Which Laptop Brands Meet Specific Needs for Video Editing Under $2K?

[UrbanXrisis]

I'm looking to buy a decent laptop above 1.5k and under 2k. I would like an Athlon 64 3700+ processor and at least 1 gig of ram (do lots of video editing, don’t need a large hdd, got that covered with an external one). I was wondering what specific brand you guys think would fit into this category of necessities for a laptop nicely. Also, any decent websites with reasonable prices? I know about pricewatch, new egg and tiger direct. Any general comments would be nice too :)

Thanks,
Urban

 

[Danger]

Athlon?
MAC, MAC, MAC, MAC, MAC, MAC... Need I say it again?

 

[UrbanXrisis]

I have never used a mac, except in school (once in a while). SO, Macs are out of the question.

 

[Pengwuino]

Alienware or dell. you can go MAC if you are going ot use it as a door stop though ;)

 

[Danger]

you can go MAC if you are going ot use it as a door stop though ;)

Give it a try, you evil little creature. Anything involving multimedia, and particularly video, works better on a 10 year-old Mac than on the best IBM type you can get.

 

[UrbanXrisis]

Alienware or dell. you can go MAC if you are going ot use it as a door stop though ;)

hmm, I think that alienware won't give me an equivalent trade. As in, I think that they overcharge their prices a little too much. Yes, they have a very established foundation with the gamers, but I don't trust that company. As for dells, I've owned two dells, I think it's time for a change. No doubt they are great, but I think I'll go with something different.

 

[UrbanXrisis]

Give it a try, you evil little creature. Anything involving multimedia, and particularly video, works better on a 10 year-old Mac than on the best IBM type you can get.

Danger, I have to agree, Macs are supreme in their performance with digital editing. Far more steady and solid compared to any Windows program or even my Dells. However, the problems is that I have little knowledge on how to use Macs to their fullest potential. I have made some DVD’s with them at school (G5) and the stability of their software to stream video is just awesome.

 

[Pengwuino]

Oh yah, alienwares going to rip you off to no end. And actually Danger is right, i didnt notice the video-editing or it didnt ring a bell in my mind, so yah, Crapintoshes are a better buy for that application ;) hehehhe, crapintosh... oh i is giggly.

 

[UrbanXrisis]

Oh yah, alienwares going to rip you off to no end. And actually Danger is right, i didnt notice the video-editing or it didnt ring a bell in my mind, so yah, Crapintoshes are a better buy for that application ;) hehehhe, crapintosh... oh i is giggly.

I have a hard time telling scarcasm. Are you saying that alieanware is NOT going to rip me off? and are you actually NOT agreeing with Danger?

explain your position

 

[Pengwuino]

No I am serious, Alienware pff, parts cost $3000 and they'll sell it to you for $6000 and i guess the price increase is because of the cool case and alien logo lol. And yes, i am agreeing with danger.

 

[UrbanXrisis]

well, what laptop would you get then?

 

[Pengwuino]

Well, i hate laptops so i wouldn't get one ;) lol but if i had to get one... dell ... just because i don't want a dumb lil alien face looken a me whenver i take it out... and its cheaper.

 

[Danger]

well, what laptop would you get then?

The one that I would recommend for your applications isn't in your price range. I can't be sure of prices in the States, but it's probably around $2,500—$3,000. It's the G4 Powerbook with the 17" display. When they figure out how to get a G5 into a laptop, then you can really be smokin'.
Macs are actually a lot easier to use than PC's. For one thing, one-button mousing is a lot easier, especially for us ambidextrous folks. It drove me half nuts trying to use the PC at work last week when the arthritis put my right arm out of use. (You can get multibutton mouses for if you want to, and some applications support them.) The OS is also far superior to Windows, at least in the versions that I've used. My poor old G3 won't run Jaguar, so the best that I have is OS9. Even that runs rings around the brand new Pentium with Windows ME at work. Everything is so intuitive that you shouldn't let lack of experience scare you away from getting one if you can afford it, and the built-in help is awesome. Even a G3 notebook would be better than a PC. I bet you could find a good used one of those for less than $1,000.

 

[BicycleTree]

Get an extended accidental damage warranty. Also get a heater of some kind to maintain your laptop above 20 fahrenheit when that's the room temperature, and cover the back of your screen in protective epoxy three inches thick.

 

[Pengwuino]

G4 Powerbook with 17" is 2700 at compusa and best buy so probably $2500 or so if you can find it online.

 

[UrbanXrisis]

why are you guys suggesting macs when I've said I can't use them several times?

 

[Joel]

I've had a fujitsy-siemens S-serie lifbook for a couple of years and it havn't had any problems. Granted, I only write and surf on the net, so you will probably want to consider a tougher model - but I think the brand is OK. It was also cheaper than Dell back when I compared prizes.

 

[Zygotic Embryo]

HEH

IF YOU GOT THE MONEY, get an alienware-

or the new sony


i have a alienware, but i rarley use it, cause i built my own :) with the Radeon 9800 Graphic Card, 3.4 ghz, and an almost infinite amount of Ram.

 

[UrbanXrisis]

HEH

IF YOU GOT THE MONEY, get an alienware-

or the new sony


i have a alienware, but i rarley use it, cause i built my own :) with the Radeon 9800 Graphic Card, 3.4 ghz, and an almost infinite amount of Ram.

well, what is your argument for getting alienware? Is it really worth it?

 

[hitssquad]

When buying insurance does and does not make sense

Get an extended accidental damage warranty.

A damage "warranty" is not a warranty. It is an insurance policy. Insurance policies do not always make financial sense. If you can sufficiently (either longitudinally or laterally) amortize your own damage risk, you may end up saving money by not buying a damage insurance policy.

Some actuaries (insurance statisticians; they usually work for insurance companies) go further by saying, "Insurance never makes sense." I wouldn't go that far because one's risk-of-ruin factor may be high enough in a given instance to justify an expenditure on insurance.

 

[Artman]

I would look at IBM, and Dell. Sony may be good too, I think they make a special computer for video editing (I think Dell does too).

Personally, I would shy away from the Athlon because of the possiblity of compatibility issues with hardware (the problem is not with the CPU itself but with the chipsets associated with AMDs). In my opinion, you're just less likely to have compatibility issues with Intel CPUs.

Just my two cents.

 

[UrbanXrisis]

I would look at IBM, and Dell. Sony may be good too, I think they make a special computer for video editing (I think Dell does too).

Personally, I would shy away from the Athlon because of the possiblity of compatibility issues with hardware (the problem is not with the CPU itself but with the chipsets associated with AMDs). In my opinion, you're just less likely to have compatibility issues with Intel CPUs.

Just my two cents.

Thanks for the advice. Should I invest it a P4 with HT or EE? Any special thoughs on specific CPU's? thanks

 

[Artman]

Thanks for the advice. Should I invest it a P4 with HT or EE? Any special thoughs on specific CPU's? thanks

If it were a desktop, the P4 with EE looks sweet, (bus speed of 1066). Also, for doing video, a good graphics card lots of Ram and large HD, but for a laptop I'm not sure what is best.

 

[The_Professional]

IBM, Toshiba or VoodooPC is your daddy. If you have the dough to spend, get either one.

Mac is for sissies

 

[UrbanXrisis]

I was looking at the Toshiba tablet PC's. I know what the tablet pc's are capable of, but what are they generally used for? And what is the difference bewteen a regular pentium processor and a pentium M processor? I know that M stands for mobile, but that's all. Also, Voodoo PC's are ugly.

 

[Artman]

And what is the difference bewteen a regular pentium processor and a pentium M processor? I know that M stands for mobile, but that's all.

Mobil CPUs are designed to aid in some of the problems with mobil computers: such as heat and battery use. They sense when the computer is running on battery and will actually slow their speed to conserve power (it's a good idea to use your adapter when power is available to allow the computer to run full speed). They will also slow down when they overheat to cool off. The P4 and new Athlons do this too, but the Centrino handles this function better in mobile applications, taking only a small hit on performance, while not getting as hot and having longer battery life.

 

[hitssquad]

The real reasons Pentium M CPUs are so power efficient

They will also slow down when they overheat to cool off. The P4 and new Athlons do this too, but the Centrino handles this function better in mobile applications

(Centrino is not a CPU.) Improved clock throttling is not what makes Pentium M CPUs more power efficient than Pentium IV CPUs. This article goes over some of the reasons the Pentium M is so efficient:
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2129&p=2


--

• Mid-Length pipeline
  
• Micro Ops Fusion
  
• Dedicated Stack Manager
  
• High Performance Branch Predictor
  
• Pentium 4 FSB, Pentium III Execution Units
  
• Power Saving Cache
  
• Artificially Limited Clock Speed Design

--

 

[UrbanXrisis]

which is better...

Intel® Pentium® Processor Extreme Edition 840 w/ HT Technology 3.2GHz 800MHz FSB 2MB Cache with DUAL CORE

or

Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor w/ HT Technology Extreme Edition 3.73GHz 1066MHz FSB 2MB Cache

 

[Mk]

Duh, a Powerbook G4 with Virtual PC! Vitual PC let's your mac run like windows.

Apple on VPC:
http://www.apple.com/macosx/applications/virtualpc/
Microsoft on VPC:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtualpc/default.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/virtualpc/virtualpc.aspx?pid=virtualpc