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Best Laptop in $2000 range

J

James Stone

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Please suggest a PC Laptop around the $2K range which works best with CS5.5 and Red Workflow.

Appreciate your help

JS
 
Most of the PC's (or all ?) seem to be designed for gaming. Has anybody used a PC which worked good for Video editing?
 
I have edited almost entirely on PC (occasionally on Mac) and I dont really see any benefit of using Macs for editing unless you actually NEED Final Cut Pro specifically. All in all I would rather question if ANY type of laptop is really ideal for video editing... Lenovo maybe...?
 
When you say $2k range do you mean $2k maximum or could it be $2.5k, In which case I would say that the 17inch macbook pro is the best for editing, even for a CS5.5 and Red Workflow, You've got Thunderbolt, express card and a reliable stable platform to work in.
You also have Helvetica and proper fonts built in so you won't have to settle for cheap Microsoft knock off fonts and if you really want you can dual boot.
I would say Macintosh is still the best editing solution, Even if you go with the 15 inch which is sub $2k you lose express card but you still have thunderbolt which will be a big deal for laptop based video editors I think.
 
HP Elitebook or Lenovo Thinkpad, those are the workhorses really... I would say stay away from the Dell laptops alltogether because they have enormous amonts of problems with hadware stability.
 
I haven't really done any video editing on it, but I can say that my W series Thinkpad is the most stable system I've worked with.
 
Asus has some awesome laptops that are a little over $1,000 actually. Mine is Core i7, upgraded to 14gb of RAM, Geforce 460m, Expresscard slot, and 7200rpm 500gb hard drive. The only caveat with mine is that it's 15" and not 1080p, but very close. Now though, they've got a 17" model with about the same hardware level, just newer GPU and, I think, USB 3.0. So that's been doing great for me for Adobe and 3D modeling with CUDA.

These days, going over $2,000 will get you more RAM, better screens, and Quadro graphic chips instead of Geforce, oh, and maybe a race car paint job! ;)
 
Actually, I would suggest a Dell Precision M6600 or HP EliteBook 8760W (those are 17" models).
However, those come in good configurations only at $3000+.

And I always suggest adding an after-market 256GB SSD, which adds a few hundred bucks more.
An SSD is very good for R3D files, since they are highly compressible, and SSDs are known to shine on compressible material, especially those with a SandForce controller.

With that said, you might be able to make due with a Dell M4600 or HP EliteBook 8560W at $2000 with a decent configuration. Those are 15" models.
 
Depends on what you are looking for. If you want pure performance and a great 17" screen, Asus G74 or Origin EON17-s. If you want durability and reliability, Quadro GPU and RAID, it is the Thinkpad W series. If you want unmatched portability, Vaio Z. If you can stretch your budget, the Elitebooks with Dreamcolor displays are the ideal option.

Beyond these, There are boutique companies making incredible machines these days - the likes of Maingear, Origin or Clevo. In many ways more innovative than the mainstream companies, the likes of Dell, Apple or HP. The Origin EON17-s offers a 4.5 GHz factory overclocked quad-core CPU option. That makes it quite literally twice as fast as some of the laptops we are talking about here. They even offer options for desktop six-core CPUs. There's really no shortage of options.

Also, gaming is a far more intensive environment for hardware than post-production. If it's good for gaming, be rest assured video post-production will be a piece of cake.
 
Thinkpad W520 (You can find them for a really great price on eBay from this user newthinkpads ) or Macbook Pro (If you need FCP)

The HP Elitebooks with the DreamColor display are also amazing

Same for the Dell Precision M4600
 
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