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fedes_gl
fedes_gl
Participating Frequently
February 23, 2017
Answered

Looking for $900 to $1000 Laptop

  • February 23, 2017
  • 3 replies
  • 1180 views

Hello everybody,

I'm going to Orlando, USA, in May and I want to buy there a laptot for amateur (home made) video editing using Premiere Pro CC. Mostly all of my videos are recorded with a GoPro Hero4 Silver camera, the rest are 1080p recorded with smartphones or reflex cameras.

The final result I'm looking for is 1080p 30fps video. For the editing, I mostly use up to 3 or 4 video tracks, I do some color gradding of the gopro footage, add some effects, tittles and transitions (I'll probabbly get some plug in like BorisFX for more effects and transistions)

My budget is araund USD 900 to USD 1000, and my idea is to have fast preview playback when editing (it could be at half or quarter resolution)

By the moment I'm using a 2nd gen intel i5, with 4Gb RAM and no video acceleration... so,

This are two options I have been considering:

A) Dell 15.6" Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming Series (USD 900)

Hardware highlights:

  • 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7-6700HQ Quad-Core
  • 16GB RAM + 1TB HDD with 8GB SSD Cache
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M GPU (4GB GDDR5)

B) ASUS 15.6" Republic of Gamers Strix GL553VD (USD 1000)

Hardware highlights:

  • 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7-7700HQ Quad-Core
  • 16GB of DDR RAM | 1TB 7200 rpm HDD
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 (4GB GDDR5)

I believe for USD 100 difference the Asus is the one to go, but would like to hear your opinions, or suggest others machines

thank you!

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Bill Gehrke

    I do like the ASUS as for the future as it has a real future expansion with the following

    Solid State Drives:

    128GB/256GB/512GB SATA3 SSD

    Solid State Drives:

    256GB/512GB PCIE Gen3X4 SSD

    You can readily replace that hard disk drive 1 TB Hard Disk drive with a SATA III SSD and to really soup up that laptop you apparently can install a super speed M.2 SSD

    I just wish it had a GTX 1060 option and I might buy one

    I think that you might have miserable performance with GoPro media and only one hard disk drive.  I have an ASUS laptop which I upgraded to two SATA SSD drives and an older i7-4700HQ mobile processor that does good with GoPro Hero 4 and 4K media.

    I doubt there is much upgrade-ability in the Dell.

    3 replies

    fedes_gl
    fedes_glAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    February 25, 2017

    Thank you all for your help! Didn't know about those M.2 SSD form factor, very interesting. So it is possibly to have both the SATA drive AND the M.2 SSD on that Asus?

    Maybe when I get there on May there would be new options and can consider about one with a GTX 1060 card, but I think it gets out of my budget.

    I completly discarded the Dell.

    thanks again

    fedes_gl
    fedes_glAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    June 1, 2017

    So I finally got the Asus model GL553VE-DS74

    This model is a little better, it comes with an 256 SSD and  1TB HDD (the only bad is that this one is 5400RPM... but will look to replace it when I can), and also the graphics card is nVidia GTX1050Ti, it has more CUDA cores comparing to the GTX1050, so I believe it would do a better job with Premiere Pro.

    I bought it in Best Buy Orlando, final cost USD 1267 (tax included), few bucks more than expected, but I liked the option of a better GPU and the SSD. I also liked the full HD screen mate and very colorful.

    Now I used it for a few days and is a big change for me, I'm happy with the results

    Bill Gehrke
    Bill Gehrke
    Inspiring
    June 1, 2017

    Also with that ASUS laptop it is relatively easy to upgrade memory and disk drives.  If you would like to see the options for a custom build unit to see what you could consider for future options look at this web page.  Apparently your M.2 SSD is a SATA III 6Gbit/s interface not the super speed PCIe x4 32Gb/s units but that could be upgraded if you ever see the need, it is a great start for you. 

    RoninEdits
    RoninEdits
    Inspiring
    February 24, 2017

    i would also choose the asus laptop. mostly for the gtx 1050 as its around 2x faster than the 960m, but also the slight improvement with the newer cpu. the gtx 1050 is a good match for the 4 core cpu, you would have to be doing somethings special to require more gpu power. you could add a single samsung 960 evo m.2 ssd and keep the 1tb hdd for backups, archived projects, and misc storage. the samsung 960 evo is fast enough to run everything for premiere projects and avoid multiple ssd configurations.

      Bill Gehrke
      Bill Gehrke
      Inspiring
      February 24, 2017

      Ronin

      I found a special deal on a 960 EVO and it is on its way to me.  I will clone it with the OS/Applications and use it with everything on it and add it to my tested configurations.

        Bill Gehrke
        Bill GehrkeCorrect answer
        Inspiring
        February 24, 2017

        I do like the ASUS as for the future as it has a real future expansion with the following

        Solid State Drives:

        128GB/256GB/512GB SATA3 SSD

        Solid State Drives:

        256GB/512GB PCIE Gen3X4 SSD

        You can readily replace that hard disk drive 1 TB Hard Disk drive with a SATA III SSD and to really soup up that laptop you apparently can install a super speed M.2 SSD

        I just wish it had a GTX 1060 option and I might buy one

        I think that you might have miserable performance with GoPro media and only one hard disk drive.  I have an ASUS laptop which I upgraded to two SATA SSD drives and an older i7-4700HQ mobile processor that does good with GoPro Hero 4 and 4K media.

        I doubt there is much upgrade-ability in the Dell.

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