Mark W Posted January 2, 2015 Report Share Posted January 2, 2015 There's no way I'd get one anyway having had to f**k around with Macs during my degree. 100% not keen on them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forteh Posted January 2, 2015 Report Share Posted January 2, 2015 Pc world January sale? Depends on your requirements and what spec you need. You could always go spec a $65,000 monster laptop from Boxx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muel Posted January 2, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2015 Doesn't matter where you get it from IMO. Laptops are sealed units, the shop that sells them shouldn't ever have to open them. Just buy a decent brand (Samsung/Lenovo/HP) and avoid shit (Acer).Personally I'd choose a Lenovo at the moment. Their chassis' seem really decent and the rest of the spec is usually good for the money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HippY Posted January 2, 2015 Report Share Posted January 2, 2015 This is a bit "whats the best brake pads lol" but where would you guys recommend looking for good deals on laptops? At present it's easier for me to just carry my PC tower around with me and use whatever monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc. I can find when I'm off working places, but the PC I've got is a bit of a shitter and I've had issues recently having to open it to plug connections back in securely after it's been in my car. Aside from that I've got some international trips coming up soon and it'd be handy to get a head start on editing by having a complete setup I can just switch on wherever. If anyone's got suggestions for places to look that would be ideal, thanks! What budget do you have? Around £400 ish brands does not really matter, but there are some sweet deals £600+ it is worth to look for a full HD screen and as good hardware as you can get/need Touchscreen worth it dabs.com amazon.com pc world/curries tesco argos I would look that way Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrialsIsHard Posted January 3, 2015 Report Share Posted January 3, 2015 Touchscreen worth it In my experience touchscreen laptops (unless foldable) are a pain and require constant cleaning to avoid greasy marks. Possibly even add more to the cost of the laptop than benefit from it, but that's obviously objective. I would absolutely consider looking at warrantee length when buying a low budget laptop, as generally they are short and can save you money/frustration with having a longer one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HippY Posted January 3, 2015 Report Share Posted January 3, 2015 In my experience touchscreen laptops (unless foldable) are a pain and require constant cleaning to avoid greasy marks. Possibly even add more to the cost of the laptop than benefit from it, but that's obviously objective. I would absolutely consider looking at warrantee length when buying a low budget laptop, as generally they are short and can save you money/frustration with having a longer one. it really helps me, much easier to use than the usually horrible touchpad Electronic devices MUST have 2 years manufacturer warranty in the UK, it is one of the law here, so it is not a problem Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weirdoku Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 What budget do you have? Around £400 ish brands does not really matter, but there are some sweet deals £600+ it is worth to look for a full HD screen and as good hardware as you can get/need Touchscreen worth it dabs.com amazon.com pc world/curries tesco argos I would look that way Sorry but what is full HD? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forteh Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 1080p? If he meant 1440p he would have said full UHD (or whatever it's called) wouldn't he? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HippY Posted January 5, 2015 Report Share Posted January 5, 2015 Sorry but what is full HD? sorry my bad HD= 1366*768(p) Full HD= 1920*1080(p) (W)QHD= 2560*1440(p) UHD= 3840*2160(p) 4k=4096*2160(p) UHD is also referred as 4K, as UHD exactly 4x the resolution of the Full HD, but the original standard was the 4096, hence the name 4K Basically you want to go with a 1920*1080p, aka Full HD monitor. They have good resolution (many high end phones use this resolution), not that expensive (although rare-ish in laptops) and has a good image quality (it varies in many factor but resolution can help) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark W Posted January 5, 2015 Report Share Posted January 5, 2015 Pc world January sale? Depends on your requirements and what spec you need. Baaaasically: Windows Intel® Core™2 Duo or AMD Phenom® II processor; 64-bit support required Microsoft® Windows® 7 with Service Pack 1, Windows 8, or Windows 8.1. See the CS6 FAQ for more information about Windows 8 support.* 4 GB of RAM (8 GB recommended) 4 GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required during installation (cannot install on removable flash storage devices) Additional disk space required for preview files and other working files (10 GB recommended) 1280 x 900 display OpenGL 2.0–capable system 7200-RPM hard drive (multiple fast disk drives, preferably RAID 0 configured, recommended) Sound card compatible with ASIO protocol or Microsoft Windows Driver Model Although that said, I've been using a fairly shit PC that's below the minimum system requirements for Premiere Pro CS5.5 and it's worked reasonably well the whole time, so there is some leeway with that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forteh Posted January 5, 2015 Report Share Posted January 5, 2015 So basically a very low spec desktop will cover it system requirements wise. This should murder it apart from the disk speed, that could be rectified by getting a 1tb sshd for 60 quid or so, that way you keep the storage but if you're working on a file more than once it's written to a small ssd which speeds up performance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HippY Posted January 6, 2015 Report Share Posted January 6, 2015 Baaaasically: Although that said, I've been using a fairly shit PC that's below the minimum system requirements for Premiere Pro CS5.5 and it's worked reasonably well the whole time, so there is some leeway with that. Do you need large space? it sounds like you need an SSD. They cost like £130 extra for 510GB Otherwise you would need a 1080p screen for the Adobe, it really helps. I am using 2 1080p screens for designing circuits, and personally I love the larger resolution, makes lines smoother and zooming out from complicated boards better. that is the reason why I plan to get a 4K display Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forteh Posted January 6, 2015 Report Share Posted January 6, 2015 SSD would make a massive speed difference when working with large files, however as you're after a laptop I doubt very much there will be physical space for a second drive; that leaves you with having to reinstall a brand new machine, not really that much hassle really but it's another thing to do. IMHO I don't think the 1080p screen would be such a bonus for video editing compared to cad work (I could well be wrong!), it's a nice thing to have but is it worth the extra expenditure? You can always plug in an hdmi monitor if need be. If you're looking at using this machine for proper video editing you would ideally need to be looking at an i5 minimum or preferably an i7 although I wouldn't discount some of the amd processors when considering multithreaded software. For low threading software (where only 1 or 2 cores will be used properly) go for intel, for high threading the amd will pull back more speed for less money Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark W Posted January 6, 2015 Report Share Posted January 6, 2015 When I'm working in Premiere, I've got it set so all the previews are only at 640x360 to keep things running quickly so it looks shit regardless I know that when I export it it'll be going out in either 1080 or 720 so it's no biggie that it looks like it was rendered in MSPaint when I'm working on it. I've been running my current editing PC with a really shit 1440x900 monitor (or something like that) and it's not been a problem so having a laptop with a comparatively small screen/resolution wouldn't be a deal-breaker for me, especially if it's going to be cheaper overall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD™ Posted January 6, 2015 Report Share Posted January 6, 2015 Is it not worth thinking about 'future proofing' in some way? Clearly your current way of working is not holding you back, but it seems to me that if you're going to make the expenditure you might as well make it one you don't need to do again in a year. Being able to run previews at a larger scales is surely going to be beneficial too? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waybe2014 Posted January 6, 2015 Report Share Posted January 6, 2015 You never did say a budget but have you considered custom specing a laptop? I got a very high spec laptop for 900 and company was amazing. That's an i7 16gb ram 1t hard disc blah blah Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark W Posted January 6, 2015 Report Share Posted January 6, 2015 It doesn't really make too much difference in all honesty. I can usually tell from the moment I've filmed the clip whether it's usable or not, so I don't necessarily need to be able to see it in full resolution when I'm smashing clips together in Premiere - in terms of working on the clips themselves it's usually just a case of tweaking levels, a bit of colour correction and stuff like that which I don't generally need to see in detail acting on the clip (if that makes sense). In terms of budget, £500-ish is what I was hoping for really. If my editing PC was dead then I might be tempted to spend more, but fundamentally getting it would be a supplementary thing rather than a necessity, and the extra £400-500 I'd spend custom specing a laptop is enough to pay for some flights and accommodation somewhere... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forteh Posted January 6, 2015 Report Share Posted January 6, 2015 (edited) What sort of file size are you typically working with? Presume that once the edit is complete you archive to dvd/cloud/external hdd? Future proofing is a good call, however the cost can start to go up a lot, quickly. Have you considered a portable desktop build? Cost more but the potential for having a beast of a machine is there is a pretty small form factor, especially if you're likely to have access to a monitor on site. With carefull component selection you should be good for 5-6 years at least edit: how about this? http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-380-OK&groupid=43&catid=2476 edit2: or if you're considering future proofing this is a little more but a lot more capable than any laptop http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-366-OK&groupid=43&catid=2476&subcat=2563 Edited January 6, 2015 by forteh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark W Posted January 6, 2015 Report Share Posted January 6, 2015 Part of the reason for going for a laptop was that it would just be nice and portable and I could rock up and work wherever/whenever. At the moment, if I'm working up at - say - Inspired, I'll have my PC built up in the office with a random monitor, mouse, keyboard, etc., but when I head off to the hotel for the night it means I can't really do anything more. It's pretty limiting in terms of productivity, so being able to just whip out a laptop and keep on going would be really useful. Similarly on trips it'd be nice to be able to start collating footage and do little teaser videos and the like while I'm out and about. That said, that Primo Nano build looks preeeetty good for the money! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forteh Posted January 6, 2015 Report Share Posted January 6, 2015 (edited) Add in a 17" monitor with a vesa mount, bolt the two together and put it in a flightcase/padded bag with a small keyboard/mouse edit: or go with the mitx build and pick up a pc bag that will hold the lot (box/monitor/keyboard/mouse), they used to be all the rage at LANs when I used to attend such events (10+ years ago). edit2: something like this http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_13002.html and http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_1353.html Edited January 6, 2015 by forteh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark W Posted January 6, 2015 Report Share Posted January 6, 2015 Haha, true - getting towards the portability I'm after but seems like a reasonable amount more faff Thanks for taking the time to reply though, it's given me plenty to think about Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waybe2014 Posted January 6, 2015 Report Share Posted January 6, 2015 Those portable desktops come close to the value of my laptop with lower specs. Not my laptop this is base model https://www.cyberpowersystem.co.uk/system/Xplorer_X6-7400/ i7 is overkill but other sites will do similar with i5 which should get you in around the 500 mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forteh Posted January 6, 2015 Report Share Posted January 6, 2015 (edited) That is true, but portable/powerful/cheap pick 2 Go for it, I got it over $17000 http://config.boxxtech.com/products/cf_step2_or.asp?ModelInstanceID=1307 Edited January 6, 2015 by forteh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HippY Posted January 6, 2015 Report Share Posted January 6, 2015 That is true, but portable/powerful/cheap pick 2 Go for it, I got it over $17000 http://config.boxxtech.com/products/cf_step2_or.asp?ModelInstanceID=1307 that is clever and stupid. that is an X79 PC built into a laptop house I would rather get something X99 mATX with a good Xeon/i7 +mmonitor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete.M Posted January 6, 2015 Report Share Posted January 6, 2015 (edited) I'd like to get/build a desktop with at least 8Gb ram, i5, 1Tb hard drive, and some kind of decent graphics card for around £400. Can it be done? I haven't got round to pricing everything up yet. I would need to buy Windows 7 as well Edited January 6, 2015 by Pete.M Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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