"Future proof" laptop for video editing

[WheelzWorld]

Having to purchase a new laptop for the main purpose of video editing, I find myself in a difficult position... (yes, it never ends, but...!!)

The points to really consider IMO are:

-4K in 60fps need to be achievable (Yi 4K+)
-360cam in 8k (SoC ambarella h3 for end of this year's cams) or 6x to 12x cam rig should be "workable" in best case scenarios.

Now I really would like to know your own opinion about this... is there are ANY "future proof" laptop that exists..? (Currently looking at dell spx 15 4K or Origin EON17 but open at any alternative)


For people who look to get a new laptop, here are some nice starting links:

P.S. please share any of your thoughts! I'll upgrade this first post the best I can.

 

[Flawless]

There's no such thing as future proof anymore, and certainly not in terms of laptops.

If you want a video editing rig, make it a compact desktop render rig. You can build it into a mini-ITX case making it portable, able to plug into any TV, but you'll also make it capable of using desktop class components instead of mobile CPUs, memory and GPUs - all of which suffer from bottlenecks and heat dissipation when under load.

No matter what you do; laptops will always be less powerful than their desktop counterpart and you also have to suffer with limited screen size; why would you want that when spending time editing video?

 

[WheelzWorld]

No matter what you do; laptops will always be less powerful than their desktop counterpart and you also have to suffer with limited screen size; why would you want that when spending time editing video?

I know a laptop will not get all the job done but I currently need to buy a new one and would like not to need to buy a new one in end of 2017... personally I will need to work on 4K 60fps in about a month and the new SoC ambarella H3 just tell me I'll probably get my first 360cam this year... therefore my choice of laptop seems pretty crucial to me currently (even knowing I'll not do everything on it... hehe...

I'm kind of a globetrotter so the most I can do on the go, the better!

 

[WheelzWorld]

Does that seems too fare fetched for current tech...? (In laptop capabilities as well as the rest...?)

Looking for a good middle point (forgot the word for it lol...)

 

[BorisTheSpider]

Look at Clevo but also, now that external GPUs are practical, a top of the range XPS plus a fast external graphics card is a pretty nice balance of power and portability but it's not going to keep up with a bulkier Clevo.

 

[X424]

Get at least 16GB of ram, an i7, the best video card you can afford and a decent size SSD. Brand doesn't matter that much. I use an alienware 15 R1 with a GTX 970M and 16GB of DDR3 1600mhz and it does very well. I can have adobe after effects and premiere pro open at the same time (good for dynamic link functionality) and heaps of browser tabs if I want and the thing is snappy as, even when crunching a warp stabilise effect or rendering something. I could not believe the difference a ram upgrade from 8gb to 16gb made.....different computer.

Here you can see my system using 10.7GB while crunching a warp stabilise and having a few browser tabs and youtube going in the background....8GB isn't enough unless you plan on walking away and doing something else for 10 minutes while you edit. But it is super nice to be able to continue having a snappy pc experience while editing. Get more ram.

 

[Eric17]

Do you need a special monitor to view the 4k? Id like to build small portable desktop type rig with a awesome video card. I play battlefield and few others on a gt650m nvidia in a hp dv7, not sure if it will handle editing? I do have it oc to about 1025 core and 2700 mem iirc. It made a huge difference on bf4, i have pretty much ran it overclocked since new. Was not aware these hd videos are so demanding.

 

[Johnmcl7]

Here you can see my system using 10.7GB while crunching a warp stabilise and having a few browser tabs and youtube going in the background....8GB isn't enough unless you plan on walking away and doing something else for 10 minutes while you edit. But it is super nice to be able to continue having a snappy pc experience while editing. Get more ram.

You have to bear in mind that you can't count ram usage that way - from Windows Vista onwards, Windows will page as much available memory as possible but it's immediately released if another application requests it. My machine is idling at the moment just running a single browser but it's using 4GB memory, it doesn't actually need that though as a 4GB or even 2GB machine can run the same browser and additional applications with ease. It looks like it's going to need an upgrade for gaming shortly as it is running short there but it can work through 4k video with ease and carry out other work at the same time since few programs can efficiently use large numbers of threads.

That said, 16GB ram is a good starting point at the moment although if possible it's worth trying to get a laptop with socketed ram to give you more options longterm, many laptops now solder the memory onto the motherboard so it cannot be upgraded. As far as I'm aware, the XPS 15 has socketed ram and the SSD is accessible so you can upgrade both over time as you need. As others have said above, laptop processors are a good bit slower than desktop processors and it's processor performance that will largely govern video rendering/transcoding performance.

John

 

[Johnmcl7]

Do you need a special monitor to view the 4k? Id like to build small portable desktop type rig with a awesome video card. I play battlefield and few others on a gt650m nvidia in a hp dv7, not sure if it will handle editing? I do have it oc to about 1025 core and 2700 mem iirc. It made a huge difference on bf4, i have pretty much ran it overclocked since new. Was not aware these hd videos are so demanding.

You can view 4k video without a 4k monitor but it won't be running at the full resolution. You've not mentioned what processor you have on the DV7, it may well be capable of video editing and transcoding work but it will just take a very long time.

John

 

[Nikon1]

I would agree with Flawless - Futureproof is a DREAM!

I purchased a 15" MacBook Pro - which supports 5K video & has a beautiful built-in screen. Add Final Cut Pro and you have a portable editing studio. It supports (2) 5K external monitors through its USB-C ports.

Yes - it only supports 16GB of RAM but it's been more than enough for my projects. You can configure it with up to 2 TB of SSD but if that's not enough, external USB-C / ThunderBolt are available.

But -- NOTHING is futureproof. YMMV

 

[stratos]

someone mentioned it before, no such thing as future proof now. Tech is moving on giant leaps.
Now I can still edit my 4K videos in my 2013 15in Mac book Pro without much issues. Try to get a decent processor I7, plenty of storage, a good card vid can be useful to render your creations.

 

[boone]

“Future Proof”... Funny term, that. Sounds like something you’d hear in an X Men movie. Short of fantasy, though, what you ask about doesn’t exist. And never will.

 

[Eric17]

You can view 4k video without a 4k monitor but it won't be running at the full resolution. You've not mentioned what processor you have on the DV7, it may well be capable of video editing and transcoding work but it will just take a very long time.

John

Hi john, it shows i have a

Intel i7-3610qm cpu@ 2.3ghz, 2301 mhz 4 core processor

Nvidia gt650m 2gb ddr5
8gig ddr3 ram
750gb 7200rpm hd