What laptop have you got?

[JonnyBenson]

Hi

In my previous thread ( What's the best video editing software for windows? ) I asked about editing software because I'd just bought myself a new laptop which I thought would be good enough to edit 4K etc. To my surprise having spent £900 on a ASUS ZenBook UX530, it 'still' isn't good enough.

So what do you all own? Or what do you suggest I buy? I could probably stretch to around £1300.

I've had replies suggesting the specs that I need and I've read reviews, but i'd like to know exactly what works for you.

Cheers

 

[Haloweenhamster]

Just looked at the specs of that laptop and it should be easily good enough
my only guess at why it wouldn't be would be the thickness
It's 3.5ghz boost it can probably only be used every so often due to heat dissipation, if it was a normal form factor laptop with a bigger heatsink and a fan that would do it with headroom

 

[beach_Dr]

I think you may struggle with any laptop do do realtime editing in 4k. Unless you have a BIG budget. I know DaVinci Resolve uses graphics card processing and recommends linked multiple graphics cards... I assume other software similar.

I have an older ASUS FX550J (Nvidia GTX950M 2GB) which plays 4K without any problems, but for editing I create 720p proxy files for very smooth editing. On Resolve even the 1080p sometimes jumps a little when applying effects. (normally get 20-25fps during editing on 1080 files)

 

[JonnyBenson]

Just looked at the specs of that laptop and it should be easily good enough
my only guess at why it wouldn't be would be the thickness
It's 3.5ghz boost it can probably only be used every so often due to heat dissipation, if it was a normal form factor laptop with a bigger heatsink and a fan that would do it with headroom

When I play back its fine, but everytime I cut or add a clip its really choppy and almost impossible to edit.

 

[JonnyBenson]

I think you may struggle with any laptop do do realtime editing in 4k. Unless you have a BIG budget. I know DaVinci Resolve uses graphics card processing and recommends linked multiple graphics cards... I assume other software similar.

I have an older ASUS FX550J (Nvidia GTX950M 2GB) which plays 4K without any problems, but for editing I create 720p proxy files for very smooth editing. On Resolve even the 1080p sometimes jumps a little when applying effects. (normally get 20-25fps during editing on 1080 files)

I'm a complete newbie at this editing lark and had hoped to just take the files from the mavic and put them directly in DaVinci Resolve (free version) and edit. I know nothing about creating proxy files.

I tried 4K & 2.7K but its really, really choppy. So I now film in 1080. Could it be because i'm adding many different files from the mavic to cut/edit together? At the moment I tend to film between 2 & 3min clips rather than record lets say a 20min film and cut that.

 

[illegalpantheon]

In my experience a desktop is preferred. Heat and throttling. Someone I know who does photo editing on a professional basis struggled with multiple laptops before throwing in the towel and getting a decent desktop. She simply didn't want to work stuck at a desk.
I use cyberlink on an i5 and can get what I want with 4k video. Especially if I let it build the shadow files which are the same as the proxy files beach refers to.

 

[beach_Dr]

I'm a complete newbie at this editing lark and had hoped to just take the files from the mavic and put them directly in DaVinci Resolve (free version) and edit. I know nothing about creating proxy files.

I tried 4K & 2.7K but its really, really choppy. So I now film in 1080. Could it be because i'm adding many different files from the mavic to cut/edit together? At the moment I tend to film between 2 & 3min clips rather than record lets say a 20min film and cut that.

To create proxy files in Resolve, in media tab, right click on clip and select generate optimized media
The details of optimized media (resolution, storage location) can be set in preferences.
Any edits you do on the low res file will be applied to 4K/2.7k file when you produce.
On resolve free version you can only output 1080 files.
Can still edit 4K and get lossless cropping etc, but need paid version to output in 4k

 

[JonnyBenson]

To create proxy files in Resolve, in media tab, right click on clip and select generate optimized media
The details of optimized media (resolution, storage location) can be set in preferences.
Any edits you do on the low res file will be applied to 4K/2.7k file when you produce.
On resolve free version you can only output 1080 files.
Can still edit 4K and get lossless cropping etc, but need paid version to output in 4k

Thanks, i'll look into that.

 

[dport177]

Appreciate the insight from this thread. Question though as I have an Mavic Pro Platinum on order. I don't need to edit in 4k. Editing in 1080 is fine for me. I DO want to output in 4k though as I have a Samsung 4k tv and would like to view my videos on that device.

If i edit in "proxy" as you state, does this greatly change the computer hardware requirements needed to properly edit? Or do I still need to get a computer capable of the 4K requirements noted on many articles? Apologies for the elementary question.

Thank you.

 

[beach_Dr]

Appreciate the insight from this thread. Question though as I have an Mavic Pro Platinum on order. I don't need to edit in 4k. Editing in 1080 is fine for me. I DO want to output in 4k though as I have a Samsung 4k tv and would like to view my videos on that device.

If i edit in "proxy" as you state, does this greatly change the computer hardware requirements needed to properly edit? Or do I still need to get a computer capable of the 4K requirements noted on many articles? Apologies for the elementary question.

Thank you.

Editing in "proxy" will let you do everything you need, you can drop the proxy resolution to match your PC (I sometimes use 720p proxy files). If outputting in 4k vs 1080 you'll find the final rendering time may be significantly increased if your computer lacks grunt. That may not be a problem for you, depending on how much you need to output. Put everything in cue and render/output it overnight?

 

[Kilrah]

Proxies speed up the actual work where you put things together which is great, but if specs are low it will "just" take a lot of time to create the proxy files, then another lot of time to create the full resolution output.

 

[enohp15]

I have an Alienware laptop with an Nvidia 970M video card and 16Gb ram. Handles all my video editing just fine. It was close to $3500 tho. So I guess it’s in a different league.

 

[unexpanded]

Mine is MSI GT72VR with 16 gigs of RAM, i7 6700hq and Nvidia 1070, 0 issues with rendering 4k.

 

[gnirtS]

Alienware 15" R3 (i7-6700HQ, Geforce 1060, 16gb ram, 1 x 1 TB SSD, 1 x 256gb SSD and 1 x 1TB convention HDD).

Absolutely no issue editing 4k in Premiere on it. Lightroom runs like a dog but thats a well known "feature" of lightroom as opposed to the system.

 

[JonnyBenson]

Looks like i'll have to spend big money if i really want to make a go of it [emoji17]

 

[princeofthehouse]

johnny what editing software you using?
may have skimmed over it
really though you should get a proper desktop to do editing, nice beefy graphic card and processor.
if you want I can even do the editing for you if you like.

 

[gnirtS]

A desktop will yield far better value for money for performance vs cost so consider that if you don't specifically NEED a laptop.
You can probably get a decent setup for half the laptop costs.

I live abroad most of the time and travel a lot so a desktop for me isn't practical, hence the high end laptop.

 

[JonnyBenson]

johnny what editing software you using?
may have skimmed over it
really though you should get a proper desktop to do editing, nice beefy graphic card and processor.
if you want I can even do the editing for you if you like.

As i'm only just starting out i'm using the free version of DaVinci Resolve.

 

[JonnyBenson]

A desktop will yield far better value for money for performance vs cost so consider that if you don't specifically NEED a laptop.
You can probably get a decent setup for half the laptop costs.

I live abroad most of the time and travel a lot so a desktop for me isn't practical, hence the high end laptop.

I did think of a desktop, but not really convenient for me.

 

[tcope]

This is an older thread but has some recent responses. The laptop you mentioned has many different options. I'm not sure what you bought.

I'd say you'd need an i7 CPU with around 12GB of RAM. However, more importantly, I'd say that you'd need to have an SSD, period. Without an SSD, 4k editing is painful regardless of the rest of the setup.