College Laptop, good enough to do HD Editing?

[Helenimi]

Hi everybody, it's been so long!

Hey, I need ur help here!, I am now a college student! WIIIIIIIIIII... The university that I am going to attend this fall require the students to have the same laptop. So... I would like to know if the specs of the laptop is good to make HD editing! I have a HV40 and Canon T3i.

I think it's a LENOVO THINKPAD W520.
Intel® Core™ i7 Processor
Windows 7
15.6" FHD (1920x1080) color, anti-glare, LED backlight,
16:9 aspect ratio, 500:1 contrast ratio, 95% Gamut
Intel® Wireless 802.11 a/g/n
Integrated Gigabit Ethernet
720p Camera
4 GB PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz SODIMM Memory (1 Dimm)/3 slots available
320GB, 7200rpm, 7mm and 9.5mm HDD SATA
Multi Recorder Optical Drive
NVIDIA Quadro 1000M or equivalent graphics
Bluetooth wireless
One slot (ExpressCard/34)
4 in 1 Card Reader & Smart Card Reader
Two USB 3.0 , one powered USB 2.0 (yellow), one USB 2.0/eSATA combo
External monitor port (VGA BD-15), Ethernet (RJ-45)
9-cell lithium-ion battery
AC Adapter
4 year warranty and ADP coverage
Recovery disk

If I can make update what should it be...

[Daniel Rutter]

That would be fine to do editing with. You might have a few hiccups with the T3i/AVCHD footage... but nothing major.

I would recommend straight away getting external storage to backup your footage to. Something USB3 (you have the ports, why not use them?)...

EDIT: I'm pretty sure the express card port can take a Firewire card as well, so you can capture footage from your HV40.

[Dr. Benway]

EDIT: I'm pretty sure the express card port can take a Firewire card as well, so you can capture footage from your HV40.

Yes, it can. If you buy an ExpressCard I strongly advise taking the computer and whatever is to be connected through the E'Card and check the bloody thing works. ExpressCards and Win 7 can be... well, I have a collection of E'Cards that are destined for the garbage.

[Netguru]

I am using a Lenovo W520. I use it, among other things, to edit video and audio. It does a great job. I've been most impressed with it so far. Mine came with 8 GB of memory and I am going to put in another 8. It maxes out at 32 GB, so there is a lot of room to grow.

My suggestion to you is to add another 4 GB of memory. BTW, the W520 already comes with a firewire port, so you don't need to add one. I would also recommend adding an external hard drive...either on USB3 or eSata.

Good luck and enjoy.

[Krane]

I am using a Lenovo W520. I use it, among other things, to edit video and audio. It does a great job. I've been most impressed with it so far. Mine came with 8 GB of memory and I am going to put in another 8. It maxes out at 32 GB, so there is a lot of room to grow.

My suggestion to you is to add another 4 GB of memory. BTW, the W520 already comes with a firewire port, so you don't need to add one. I would also recommend adding an external hard drive...either on USB3 or eSata.

Good luck and enjoy.

If it can take 32GB of RAM then max it out. RAM is inexpensive; and you can never have too much of it.

Hi everybody, it's been so long!

Hey, I need ur help here!, I am now a college student! WIIIIIIIIIII... The university that I am going to attend this fall require the students to have the same laptop. So... I would like to know if the specs of the laptop is good to make HD editing! I have a HV40 and Canon T3i.

Your laptop is more than adequate for the task. Stupid rule to all have the same laptop. I suspect there is some back scratching going on here.

If I can make update what should it be...

An external RAID drive perhaps?

Also see above ^^.

[Dr. Benway]

and you can never have too much of it.

That's not true. In fact it's a myth. The W250 supports up to 16GB but you'd likely find 8GB to be all you need. In all processes how many hard faults are occurring? Unless an specific app. can address all of the 16GB/32GB of RAM it's a waste of money.

While the ThinkPad W520 is available in different configurations, we looked at the 428426M, which is kitted with a Second Generation Intel Core i7-2620M CPU, a Full HD (1920x1080) LED-backlit screen, NVIDIA Quadro 1000M graphics (with 2GB RAM and Optimus switching technology), 4GB of 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM (it supports up to 16GB) and a 500GB, 3Gbps, 7200rpm hard drive.

[vince]

You can easily transform this computer into a laptop with three internal hard drives. Replace the DVD with a hard drive caddy and install there a laptop hard drive. You can install a msata drive with 80 or 120 GB iin the WWAN slot and free up the OS drive as additional drive. The internal connections are sata3 while the MSATA is sata2. For Adobe Premier this configuration is optimal. Use external drives just for backup.

[Netguru]

That's not true. In fact it's a myth. The W250 supports up to 16GB...

It is true. The W520 model that I bought (4276-37U) does indeed support up to 32 GB of memory, as do other models of the W520.

You can install a msata drive with 80 or 120 GB iin the WWAN slot and free up the OS drive as additional drive.

That is precisely what I have been thinking of doing. I would then move the OS to the SSD.

[Dr. Benway]

It is true. The W520 model that I bought (4276-37U) does indeed support up to 32 GB of memory, as do other models of the W520.

I know, some models do support it - but does any of your software get anywhere near needing 16GB or 32GB? Can you honestly post screen caps of your system maxing out that much RAM? Or is your gig having 14 different applications opening and closing continually and simultaneously?

[cgbier]

After Effects loves a lot of RAM. Having 16GB should be the minimum if you work on bigger projects.

[Dr. Benway]

Aye, perhaps if you are using AE intensively. But on this thread if people are throwing out advice for a fecking Lenovo laptop I still recommend 8GB and use the rest for something else - like a higher spec machine that can be massively overclocked so the CPU melts. Dream on Bedroom Hollywood.

Quote: 'With 24GB RAM, 8 cores with 2GB assigned per core, I've never been able to get more than 12% (usage) on a render.' That's using AE.

[Netguru]

I know, some models do support it - but does any of your software get anywhere near needing 16GB or 32GB? Can you honestly post screen caps of your system maxing out that much RAM? Or is your gig having 14 different applications opening and closing continually and simultaneously?

Adobe recommends 8 GB for CS6. For an additional $46, I think adding an extra 8 GB is a cheap upgrade to insure I can use the full suite of apps over the life of this laptop.

[cgbier]

...and those 8GB only work when you don't have anything else running.

My MBP has 8 GB. I have it at its limits oftentimes with AE (it's running with the software Mercury Engine though).

[Janke]

Somehow, I have managed pretty well with only 4 GB of RAM, using iMovie, FCE and FCPX... (I haven't yet done any big project with FCPX, though - so, a question for CG: Do I need more RAM for serious editing with that?)

[Krane]

That's not true. In fact it's a myth. The W250 supports up to 16GB but you'd likely find 8GB to be all you need. In all processes how many hard faults are occurring? Unless an specific app. can address all of the 16GB/32GB of RAM it's a waste of money.

I know you have a point here, but it's potency was lost in this case. Unless you're referring to a weekend editor, the benefits far outweigh any losses.

Somehow, I have managed pretty well with only 4 GB of RAM, using iMovie, FCE and FCPX... (I haven't yet done any big project with FCPX, though - so, a question for CG: Do I need more RAM for serious editing with that?)

Thats the whole point behind the philosophy and the old adage: Better to have it and not need it, than to need it.... Well you know how it goes.

Anyway, my advice stands; although, I agree as long as you're flying straight and level you may indeed get buy with only 4GB. But once you start to color correct and/or throw in some advanced effects, transitions etc., you will quickly become sadly disappointed with the way your systems performs.

[Janderek]

The Intel Core i7 is a new line of desktop processors based on the Nehalem microarchitecture, which evolved from the Core microarchitecture that powered the highly successful Intel Core 2 line of microprocessors. Like its predecessors, the new Core i7 processors are manufactured using Intel's 45 nm fabrication process with high-k (hafnium) dielectric and metal gate technology. However, that is where the similarity ends. So your pc is great. To see more info about specification of pc see here : http://www.techyv.com/questions/need...tween-core-pcs

[zagnut]

Hell, I used to edit my AVCHD on my old dual core 2.6GHz AMD with 2GB ram without any types of problems. It now flies on my new quad i5-3.2GHz with 6GB ram. And Benway is correct about having too much. I seldom see more than 2-3GB being utilized. One exception is Lightroom which loves RAM.

[Krane]

Hell, I used to edit my AVCHD on my old dual core 2.6GHz AMD with 2GB ram without any types of problems. It now flies on my new quad i5-3.2GHz with 6GB ram. And Benway is correct about having too much. I seldom see more than 2-3GB being utilized. One exception is Lightroom which loves RAM.

If all thats true then your needs are simple. For those of us that are a bit more "athletic", running a marathon in a pair of flip flops simply won't do.

[Bertzie]

There's no such thing as "too much" in the PC world. It may be more than you need, but it's hardly too much.

[cgbier]

Janke's, sorry, I didn't see your post before. FCP X and RAM: it depends on the quantity of Event s and Projects you have. For quick acces FCP loads the whole database into the RAM.

Your project shouldn't need any more than 8GB with a pretty uptpdate AMD GPU. Sweet spot is 16GB according to guys from Rippletraining and some other sources.

[zagnut]

If all thats true then your needs are simple. For those of us that are a bit more "athletic", running a marathon in a pair of flip flops simply won't do.

This may be true. Real time preview wasn't great on that dual core. A lot depends on type and amount of transitions and various other effects, what other types of processes are running on the machine (and how many) and all other sorts of variables. I've also got a great video card that I can utilize the GPU in for decoding and rendering though. Also, the use of proxy files can work wonders.

For someone that's doing more than simple transitions and effects like me, what I have is more than adequate. But for someone doing heavy editing and effects, a dedicated machine is obviously preferable. Mines more of a gaming rig, since that's what I built it and use it for most, and that dual core AMD is now a dedicated HTPC rig.

There's no such thing as "too much" in the PC world. It may be more than you need, but it's hardly too much.

I think this was reworded quite well.