suitable system for After Effects

[Maryam Talebi]

Hi everyone. Would you tell me if I can improve my laptop or not? The information of my laptop is:
intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4200M CPU @ 2.50GHz  2.50GHz
RAM 8 GB
64-bit Operating System, x64-based processor
Intel(R) HD Graphics 4600
NVIDIA GeForce 820M
I am a beginner in AE. The speed of my laptop is bothering me. While my laptop is in 4th Gen, I need to know if I improve the laptop, its speed will rise in AE or not. If YES, please tell me about the changes I must do and if NO, please tell me about the best system.
thank you for your answering. 

[Mylenium]

The question of whether you will see any performance improvements (beyond the usual "new computer" boosts that are expected) cannot be answered without any info about a) your current computer and b) what kind of projects you plan on doing. This is way too specific in AE and the limitations of laptops don't make things easier. Projects with lots of footage may suffer from slow harddrives, effect-heavy work may not be fun with a weak GPU and anything else you can imagine. Per se of course you could upgrade the RAM to the full 12 or 16 GB if the system allows and you can afford it. the rest will depend on the finer details.

Mylenium

[Maryam Talebi]

Thank you for your respons.
a) My Laptop is HP 15-d101tx Notebook PC with this features: 
2.5 GHz Intel Core i5-4200M with Intel HD Graphics 4600
RAM 8 GB
Intel(R) HD Graphics 4600
NVIDIA GeForce 820M
b) I produce explainer video and logo-motion.
Honestly, I know that I must buy a new one, but I am searching to see if I can improve my current laptop instead of the new one.

[Szalam]

Laptops aren’t very upgradable. Doubling your RAM would likely be the only
option for you. --
-
Michael Szalapski

[Szalam]

In general, for After Effects performance, the most important thing is clock speed of the processor. In some future versions of AE, the number of cores will matter a bit more than they currently do (the AE team has been talking publicly about how they're developing a more multithreaded renderer).

Also important is RAM. MINIMUM system required RAM is 16GB, but the suggested minimum is 32.

GPU is a bit important too as a number of effects render entirely on the GPU (the VR effects and a number of third-party plugins) or can be accelerated by a GPU (Fractal Noise and dozens of others), but this doesn't have to be crazy - just something decent like the 1000 series from NVIDIA.

Having SSD instead of HDD (and multiple ones, if possible, so your cache can be seperate) is also helpful.

So, knowing that, it should help you know for yourself what you can improve or not.

[Maryam Talebi]

Thank you very much dear.

[Maryam Talebi]

Dear Szalam;
1. Which do you advice to buy, laptop or PC?
2. is the generation of the  CPU camputer important for AE? What abour Corei?
3. Is 2GB enough for GPU if I take a new system?

you'll make me happy if respond to me as before.

[Byron Cortez]

I'm almost sure that the laptop you have now can add at least 16GB of RAM, start with that if what you need is to do medium work in After Effects. RAM memory is usually the respiratory and momentary solution for some systems not as modern as yours. But if you are determined to get a new computer, then Slazam already gave you some guidelines.

[Maryam Talebi]

Thank you dear Byron.

[Roland Kahlenberg]

Lots of good points have been provided, I'd like to offer something a bit different by exploring the type of work you intend to do with AE.

If you'll be working with a max of HD1080 source files; for both stills and video AND you'll be doing flat-design or design with gradients that do not utilize lots of heavy effects and 3D, then you should be OK. Let's see how you progress for the next three months in terms of technical and creative achievements and if you can ear some money to save for an upgrade or new laptop then, even better.

If you can afford only one upgrade now, I'd suggest to go with the SSD route. The SSD can be repurposed/re-used should you purchase a new laptop. Ditto with RAM although whether it can be used in a new laptop is possible but less likely - but this is something worth checking out before splashing cash on additional RAM for your current laptop.

You should also learn to work efficiently with AE and this is regardless of how powerful your system is. Learn how to set up your Comp Panel and Preview Settings to suit your varying needs and system.

[Maryam Talebi]

Thank you so much for your spending time.