GDay Peeps,
Long time watcher, first time poster.
I'm on the lookout for a new laptop that will be able to handle video/photo editing from my diving.
This deal from Dick Smithcaught my eye.
I thought that a gaming config may be better at handling the video stuff.
Alternatively, are the Microsoft Surface systems suitable?
Any advice welcomed,
Hazey
That's a decent price for that laptop but if you want better deals go to Facebook and gumtree. Ebay sometimes but imho lots of other bidders and snipers.
…better deals go to Facebook and gumtree.
Seems like very poor advice. OP probably doesn't want to be scammed ( like you were) and would want a warranty.
Touche Baysew touchay.
The 128GB SSD will be very limiting.
That notebook does has a 2.5" bay though, so you can put in a 2TB HDD. There's guides on youtube how to do it, but that's another ~$100 to add 2TB to it.
If it's just photo/video editing that you will need it for then I suggest having a look at the forums for the programs you use. There may be a high chance that having a 1050 TI over something like the 1050 or even 1030 might not net you any performance gain for cuda acceleration. GPU power barely helps with render times or timeline performance in Premiere, but having a GPU for acceleration helps alot over not having one at all.
Stay away from the Surface series for video editing. You don't even get a full size SD card reader with it and will be juggling keeping enough space free on it without needing an external HDD (this is the same case with this laptop, but this laptop can be upgraded). External HDD = the only USB port on it. Basic editing can be done on it though. I'm running Premiere on both a Surface 3 Pro and HP Pavilion Power 15 (similar laptop to the one you are looking at). The performance is liveable with the Surface Pro 3, but the screen real estate and I/O make it cumbersome to get the footage in and edit it compared to a 15.6" laptop.
Thanks for the advice guys, I'll take it onboard and have a think.
Might even be able to get something back from the taxman with a desktop in the home office (I will be WFH 1-2 days per week).
Is it worth scoping out some local IT shops for a great deal and personal service as opposed to the chain stores?
This is okay - it's got a quad-core 7700HQ, which is much better than the low-voltage U-series chips you'd find in an ultrabook. Everything else looks good for me too - 16GB RAM is good, and the 1050 Ti is pretty decent for CUDA acceleration which you definitely want if you're video editing.
I wouldn't recommend the Microsoft Surface devices - they're designed for business/office (which generally is not that intensive) as opposed to what you're doing. The dual-core CPUs in the Surface Pros will perform poorly for your applications and it'll run quite hot as well.
Since you asked for advice though, my suggestion is to get a desktop (unless you have any specific reason to get a laptop). The machine you've linked is $1400, you can get a desktop that performs significantly better for the same amount (including peripherals), or one that performs about the same for much less.
The i7 7700HQ might be a top-dog laptop chip, but it's about the same as an i3 8100 for a desktop (both quad-cores), the i3 8100 has higher clock speed, the 7700HQ has hyper-threading, but that won't make the 2.8 GHz 7700HQ catch up to the 3.6 GHz i3 8100.