Good day, after few hours researching, I have these 2 in mind:
Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5 R7-8845HS $1309 Has faster CPU, Rryzen 7 8845 HS. More RAM, 32 GB (more RAM better for video editing?) Only integrated GPU (AMD Radeon 780m)
MSI Thin A15 B7VF 15.6" $1299 Slower CPU, Ryzen 5 7535 HS. Less RAM, 16 GB. Dedicated GPU GeForce RTX 4060
What do you guys think? It's for my son, he's 14 and mainly will be using to edit videos (that's his hobby for time being 🫣)
Thanks for your help.
🤞
Desktops offer much better options, easy RAM and video card upgrades, much cheaper to buy, and option for using BIG screens
Laptops are hence definitely NOT the way to go for video editing!
Especially as its just for a hobby
I agree, but we do need the portability.
Also with kids they want to be video editor guru this week and karate instructor the next. Don't want to invest too much money
Consider a Macbook Air M1 or M2 chips
I think they go for around your price point and those chips are really good for video editing. I have a high spec PC and also a Mac Air M2 and theyre equally as fast.
Also, not sure if this would be in your options but if dont need the portability, there are some deals I saw on prebuilt PCs here on ozbargain that have pretty decent specs too and a good thing about PC's is that you could always upgrade it incase, you need extra strorage, faster or bigger ram or just general upgrades
I upgraded my Video Editing (Premiere - working on moving to Resolve) and AfterEffects PC recently, i7-14700KF, 96GB RAM and 4070ti Super… Somehow my older M1 Pro MacBook is just as capable even though it's over 3 years old and significantly lower specced.
For Video Editing work - I would seriously consider a Mac. Don't worry about storage, use External USB-C SSD's (they're fine). I usually work with 3-4 camera 4K Multicam (BlackMagic Raw or Prores with proxies).
Both my machines handle it all fine though either way… Seeing as he's 14, he'll mostly be rolling with iPhone or lower quality video anyway so you'll probably be fine with anything!
The author I linked below says: It’s now possible to run Resolve very well on any M2 Macbook Pro, or even a M2 Macbook Air with only 8GB of system RAM. This is counter intuitive to everything I’ve written before about minimum system requirements for Resolve, but Apple Silicon is just different.
Oooo nice. I got 32gig in my MBP. Wish I could've gotten more, but "Apple Silicon is just different"…. in the pricing department too ;)
Yeah, but no. An 8GB Mac system will not be pleasant to use. It certainly won't cut it for any of the Neural Engine tools in the Studio version. However, even for the free version, you need at least 16GB in order to be able to use Fusion. It's documented:
Minimum system requirements for Mac OS
MacOS 13 Ventura or later.
8 GB of system memory. 16 GB when using Fusion.
For monitoring, Blackmagic Design Desktop Video 12.9 or later.
Apple Silicon based computer or GPU which supports Metal.
Yes, he's only capturing video from games and editing it with clipchamp.
That's quite a setup you got, surprising the older m1 still holding up.
Yeah, I usually buy a new Laptop every 3 years, but my M1 is just doing so well I can't justify getting an M4. The M series just nuts.
Probably should've led with "Capturing video from games" though, that's definitely a "Yeah get a PC" thing (unless you're using a capture card with a console?)
This!
Buy through apple refurbished if you can that way you’ll get a warranty. Get the most amount of ram possible.
Samsung SSD goes on sale all the time on amazon.
Is there any reason you don’t want to go down the apple route? You mention he/you wants portability. The MacBook Air is still the king of portable laptops. They hold up for a reason. The M1 is still decent.
Thanks for the reply guys. I prefer to not go the apple route and need the portability.
Sorry I'm not a very technical person.
Currently he's using clipchamp, however any videos over 10-12 minutes, out old laptop is struggling.
He'll know what to get. There's a free version of DaVinci Resolve and it also runs on iPad. I'm not an extensive user so hopefully someone else may comment.
Thanks for the reply guys.
I guess what I want to know is for video editing, do you favor faster CPU and more RAM but only integrated GPU
Or a slower CPU and less RAM but with a dedicated GPU card.
You'll need to do a deeper dive into whether Ryzen 5 and 7 are up to the task
As I'm sure either 1 of those laptop will be a big upgrade compared to our old one.
Ask your son what programs he may use and Google or AI chat…
Is {insert program here} CPU or GPU resource intensive
For example this is the copilot result for clipchamp…
Clipchamp is quite balanced in its use of both CPU and GPU resources. Video editing is inherently a compute-intensive task, and Clipchamp leverages both the CPU and GPU to ensure smooth performance. However, having a recent model graphics card and sufficient RAM (at least 8 GB, 16 GB or higher is better) is crucial for optimal performance
Gemini " it's CPU intensive" looks like the Lenovo with Ryzen 7 and more RAM wins.
That deal is up voted +130 for a reason.
Thanks.
For video editing a MacBook Pro (education store) is a good value unit.
Alternatively, if you can go for a desktop a Mac mini is another good option and cheaper.
I love Macs build quality, but priced quite high. For now I don't want to give him something too expensive yet.
Kids don't look after it. And if I get something really nice then his little brother wants one too.
Sends me broke I'm dead 😅
YouTubers can make hundreds of millions of dollars, some of them anyway. If your kid is the next Pewdie Pie then it's an investment. He'll buy you a mansion with some of the money, life will be good for you and your life partner.
I wish
This is a good way for your kid to learn about responsibility. He is 14 not 8. Don’t worry about his brother for the moment. Younger siblings need to get over the fact that sometimes the older one gets more responsibility and larger presents.
Does he not need or own a school notebook?
We've already got a few laptops, fine for everyday tasks, school work etc.
But struggles when doing resource intensive exercise such as video editing.
question1: if he's editing gaming footage, where do he actually play the game on? Console? PC?
question1.5: if he plays on PC, why don't he edit on his gaming PC?
question 1.75: if he plays on console, getting a mac seems viable?
btw for the topic of what accelerate video editing — CPU and GPU along with ample RAM. There's GPU accelerate via CUDA(Nvidia)/OpenCL(AMD/Intel). Intel also have QuickSync too. Getting him a good GPU can help to some extend.
He plays them on switch.
The thing with Mac is once we use it, feel like we have to move to their ecosystem.
I am a Mac user (hackintosh) yet I hate iPhone, it's been working alright for me so far.
Yes I do miss some features, e.g.
I can't have airpod switching back n forth with phone/mac(but I can press the button on my headset which switches over anyway)
I can't have iMessage between phone/mac (but Google Message/Whatsap on Web works)
I can't answer phone call over mac (I rarely have phone calls anyway)
Safari sync is useless (but I use Chrome more and Chrome sync works)
I do have a separate Windows PC dedicated for games though.
I'd say having 1 eco system is nice, but not required.
Get a used hp ProBook with inbuilt dedicated GPU for a few hundred <$500. I'm sure Dell has got equivalent.
Bob, Im looking at this.
Very good value but it's from their outlet store so it might be refurbished item??
https://www.lenovo.com/au/outlet/en/p/laptops/legion-laptops…
If you are talking about real video editing software, I would not recommend an iGPU on Windows or Linux. Go for a real GPU (preferably nVidia) with as much GPU RAM as you can get. Also, beef up the system RAM as much as you can, even if it means a slower CPU.
If by any chance somebody convinces you to go to a Mac, get a system with at least 32GB RAM and M1 Max or better.
Seems like a fair trade especially if he's annoying.
I think you'll have more success in the classifieds.