Need a laptop for HD Video Editing under $1200

Riczter on 12/08/2013 - 19:46

I'm chasing a good laptop for engineering work at uni that is going to last a while and that can do the following:

HD Video editing from a gopro black.
AutoDesk NavisWorks 2013
Casual Gaming (starcraft)
Portable to carry to and from Uni, but doesnt need to be an ultrabook.

So firstly, what specs am I looking at? I'm guessing the following:

i7, 8gb RAM, half decent GPU, 15.6" FHD screen, and Big 7200RPM hard drive.

My questions are:
-Do you recommend an i7, or would an i5 cut it?
-Is 8Gb Ram enough, or should i be going 12 or 16?

I hate mechanical hard drives after using an SSD, but am going to need the storage space and don't want to use an external for everything. Perfect solution would be an SSD for the OS and a HDD for storage but dual drive laptops are kinda rare. Maybe one with a SSD cache drive and a decent 7200RPM HDD would do the trick.

Also I would love a haswell laptop for the battery life but theres are still few and far between.

And I only want to spend $1000-1200 so I might have to make some concessions.

The toshiba for $699 here http://www.dicksmith.com.au/laptops-notebooks/toshiba-15-6-s… looks good. Would it satisfy my needs after upgrading the ram, or would the 5400 RPM hdd piss me off?

I could use some experienced opinions :)

Computing

Comments

  • Riczter on 12/08/2013 - 19:57

    Tempted to get the toshiba, rip the HDD out and stick in a 250GB SSD ($200), use the HDD with a case and turn it into an external. Up the ram to 8 or 12. And then I'd be laughin, and still under a grand…. Is this my best bet. The toshiba expires tonight so I need to figure it out quick :/
    EDIT: Ah, low res screen on the toshiba isn't that nice… But I dunno.. will i do better at the price point? For autocad and video editing u really need a decent screen hey… :/

    • Joysky on 12/08/2013 - 23:53

      If that site is correct, the deal ends today.

      That i7 is very powerful, more than one could ask for
      Very respectable 740M, you can easily connect to extra displays, 2gb will easily support >full hd, cuda cores, overclockable if you really want to push it

      you could do with another 4gb ram

      cant really go wrong. great deal!

      get it or ull kick urself, yw!

  • sane on 12/08/2013 - 20:10

    i7

    More RAM I'd suggest, 12-16GB - video and engineering eats memory.

    A decent GPU can offload some of the processing of video/CAD (I know Premiere uses it)

    How about a hybrid drive to give you some of the SSD speed? Also IIRC there are laptops where you can swap the optical drive for a hard disk. So 128GB + 2TB?

    See http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-laptop-upgrade-optic…

    Wouldn't buy from Dick Smith, or any high street store.

    Avoid a touchscreen and you should be able to get it cheeper - since they are trying to be win8 friendly.

  • heybuz on 13/08/2013 - 00:30

    Possibly not as good value as the Toshiba, however I recently bought this Acer v5 i7 for my girlfriend. Got it down to $900 in store at my local Good Guys. See http://www.thegoodguys.com.au/buyonline/Acer_V5-571PG_15.6in….

    Comes with touch screen, 8gb ram and is fairly slimline for the i7 powerhouse that it is. According to their website there's also an extra $60 instore gift voucher deal this week.

    Just a thought

  • _Bruce_ on 13/08/2013 - 07:32

    The reality is an i5 with a HD4000 GPU will do you pretty well for this task, as will 8GB RAM. Not to say you won't see any benifit from an i7 or 740M, but it won't make that much difference. Better than any of this would be to get a better screen so you can actually use the thing.

    If you were doing commercial CAM work then I would go for more RAM, but this is because of the huge volume of existing model data you would generally be working with, projects for uni are usually not on the same level at all.

    A drive with solid state cache is probably the best compromise.

  • nebula98 on 13/08/2013 - 07:54

    U can replace the DVD drive with a hard drive using a adaptor from eBay for $20 http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/290764670593?ssPageName=STRK:MEWA…
    That way u can have a ssd for boot and a 1tb for data.
    I sell secondhand laptops and used 2 ssd drives in a laptop I just made up for a Client that is going to be doing video editing .it was a Lenovo t500 2.6 GHz core v pro with 6 meg chache,dual core ,with 8 gig ram ,2 128 gig ssd drives,I also installed a card buss USB 3 /esata card,I sold this set up for $ 550 ,he is very happy

    Do not overlook esata ports as I believe they are faster than USB 3 .

    • _Bruce_ on 13/08/2013 - 08:22

      Do not overlook esata ports as I believe they are faster than USB 3.

      They are, but it only really matters if you intend to be doing work directly off the external drive.

  • Riczter on 15/08/2013 - 15:59

    There's been a couple good i7 deals today but none with FHD Screen :(

  • Riczter on 15/08/2013 - 23:21

    Ended up getting this http://www.jbhifionline.com.au/computers-laptops/laptops/tos… pricematched at OW for $1,124.80. Awesome specs. Has it all but the SSD.

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