I'm new to video, but I have been doing photography for a long time now. Anyone who does any type of visual work on a laptop screen is not going to get accurate rendition of their material. All i want to know is if it's possible to achieve a basic level of editing using PPcs5 on a laptop for under 850$. If not, what specific areas are noted as the problems, how will their effects be experienced, is there a way to compromise.

I am NOT looking to build a work station. And the vibe I get from this forum is that you either get the work station or go home. I have read other posts on this topic and it seems to be the same answer all around, no no no. If I was going to do this legit, I would get an apple desktop and go to town. And not even bother asking people questions. I might not even bother with Adobe. But my circumstances are what they are, my budget is what it is, and so my quesiton remains. Is there a way to do it. 

nobody? Nothing? Bump.

I have just bought a Sony Vaio VPCF13M8E/B, which has a 1600x900 15" screen and an NVidia graphics card with 1GB memory.  It has a 1.73 GHz i7 processor and 4 GB of RAM.  It has a firewire port and a single eSATA.  I can use 2 extra eSATA drives with an ExpressCard.  there are also 2 USB 3 ports.

The weak point is the hard drive - a 500 GB, 5400 rpm type.  There is no place for a second internal drive.  There are designs on the internet for replacing the optical drive with a second hard drive.  I might try a hybrid Seagate Momentus 7200 rpm drive at some point.

The graphics card provides acceleration with the standard hack, and I can edit reasonably well on this with Premiere CS5, BUT I am doing simple edits with 1440x1080 50i HDV.  I think it would be pretty slow going with 1080p HD from your Nikon.

The Vaio is available for around £800 here in the UK.

Can anyone tell me how each of these computers might stack up. And which one might be better?

http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/cdetland.to?poid=509338&CJPID=10709177-227502-F012A00C253054C0A99253054A0A01A0A0L25&src=MADD&cm_mmc=Affiliates-_-CommissionJunction

or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=34-215-004&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&PageSize=10&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&IsFeedbackTab=true#scrollFullInfo

Yeah, I am a very ignorant person. I don't really understand that chart yet. I don't even really understand premier that well. But this Mercury Playback feature seems to be something I would love. I am going crazy editing my d7000 footage on my 6 year old pentium 4 desktop. Every adjustment is an eternity. But what would be the minium cost of enabling this? I've found laptops equiped with Sandybridge i7 processor with 1gb dedicated video memory for under $800, but the gpu is not a NVIDIA. Anyone have any estimates for howw much adding an adequate gpu would drive up the price?

yes, you need an NVidia card in your laptop that has at least 1GB of video memory....ATI will not enable hardware acceleration of the Mercury Playback Engine....

your time will render 10 times slower without this feature enabled!!!!! See PPBM5  test results....MPE on vs. MPE off!!!

btw the tech bargins website is awesome. Thanks for that.

Wait so I need specifically a NVIDIA graphics card or just 1GB of dedicated video Memory. How is the ATI Radeon HD 6490?

....whooops!!!  I meant 1929x1080 screen size!!!....not "1280"....and AMD video cards,or, integrated graphics will not allow you to have Mercury playback feature, which is critical...

                                                                                                   JFPhoton

Beware!!!   Read more on this forum before spending your money...esp. examine the test results on PPBM 5 and look at the results for the few laptops listed there. Also,

Consider these facts :

1. As Harm Millard has said many times....even with the most advanced laptop, performance will only be average compared to a properly equipped desktop...however, I am not doing bad with my Asus G73 gaming laptop, equipped with an NVidia 460m graphics card, ( for a portable solution).Although my results are not yet posted,I got a total score in the 370s, which is average and even higher than many desktops. I am editing AVCHD and MOVs,( from a Canon DSLR). At the time I purchased it last fall, it seemed to be less expensive than the high powered Sagers. Now, with Sandy Bridge CPUs in laptops and new SATA III SSDs running at very fast speeds....performance in laptops may rise dramatically....my unit seems obsolete already, and it's only a few months old!!!!!!  Now, you can get better laptop performance for your dollar than just 4 or 5 months ago....hopefully, newer Sandy bridge results for laptops will start showing up on the PPBM5  site.

2. With a laptop, get one with 2 internal HDD bays and a high speed external port,( for attaching more drives at high speed).Without 2 internal HDDbays, you will be S.O.L.!! Your CPU should be at least i7,running at the highest clock speed you can afford....more cores and more clock speed are critical in having an acceptable perfomance. I am reading where gamers are supposedly getting 20% overclocks on my CPU, ( i7 740qm), but, this does not seem to be a good strategy for a laptop,so, you need the highest clock speed right out of the box.

3. You must have an NVidia video card in the machine which has at least 1 gig of dedicated video memory,( I have the 460m), in order to use the Mercury playback feature which dramatically improves rendering performance while editing in PPRO CS5. A simple "hack" is available for NVidia cards not "officially" supported by Adobe.

4. The more ram the better....get a laptop with 16GB if possible,or, plan to upgrade yourself...more ram improves laptop performance and After Effects, too.

5. Get the larger 17.3"  1920x1280 HD display on your laptop.....the smaller screens are hard to work on and may not even have the necessary minimum resolution to display the program properly. An HDMI video out at minimum is a must for attaching a larger external monitor.

6. Know and read about the exact codecs you will be working with,(that come from your camera), and if they match up with the presets that are included with PPRO CS5. In my case, CS5 has eliminated my having to transcode source files into another codec which PPRO could handle without choking the laptop.

In conclusion, compare the specs on new gaming laptops, ( Asus G73s with Sandy bridge CPUs,or similar), to the Sagers now available to see what may be the best bang for the buck. I'm sure you can do way better than I did only a few months ago. Read as much as you can from Harm Millard ,Bill Gherke, and the other major contributors to this forum to learn what works best....they know a million times more than me and with their PPBM 5 website test, have provided people like us to view actual performance results from various systems and configurations.

As someone who started trying to edit AVCHD and Canon MOVs on a core 2 duo laptop running CS4, I can say that using a cheaper, underpowered, insufficient laptop will only drive you to drink,or, to leap off a bridge!!! I was forced to transcode everything first, to an intermediate codec,( which lowered the video quality), in order to edit it on that laptop.

If you are forced to have a portable solution, like me, you may want to consider the benefits of the new Sandy Bridge technology which has SATA III in a laptop.....you can have high speed SATA III SSDs running in it at amazing speeds,even without RAID!! Plus, the higher clock speeds of the CPU.

So, in a nutshell....you may save money and get a good machine that is a gaming laptop without having to spend high on a top rated Sager, but, anything which is too cheap will not perform well......FUGGETTIBOUTIT!!!!     

                                                                                                                        JFPhoton