editing?!

kuuan · Expire: 2014-12-26

video files of 'our' digital still cameras are quite huge and editing, specially rendering them need a lot of computing power. My basic Lenovo with an i3 M380 processor, 4GB Ram and an Nvidia GeForce 310M 'in theory' can render the videos I take with my Sony NEX5N, but then again not really: Within a few minutes the notebook will overheat and turn off automatically. ( Recently I 'had' to render a few videos someone wanted, for that I placed my notebook on top of ice cubes which almost doubled the minutes before shutting down, but 5 minutes was max still..)

therefoe my question: Which specifications does a notebook need to be able to render videos of e.g. a NEX5N without problems? If I buy a new notebook I should plan ahead, so better even, to be able to render videos taken with a Sony A7? Better even recommendations of specific models and best if it was not all too expensive but rel. cheap.

there should be more specific forums to ask this, recommendations where else better to ask are most welcome too.

thank you, andreas

calvin83 · Joined: 12 Apr 2009 Posts: 7568 Location: Hong Kong

Overheat is caused by the lost efficiency of the heat sink(dusting in the heat sink fin, aging of the heat conduction material between the fan and heat sink and fail of the fan), component failure(less likely) or design fault(very unlikely). Sometime, older drivers may also need to be updated to be compatible for newer software. You will need to get it fixed yourself or send it for repair.

Aanything · Expire: 2014-05-30

I suggest an i7 with 8gb RAM, at least: the avchd files require quite some work to decode/transcode. A solution that sometimes worked for me is to convert all the footage in a less compressed format (or not compressed at all) so to require less work from CPU/ram. Obviously this complicates the workflow a little, and takes up a lot of disk space.
Also, hard drive speed is quite important.

I work as a freelance video editor, and do half of my work on a laptop.
I switched from Windows to a MacBook Pro some years ago (mostly because I needed apple's Final Cut Pro), and I don't think I will get back any time soon: also, with the kind of use I make, my MacBooks lasted averagely twice longer than my pc's (4years vs 2), so not really more expensive in the end.

kuuan · Expire: 2014-12-26

thank you very much Calvin and Aanything Smile

not so sure if I want to change to apple, though this suggestion is coming up again and again. Good knowledge Calvin and I am sure you are right, but I believe that trying to repair my 2+ year old basic notebook won't make sense. Once I had it's fan cleaned, helped a little bit but I think that it already had the issue, possibly less severe, when new.

From what I also have gathered elsewhere on the net I think that the suggestion of a i7 processor with 8GB Ram is perfect. However I have been wondering if this is all it takes. This because I guess that the physical layout, the cooling might play an important role also and therefore was curious if anyone could suggest a certain model. Or am I wrong here? And should I pay attention to the specifications of the grafic card?

At this site where one can search noteboook with many filters I have chosen so far 15" monitor, i7 processor and 8GB RAM, that returns 130 notebooks: http://www.idealo.co.uk/filter/3751F853684-1933568-2111689/laptops.html#RAM So far again it's Lenovo notebooks that stand out for being the cheapest but there are so many criteria more to further filter the results:
- Would anyone please be so kind and help me to further refine the search? -

thank you again, cheers, andreas

Aanything · Expire: 2014-05-30

The graphic card is a little complicated topic.
Some softwares use it to render some effects, others can take advantage of it during normal editing/export through plugins, but these plugins work only with some dedicated cards.
My idea, especially on a laptop, would be to buy a standard gpu and invest more in the CPU, ram and disk, which are always mostly used for standard video work (editing, basic effects, output).
As for the heating, I only had heating problems once, and it was because of a mechanical failure of a component in my acer laptop, so I never really worried about it. But then again, MacBook pro's metal body is great at dissipating heat, and mine went flawlessly through some 20-something hours of after effects renders.

Tedat · Joined: 08 Nov 2011 Posts: 800 Location: Berlin/Germany

calvin83 · Joined: 12 Apr 2009 Posts: 7568 Location: Hong Kong

The work flow of choosing will be something like this:

1. Give a budget
2. Find all products within your requirements. The requirement should be listed from most important to less important
3. Choose one or two from above

If you need to do video editing, requirement of processing speed is should be one of the important factor. The cheapest latest generation quad core CPU for notebook is Core i7-4702. If you ONLY do trimming, any of the faster i5 can be your choice. 8GB RAM and 750GB hard disk with 7200rmp is a most. You will also need a Full HD 1920x1080 monitor for your editing and preview. GPU is not very important but a Discrete GPU from NVIDIA will be better. Play attention to the build quality and the cooling systems(workstations are the best, some notebooks will allow you to reach the heat sink with a simple cover), slim notebooks without so-so cooling systems should be avoided. You will need at least 3 year warranty(preferable international warranty). Things like keyboard size, video out function should also be considered.

The most important is how much you will pay? Portable workstation will be best but may be too expensive and bulky. A high end consumer notebook will be a good replacement of portable workstation.

kuuan · Expire: 2014-12-26

thank you guys once again for your kind help!

Aanything, you really are tempting me with the macbook Wink

ok, understood, grafic card is not as important as big power CPU, ram and disc. What is the name of the fast disc I shold look out for?

Jan your linked notebooks at ebay look very good to me! they just have onebig drawback for me, they come with German keyboard land OS. Even though German is my mother tongue I am really used to only want both English keyboard and OS. One big plus I see with a used notebook, it may come with Win7 and not Win8 which seems to be a pita (?)
also WIN8, but at ebay UK I find e.g. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-Inspiron-15R-5537-Laptop-i7-4500U-8GB-1TB-Full-HD-1080p-Win-8-Pro-/281296469335?pt=UK_Computing_Laptops_EH&hash=item417e937d57
or: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lenovo-IdeaPad-Y510p-4th-Gen-i7-4700MQ-FHD-GT750M-2G-8GB-24GB-SSD-1TB-Gaming-1YR-/151272744820?pt=Laptops_Nov05&hash=item23388ee774
and: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-Inspiron-15R-5537-Laptop-i7-4500U-8GB-1TB-Full-HD-1080p-Win-8-Pro-/281296469335?pt=UK_Computing_Laptops_EH&hash=item417e937d57
various Dells, variations of the '15R', look quite good to me, I believe they also are sturdy build and good customer service and the price level seems alright. The only thing I notice is that their harddrives only come at 5400 RPM, but Calvin tells me that 7200 RPM is a must. hm..

Calvin you raise various important points I want to refer to:
budget I hope will be less than 1000 usd.
video editing will not be the main point and I don't much care about speed as long as it is able to do it! However I do carry my notebook with me traveling the world, and I want it to be as light as possible. 15" monitor so far has been my compromise of maximal screen size with minimal size and weight.

Slowly I get an idea, but please bare with me if once again I link the site where I had started to choose and if I ask you again which more search filters I should apply: http://www.idealo.co.uk/filter/3751F853684-1933568-2111689/laptops.html#RAM
e.g. SSD drive? that would drop results from 131 to only 33, but the cheapest now would start at around 1000 pounds, before from around 550..

thank you so much
andreas

calvin83 · Joined: 12 Apr 2009 Posts: 7568 Location: Hong Kong

I will start with this http://www.idealo.co.uk/cat/3751F750508-997301-1086014-1933568-2111689/laptops.html?param.resultlist.sortKey=minPrice . Pick few models from different brands and paste the spec here. Are you planning to buy in UK? Price will varies from region to region and time to time.

From the above link, it seems the only choice is Lenovo IdeaPad Z510 Exclamation

kuuan · Expire: 2014-12-26

Aanything · Expire: 2014-05-30

And I haven't spoke about the retina display yet!
No seriously, probably for the kind of use you will do the price difference between a good PC and a MacBookPro will not be justified: mine is switched on and running video editing softwares 12 hours a day, so the build quality difference really plays a significant role.

Back to disk speed: I think a 7200rpm disk will most likely do the job, SSD's are great, but small and expensive so not really an optimal solution.
Another thing you may want to look for are FireWire 800 ports, as video footage can take teras of space, and you may end up using external drives. Usb3 are fine as it has a very high transfer rate, but FireWire has the advantage of not draining resources from the CPU when reading/writing while USB does.

calvin83 · Joined: 12 Apr 2009 Posts: 7568 Location: Hong Kong

Try to see some reviews before you purchase. Here is the review for IdeaPad Z510, looks not bad but the monitor quality is not that good?
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Lenovo-IdeaPad-Z510-Notebook.105627.0.html

If you do not need full HD monitor, there is may be more choice. The hard disk of Z510 is a hybrid hard which 8GB SSD as cache which will help the performance. a 7200rpm hard disk is better but a slim notebook within 3kg many not have the opinion to install it. Also consider if you need a build-in optical drive.

If budget and OS is not a problem, then a Macbook may be better. Wink

kuuan · Expire: 2014-12-26

kuuan · Expire: 2014-12-26

calvin83 · Joined: 12 Apr 2009 Posts: 7568 Location: Hong Kong

kuuan · Expire: 2014-12-26

calvin83 · Joined: 12 Apr 2009 Posts: 7568 Location: Hong Kong

Tedat · Joined: 08 Nov 2011 Posts: 800 Location: Berlin/Germany

kuuan · Expire: 2014-12-26

thank you again Jan!
your suggestion of refurbished workbooks / notebooks on ebay is wonderful! made me look and I found quite a number of refurbished notebooks that would fit me very well on ebay.co.uk right now, I may take up your great suggestion but think that better I opt for one with English keyboard and OS offered in the UK

calvin83 · Joined: 12 Apr 2009 Posts: 7568 Location: Hong Kong

I support Lenovo because I am a Chinese. Wink

Which model you are using now? Only the high end models are tough and relatively reliable. My old Thinkpad survived more than 10 years. I use it as a spare computer now.

Business models or high end consumer models will feature anti glare screen. If you cannot find a anti glare within your budget, you can try high quality Anti-Glare Screen Protector. These protectors may make the screen look like little fuzzy but they do help reduce reflection.

Warranty is very important IMHO. If you plan to use it three years, you must purchase three years warranty(check for international warranty terms). Additional warranty against accidental damage can be purchased if you need extra protection(Dell call it Accidental Damage Service and Lenovo call it Accidental Damage Protection).

Go to a shop and check it out if possible. Lenovo should be pretty common in many large department or electronic store.

mo · Expire: 2016-07-30

Remember to check out the battery life of the notebook.

kuuan · Expire: 2014-12-26

calvin83 · Joined: 12 Apr 2009 Posts: 7568 Location: Hong Kong

I like tea more than beer. Wink

Also take a look at Asus N550JV. A 1920x1080 IPS Non-Glare LCD is avaliable for this model. If you cannot find the Lenovo, this can be a second choice.
https://www.asus.com/Notebooks_Ultrabooks/N550JV/overview/
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Asus-N550JV-CN201H-Notebook.98311.0.html

However, you can only buy it less than $1000 in the US.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/983615-REG/asus_n550jv_db71_15_6_notebook_computer.html

Price of notebooks in Europe should be higher than in Asia because the people in Europe is more rich? Notebooks are cheaper in AU, US and East Asian. Do a research on price at different place and buy whatever it is available. If you buy it at a shop, make sure the shop is reliable.

mo · Expire: 2016-07-30

I had to buy a cheap notebook for my son, I chose a Toshiba for under $500au the battery only lasts about 2 hrs. I can't wait to see what you buy,will you give a small review?

kuuan · Expire: 2014-12-26