BADASS laptop for Adobe CS5.5... PC or Mac?

[Jaime Vallés]

Hello, all. I realize this will be a hot-button topic, akin to asking about religious beliefs or politics, but I need guidance. My current desktop needs to be retired, and I'm looking at getting a laptop for doing serious video editing and graphic design on the road with Adobe CS5.5 (and CS6 when it comes out). Now, I've been a Mac user for the past 10 years, and I love OSX. I'm thinking a 17" MacBook Pro with Thunderbolt-RAID would do the trick. Almost no viruses, very lightweight for the size, stable and crash-free (for the most part). But then there are some Windows laptop workstations that I see have 2 or even 3 internal hard-drives and I get curious about the "other side."

So, I ask you all... Without resorting to bashing each other, I'd like to have a discussion of the pros and cons of going with Windows or OSX for video editing on a badass laptop. I'm not interested in FCPX, iMacs, DIY Windows desktops, or Hackintosh machines. I want to determine if I'm better off with a 17" MacBook Pro or with some other Windows laptop for heavy video editing, After Effects and Photoshop. I want a big screen with at least 1920x1080 resolution. Weight is not really an issue. My budget is $4000. If you recommend Windows, please post links to where I could see the rig you're thinking about.

Discuss.

[Jaime Vallés]

I should add that I already have a dual-monitor setup with two 21" 1080p DVI monitors. I'd like to be able to connect those monitors to this new laptop somehow.

[Subhadip Sen]

There's an overwhelming amount of choice, you have to be much, much more specific. If weight/portability is not an issue, and you are looking for performance worthy of being labeled "badass", consider something like an Origin EON17-X or Maingear Titan. You could get a full blown 6-core 3.2 GHz SB-E CPU, internal RAID across 4 hard drives / SSDs, a pre-overclocked CUDA-ready 2GB GTX 675M (or two... or Quadro 5000M...) within $4000. Such a laptop will easily get you 1/2 res realtime playback for 5K material! You can read several reports on these forums about SB-E workstation rigs; seeing that kind of power inside a laptop is truly awe-inspiring.

PS: These laptops have 3 display outputs, though I am not entirely sure how many can be used simultaneously with an NVIDIA GPU.

[Jaime Vallés]

There's an overwhelming amount of choice, you have to be much, much more specific. If weight/portability is not an issue, and you are looking for performance worthy of being labeled "badass", consider something like an Origin EON17-X or Maingear Titan. You could get a full blown 6-core 3.2 GHz SB-E CPU, internal RAID across 4 hard drives / SSDs, a pre-overclocked CUDA-ready 2GB GTX 675M (or two... or Quadro 5000M...) within $4000. Such a laptop will easily get you 1/2 res realtime playback for 5K material! You can read several reports on these forums about SB-E workstation rigs; seeing that kind of power inside a laptop is truly awe-inspiring.

PS: These laptops have 3 display outputs, though I am not entirely sure how many can be used simultaneously with an NVIDIA GPU.

See, this is exactly what I'm talking about! I'm a newbie when it comes to Windows laptop workstations, so any help is greatly appreciated.

Looking at your recommendations, I like what I see here:
http://www.originpc.com/eon17-x-gami...p-features.asp

That laptop would positively kill my current desktop. I would just have to get over my fear and loathing of Windows, and I'm not sure how easily I can do that. I love the simplicity and ease of use of OSX, but lust after a laptop that's as powerful as that Origin Eon-17. And I suppose that, since I'll be using Adobe CS5.5 for pretty much everything, I won't see much of Windows at all.

Lots to think about...

[Subhadip Sen]

See, this is exactly what I'm talking about! I'm a newbie when it comes to Windows laptop workstations, so any help is greatly appreciated.

Looking at your recommendations, I like what I see here:
http://www.originpc.com/eon17-x-gami...p-features.asp

That laptop would positively kill my current desktop. I would just have to get over my fear and loathing of Windows, and I'm not sure how easily I can do that. I love the simplicity and ease of use of OSX, but lust after a laptop that's as powerful as that Origin Eon-17. And I suppose that, since I'll be using Adobe CS5.5 for pretty much everything, I won't see much of Windows at all.

Lots to think about...

Like you said, it's a whole religious / emotional matter - there's nothing I will say that could convince you that Windows 7 is a brilliant OS, which is why I refrained from that line of discussion in the first place. Speaking from a purely rational point of view, the basic functionality and interfaces of OS X 10.7 and Windows 7 are remarkably similar. Windows 8's Metro UI takes simplicity to a whole new dimension, but that's a different discussion. Back to the here and now, you just need to put aside whatever 10 year old pre-conceived notions you have about Windows and give 7 a fair shot. And yes, if you put your taskbar to auto-hide, it looks pretty much exactly like OS X - the taskbar becomes your dock (once you start pinning apps) and the chrome controls move to the right instead of the left - just several times more powerful. If you are still not satisfied there are themes out there which will make Windows look nearly identical to OS X.

[Brad Allen]

You've also got to remember that currently, no Macbooks are shipping with NVIDIA GPU's inside them. This is going to mean that you will have no CUDA acceleration for your Adobe apps - unless you're wanting to play with the idea of external graphics cards...

Perhaps Adobe will introduce OpenGL support in CS6 but I wouldn't hold my breath on that one :)

[Lewis-M Soucy]

I've been cutting for 5 years now with the MB Pros 17". I have the latest, the one you mention, and before I had one 2 generations older. They never let me down. I've cut millions of projects, including features, never once have I experienced a glitch. MB Pro + Apple Cinema display + Mobile Rocket is my religion, plus you can travel. I'd never go back to PC or tower Mac ever.

[Mark Toia]

Like your tyle Lewis...
But you don't use R3D's through Premier though do you? I seem to be in permanent render.. every time i do a small grade or an effect.
Plus rendering out big AE effects... slow...
RESOLVE through a laptop with no serious video card... slow,
Rendering out quick times for clients.. Slow.. compare to my 12 core tower.
I do like the whole LAPTOP idea though because I work away alot... Love to know how you combat render times.

Working in HD PRO RES is fine..

I've been cutting for 5 years now with the MB Pros 17". I have the latest, the one you mention, and before I had one 2 generations older. They never let me down. I've cut millions of projects, including features, never once have I experienced a glitch. MB Pro + Apple Cinema display + Mobile Rocket is my religion, plus you can travel. I'd never go back to PC or tower Mac ever.

[Subhadip Sen]

Like your tyle Lewis...
But you don't use R3D's through Premier though do you? I seem to be in permanent render.. every time i do a small grade or an effect.
Plus rendering out big AE effects... slow...
RESOLVE through a laptop with no serious video card... slow,
Rendering out quick times for clients.. Slow.. compare to my 12 core tower.
I do like the whole LAPTOP idea though because I work away alot... Love to know how you combat render times.

Working in HD PRO RES is fine..

The solution is simple - use a faster laptop. Much, much faster. Like the one I posted above, such as the Origin EON17-X. If you are coming from the Apple walled garden, think of it like a portable Mac Pro (actually faster in some ways). 2 CUDA accelerated GTX 675M graphics cards (each of these are twice as fast as the workstation Quadro 4000) to speed up your CS5.5 and Resolve (unfortunately as of right now only one of them can be used for each of those two programs for processing at one time) several times over and above the monstrous CPU (which is the same Sandy Bridge-E CPU used by many in their workstations around these parts) and the 4 hard drives / SSDs in RAID. With such a laptop there's no reason to transcode - drop your footage to the timeline, edit, as simple as that. 5K footage is dealt with at 1/2 res real-time easy. Even at 1/2 res it is effectively supersampled for the 1080p screen.

Of course, consider investing in a mobile Rocket if you are rendering more than you are editing. (i.e. rushes etc) All this said, even a Macbook Pro 17 should be good for 1/8 res real-time editing for 5K, or 1/4 res for 4K using Premiere Pro CS5.5.

[Will Keir]

With so much power that laptop must get hot.

1/8 res playback is a bit low for my taste. I got a MBP, waiting on a Mac Pro tower if they ever come. This laptop option seems pretty nice. I'm sure you can run some screaming games on it too.

The solution is simple - use a faster laptop. Much, much faster. Like the one I posted above, such as the Origin EON17-X. If you are coming from the Apple walled garden, think of it like a portable Mac Pro (actually faster in some ways). 2 CUDA accelerated GTX 675M graphics cards (each of these are twice as fast as the workstation Quadro 4000) to speed up your CS5.5 and Resolve (unfortunately as of right now only one of them can be used for each of those two programs for processing at one time) several times over and above the monstrous CPU (which is the same Sandy Bridge-E CPU used by many in their workstations around these parts) and the 4 hard drives / SSDs in RAID. With such a laptop there's no reason to transcode - drop your footage to the timeline, edit, as simple as that. 5K footage is dealt with at 1/2 res real-time easy. Even at 1/2 res it is effectively supersampled for the 1080p screen.

Of course, consider investing in a mobile Rocket if you are rendering more than you are editing. (i.e. rushes etc) All this said, even a Macbook Pro 17 should be good for 1/8 res real-time editing for 5K, or 1/4 res for 4K using Premiere Pro CS5.5.