Laptop for video editing

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BillyR

Senior Member Location: Southeast US Joined: Jun 19, 2013 14:33 Messages: 156 Offline

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Apr 13, 2014 12:28

So I've seen quite a few posts here asking and / or recommending computers for this purpose, and thought I'd share my experience with this recent purchase of mine. This is the computer in the configuration I chose: http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/w-series/w540/

EDIT: I see the link shows the basic model instead of the one with the options I chose, which were Windows 7 Pro 64, the Intel Core i7-4800MQ Processor (6MB Cache, up to 3.70GHz) and the 256 GB Solid State Drive.
I bought this in consultation with a dealer that I've dealt with for a good number of years. I wasn't in the market for a new laptop but wanted to get one with Windows 7 while I still could.

I've had enough experience to form some definite opinions and I am very happy with this machine. It renders PD12 videos about 33% faster than my desktop, although my desktop scores 7.2 in the Windows Experience Index while this laptop scores 7.0. However, Lenovo includes some kind of overclocking or power boosting software that I don't really understand. I have the power settings at Max Performance on both the laptop and the desktop.

The best thing about it, though, is that I can preview edited clips at the high preview setting without them getting out of sync, which is another subject I've seen a lot of posts about here. The only exception is if I preview after applying a denoise correction it slows down and hangs up just like my desktop, so I apply the denoise correction after I've finished everything and am ready to produce the file.

I'm used to a lot bigger screen that this, but am trying to get used to it so that I can make it my primary video editing machine.

Just thought this information may be useful to some who are looking for a good video editing machine.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at Apr 13. 2014 12:35

Dell Precision 7510 Laptop
Windows 7 Pro 64-bit | Intel(R) XEON(R) CPU E3-1505M v5 @2.80 GHz
RAM: 32 GB
Windows Experience Index 7.5

tomasc

Senior Contributor Joined: Aug 25, 2011 12:33 Messages: 6464 Offline

Apr 15, 2014 13:16

For about 1 1/2 years I used an I7 Desktop with a small ssd for the operating system only and only for HD video editing. All my apps, data are on the HD. Used another computer for everything else. That computer died and I had to start useing the I7 Desktop for everyday computing too. Installed Antivirus, Office apps, photo apps, games, and a minimal amount of other apps which of course install auto updaters when windows starts. Went from an original 20 sec window boot to about 40 sec. now. A lot of apps insist on partially loading itself in memory even if you don't want it to. Once you add the other necessary apps as time goes go on, the pc is no longer the speed demon it once was. The windows experience index remain the same as when new. Keep a pc or laptop only for video editing as long as you can.

Your laptop has a large ssd and no HD so it may not affect you at all as time goes by.

I have seen friend's pc with HD only that boots in less than 1 minute when brand new but now take 5 minutes to completely boot up 6 months later. Running apps is slower too.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at Apr 15. 2014 13:43