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May, 2025

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Best Laptop for HD Video Editing

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chris.G
Posts: 301 - Karma: 73
What do you have or think is the best laptop for editing 1080p video? My current laptop is so bad it can't even play the video.

I was looking at MacBook Pros, but I wasn't sure which one. I like the 13" because its easier to move around but they only have duo-core processors. The 15" has a quad-core processor. Does that really make a big difference or will I still be able to edit HD video with duo-core?

+K for any help, thanks!
14 years ago
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B1kessk1s
Posts: 953 - Karma: 691
quad will be way better.

i would also suggest you : ASUS G73 ! if you have the cash go for it !!!
14 years ago
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ChucklesNorman.
Posts: 1197 - Karma: 706
Just got 15" mbp with 8gb of ram. It slays HD video.
14 years ago
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iLLbiLLy
Posts: 2865 - Karma: 2,631
Just picked this out for my buddy today.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834246132
14 years ago
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iLLbiLLy
Posts: 2865 - Karma: 2,631
haha just went on macs site and built the equivalent mac book.
only $2,162.95.
14 years ago
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JAHrig
Posts: 738 - Karma: 2,649
I have the 15 inch i7 with only 4 gb of ram and it performs perfectly. IF you feel you need te 8 gbs, dont but them through apple it will be a royal rip off. Just add the ram yourself. But i Feel like 4 is really fine.
14 years ago
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1337
Posts: 31078 - Karma: 29,667
this looks like a quality laptop, if you want to use windows i'd say get this
14 years ago
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.cam.
Posts: 1852 - Karma: 48
check out dells 15z. it would be good as well
14 years ago
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miroz
Posts: 10333 - Karma: 3,948
This, for me.

As for cost...thank god for parents. College is a great excuse for them to spend money on yah.
14 years ago
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broto
Posts: 9040 - Karma: 25,673
i recently acquired a 13 inch MBP as like a family laptop, seeing as we'd been using shitty used desktops and stuff forever, it was a huge change. no lag at all whenever editing 720p 60fps, and handles FCP7 really well, as well as a bunch of other programs, although i'm sure the 15 inch is better. but if worst comes to worst and you absolutely need the money, a 13 inch will still do you right.
14 years ago
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iLLbiLLy
Posts: 2865 - Karma: 2,631
This is the one my friend ended up going with. Its got the same processor as the Lenovo(and the macbook pro) I posted but less ram. I prefer Lenovo as a company much more than HP because I think they are more professional(don't load the computer up with bloatware) but for the price of the HP you can't beat it. Its got a 17 inch HD screen and if you need more ram you can always upgrade later.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834157844
14 years ago
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Jeff_Lo
Posts: 5809 - Karma: 263
I would usually say a MBP, but man ever since Apple fucked everyone over with FCPX, I've even switched to Adobe and occasionally work with .r3D files (RED) and Adobe handles that better then FCP studio anyways. 

I think you'd be fine with a MBP(you'll spend more money) or a Supped up PC as long as you get the horse power and graphics card to edit.

Premiere is absolutely raping right now with there features.  The 5.5 release even has a button you click to change all the shortcuts to the ones in FCP 7/Studio.  Not to mention you can edit anything on the same timeline.  Still not a bad idea to ProRes, but it can handle it. 

I'd still take a MBP as I use alot of different software, such as Maya, C4D and RealFlow, and they all run way better on my mac, and would prefer to have stuff switch between machines in a more linear fashion. Just me though
14 years ago
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B1kessk1s
Posts: 953 - Karma: 691
THIS IS THE BEST LAPTOP YOU CAN HAVE WITH YOUR MONEY !!!


it just beats every macbook in every way. install adobe premiere pro cs5.5 and you will laugh at people trying to be cool with there stupi MBP! enjoy the real power!!!!
14 years ago
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iLLbiLLy
Posts: 2865 - Karma: 2,631
that's actually considerably slower than the other two laptops I posted.
14 years ago
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B1kessk1s
Posts: 953 - Karma: 691
not that much, you can overclock it and the graphic card is at least 3 times better then the one you posted plus it is a 17,3inch with the best ventilation system you can have !
14 years ago
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B1kessk1s
Posts: 953 - Karma: 691
oh and btw if you didn't know HP laptop are te worst one on the market!
14 years ago
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iLLbiLLy
Posts: 2865 - Karma: 2,631
ha don't bullshit a bullshitter.

Passmark Benchmarks

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

Intel Core i7-2630QM 2.00GHz benchmarks at 6,339.

Intel Core i7 720QM(1.6GHz) benchmarks at 3,288.

Even if you overclocked it to match the 2630QM your reducing your processor life significantly.

Plus like I said I'm not a huge fan of the HP either but the Lenovo I posted would whoop this shit out out of what you posted.
14 years ago
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B1kessk1s
Posts: 953 - Karma: 691

well

check out GPU's now !!!!

asus with the radeon hd 5870:   2.720

lenovo with gt 555m: 1.012

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

14 years ago
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iLLbiLLy
Posts: 2865 - Karma: 2,631
yea that GPU definitely outperforms the one in the lenovo(i have the HD 5870 in my computer and it rocks). If you were primary getting this laptop for gaming then yours would be the obvious choice. But for video editing the GPU actually plays a very small role unless your software has heavy support for GPU processing. If that thing had the i7 2.0 processor it would rape all other laptops.
14 years ago
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[evan]
Posts: 5628 - Karma: 117
OP This isn't relevant to your decision, but my sister just walked n with a 15" MBP with the 750GB HD and i7 and im not gonna lie.....it looks pretty.
14 years ago
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kingofsteeze
Posts: 61 - Karma: 10
western digital harddrives is where its at
14 years ago
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vauban08
Posts: 575 - Karma: 119
I can't believe noone has mentioned the hdd speed as a major criterion. In many cases, the typical notebook 5400rpm drives are the bottle neck.
14 years ago
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B1kessk1s
Posts: 953 - Karma: 691
you really should consider a SSD instead of a HDD.

14 years ago
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fsscott
Posts: 4684 - Karma: 114
Click for larger image

Did you just hint at overclocking a laptop?

Jesus christ, unless they changed the cooling system DRASTICALLY, there's no way that would work unless you like having an 80 degree system.

Also you arguing graphics cards in laptops, which are also nothing special. And for video editing, I know this concept may be hard for some of you, but the video card doesn't do a whole lot. Processor and ram are higher up on the food chain in this case. the i5's and i7's are good for video, and whenever AMD gets off their ass the 'Bulldozer' line will kill as well.

Lenovo (IBM) makes some of the better laptops on the stock windows computers. HP is bleh. Dell shouldn't be an option if you know the difference between RAM and Hard drive memory. Apple makes solid computers, the price just isn't friendly.
14 years ago
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iLLbiLLy
Posts: 2865 - Karma: 2,631
SSD is faster but you should realize that they are only rated for a certain number of writes/reads. This means that you need to retire drives after a certain usage before the drive crashes. Either way you should always back up your data.
14 years ago
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eheath
Posts: 61954 - Karma: 126,693
That video made me lol. The fact it took that computer 36 seconds to turn on WITH the SDD says something about the rest of the computer. All of the things related to speed in that video were related to other things like ram and processor too. I dunno what shit computer that was, but 1 min 2 sec to turn on? 20 seconds to open photoshop? 15 seconds to open a fucking PDF? that video sucked.
14 years ago
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B1kessk1s
Posts: 953 - Karma: 691

the point of that video was to show that SSD is faster than HDD. i dont care how fast is the computer in this video. SSD is faster than HDD period.

14 years ago
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eheath
Posts: 61954 - Karma: 126,693
But my HDD is faster than the computer with the SDD....


You're missing my point, they used shitty computers. If you did that with two high end PCs or two high end Macs, the SDD would probably be 1 second faster. Just sayin.
14 years ago
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Jpurd
Posts: 3196 - Karma: 3,555
this exactly
14 years ago
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fsscott
Posts: 4684 - Karma: 114
If your SSD is properly setup it can last for a while. But for large files (ie. video) the cost of a standard HDD makes more sense. You're not going to need the extra speed of an SSD. If you think of building a computer booting off of an SSD is a good plan, but you need space off the bat, unless you went with an SSD inside to boot and an external for all your video, but personally just get something with a WD Black or equivalent and then backup on an external if you want to.

TL;DR> You don't need an SSD. It's a laptop, get a HDD.
14 years ago
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iLLbiLLy
Posts: 2865 - Karma: 2,631
Yea but doing all your editing off an external would end up being very slow (maybe not 2 bad with usb 3.0) I guess if you copied just your working set of files to the SSD to edit with it could be worth it.
14 years ago
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tomPietrowski
Posts: 7293 - Karma: 18,716
Just wanted to clear a few things up in this thread. SSD are marginly the fastest at the moment, however if you get 2 WD fast drives (black or above) and have them set in a raid 0 configuration, you will get the same spped, but much more realiability and storage for teh same price.

Macs are good, but you will always pay more for a mac then you will the equivalent PC laptop. you can get a good I7 equiped laptop with 6 gig of ram and a Nvidia GTX card for around $800 now. the equivalent mac will be well above that price.

if you are looking for a really dependable laptop look at BOX computers. they make some great laptops, and for the price of the mac you could buy you could get an absolute beast from BOX.
14 years ago
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maxwell666
Posts: 554 - Karma: 20
lol you are retarded, a hdd raid 0 is in no way more reliable than a single ssd
you halve your reliability in raid 0, and this is about laptops, any laptop that has 2 drive bay areas should have an ssd boot drive and a large capacity hdd
14 years ago
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tomPietrowski
Posts: 7293 - Karma: 18,716
I would take a raid setup over a SSD everyday, you will get a longer warrenty by about 2 years with HDD over SSD and you will get around 320-500 gig storage for the same price as 120gig SSD. SSD are still to early in there development to be supper realiable, when compared to WD HDD.

Yes it may be true to say most comsumer laptops will not give you options for raid setups, but if you are buying a serious laptop for work, its very much worth considering. The new generation of workstation laptops are very different from what you could buy down futre shop for example.  For example if you were to look at GOBoxx laptops you would see that for the price of a high end mac, you will get a beast of a workstation in a portable package.
14 years ago
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fsscott
Posts: 4684 - Karma: 114
Not true at all. SSD's are really reliable, just the basic fact of no moving parts makes it more reliable. RAID 0 is bloody silly for video editing, unless you have a backup on top of that, be ready to lose your shit.
14 years ago
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MADDECENT
Posts: 5579 - Karma: 951
Bumping this thread in case any of the laptop suggestions are no longer "the best"

I'm looking for a laptop for school next year, I currently edit on a desktop. I'm so sick of lagging, I'm just looking for whatever is going to do the best when editing very large projects.

I know little to nothing about laptops, you guys have been talking a lot about upgrading RAM and such, which I would definitely be willing to do, I just dont know exactly where to start with a project like that.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks, Christian
13 years ago
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remster
Posts: 898 - Karma: 261
Also not-threadworthy but does the new 15 inch mbp with retina display have any advantages over the previous model?
13 years ago
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family_vacation
Posts: 6200 - Karma: 7,840
Some of the ideas up there seem suspect. Your academic life is going to revolve around this laptop, overclocking is simply a terrible idea.

I just went through the laptop buying decision myself for college.

I ended up purchasing a Macbook Pro Retina with the 2.3 Ghz i7, a 256Gb SSD, and 16Gb of memory. I'm going to edit off of a pair of 2TB WD Caviar Blacks via USB 3. I'll put them in a RAID 1 configuration.

If you're going the Mac route, I'd probably buy what I got. Spec out the retina model and the standard one, you'll find that the retina is actually a pretty good deal.

If you want to go windows, you have a variety of options.
13 years ago
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family_vacation
Posts: 6200 - Karma: 7,840
The screen is simply gorgeous. It also comes stock with a SSD instead of a HDD which should speed things up and make it more durable. It also has a slightly faster processor among.

On the downside you can't upgrade it and it's pretty hard to repair.
13 years ago
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cwphoto
Posts: 2332 - Karma: 780
the retina pro's are beasts. i got to play on one when i bought my air (can't afford retina pro) and they are crazy fast. the specs on them are simply crazy
13 years ago
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MADDECENT
Posts: 5579 - Karma: 951
One of the new macbooks would be my number one choice, but I dont think its in my price range.

Bump. Thanks for the help anyways, +K
13 years ago
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