Suggestions on a new laptop PC.

[Steve LaBranche]

I'm kinda bummed that my 11 year old Dell laptop running Windows XP can't run DJI Assistant 2.

These days with smart phones and tablets with bluetooth keyboards I just haven't felt the need to update my laptop as I rarely use it.

I went online with the Dell and Googled, "Upgrade my PC" using Internet Explorer and Chrome browser's. The sites I went too either couldn't display content properly or wouldn't load at all. Next I tried to update my browsers but get message saying my operating system, Win XP, is out of date. Need Windows 7 or greater. Great I'm stuck in a catch 22 situation. So it looks like I'm shopping for a new laptop PC.

I'm not looking to spend much as only want to connect to my Mavic 2 Pro to access the larger video files, that my tablet can't and view .DAT & .TXT log files. I saw a guy using Litchi so I'm interested in that too.

I'm open to suggestions on a new laptop pc or reviving my old Del.

Thanks... Steve

 

[THE CYBORG]

You could always try the Linux operating system, it may well revitalise that old laptop.
Nothing lost as its free and you could install it so you can dual boot with your existing XP.

Probably won’t help with DJI assistant, I don't think they do a Linux version (yet)

 

[deleted member 877]

I'm kinda bummed that my 11 year old Dell laptop running Windows XP can't run DJI Assistant 2.

These days with smart phones and tablets with bluetooth keyboards I just haven't felt the need to update my laptop as I rarely use it.

I went online with the Dell and Googled, "Upgrade my PC" using Internet Explorer and Chrome browser's. The sites I went too either couldn't display content properly or wouldn't load at all. Next I tried to update my browsers but get message saying my operating system, Win XP, is out of date. Need Windows 7 or greater. Great I'm stuck in a catch 22 situation. So it looks like I'm shopping for a new laptop PC.

I'm not looking to spend much as only want to connect to my Mavic 2 Pro to access the larger video files, that my tablet can't and view .DAT & .TXT log files. I saw a guy using Litchi so I'm interested in that too.

I'm open to suggestions on a new laptop pc or reviving my old Del.

Thanks... Steve

It's amazing how the old DELL laptops just keep going and going - I also have one about the same age running XP that won't die. But seriously, there are a ton of reasons why you should upgrade to something more current, not least the fact the Windows XP is no longer supported by Microsoft.

In terms of viewing your Drone captured videos you'll struggle using anything less than an Intel i5 with 8GM RAM running Windows 10 - strongly suggest an Intel i7 especially if your videos are 4K. I have an HP Laptop with an AMD processor (Intel i3 equivalent) and it's rubbish even when trying to look at 1080p resolution videos.

If you don't need to view your videos on the new Laptop then anything (like my cheap one) running Windows 10 (all the new ones come with Windows 10) will suffice.

 

[kilomikebravo]

I'm open to suggestions on a new laptop pc

Steve: As Pete said, an i5 is the absolute minimum CPU and like Pete, I HIGHLY recommend an i7 with as much memory as you can get. Add to that a dedicated nVidia graphics chip as integrated Intel graphics chips won't cut it. Finally, a large SSD, preferably a notebook that supports M.2 drives (which are ten times faster than standard SATA SSD's.)

That said, for editing purposes and especially 4k editing, any laptop is going to struggle and the best platform is a dedicated desktop PC or Mac with a real graphics card. (GTX-1070 or better) My previous machine was an i7, 16gb of RAM, with an nVidia GTX-970 and it couldn't edit 4k clips without stumbling so that's why I suggest a desktop confuser over a notebook as you simply can't get the horsepower you'll need in a laptop. I also have a MS SurfaceBook that's an i7, 16gb of memory, fast SSD, and an nVidia graphics chip. It's a powerful little box but it's not up to the task of editing 4k footage.

 

[deleted member 877]

@kilomikebravo gives very good advice. It's worth keeping in mind that the processing power (both CPU and Video) required to edit videos is a lot more than for simply viewing videos. Furthermore, the price of a beefed up gaming Laptop with the kind of grunt to adequately handle video editing is going to be about three times that of an equivalent desktop/tower machine.

 

[kilomikebravo]

Excellent point, Pete. I forgot about the high-end gaming laptops but I would bet a fair chunk of change that even very few of those could edit 4k/10-bit footage like a powerful desktop.