Which laptop for video editing

[Micro Watt]

Hi guys!

I need help deciding on which laptop to buy. The two contestants are:

1. HP 8540w:
Core i7-640M
nVidia Quadro FX 880M 1GB
15.6" Full HD Screen
8GB DDR3 1333Mhz
LightScribe Blue-Ray DVD ROM /+-RW ...
Webcam 2MP

2. Dell XPS L701x:
Core i7-740QM
nVidia GeForce GT 445M 3GB
17.3" HD+ WLED (1600 x 900)
6GB DDR3 1333MHz
8X DVD +-RW
No Webcam

Its most demanding tasks will be when using Pinnacle Studio 14 to make home movies.Otherwise, it is just using Word, Excel and browsing the internet. What I mainly need to know is, which of the two would be better for video encoding/editing

Thanks a million

 

[Ghosty Dog]

Specifying video processing as your main aim, the GeForce GT 445M appears to be the better option. The Quadro gpu is aimed more at 3d rendering.

NVIDIA Quadro FX 880M 1GB is a professional middle class graphics card for mobile workstations (about 15"). It is based on the GeForce GT 330M graphics card with slower clock rates and therefore is a DirectX 10.1 chip that is produced in 40nm.

Due to a special BIOS and professional drivers, the FX 880M should perform noticeably better than a 330M in professional applications (like CAD, DCC, Rendering). Another advantage for professional users are the certified drivers that should ensure a bug free experience with the most common professional applications. Futhermore, the Quadro FX drivers contain profiles for these applications to ensure the best settings (similar to the game profiles in GeForce cards).

full review here
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-Quadro-FX-880M.24735.0.html

Features of the NVIDIA GeForce GT 445M

A novelty of the GF104/106/108 chips is the support of Bitstream HD Audio (Blu-Ray) output via HDMI. Alike the Radeon HD 5730, the GT 445M can transfer Dolby True HD and DTS-HD bitstream-wise without quality loss to a HiFi receiver.

The GT445M offers the PureVideo HD technology for video decoding. The included Video Processor 4 (VP4) supports feature set C and therefore the GPU is able to fully decode MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 Part 2 (MPEG-4 ASP - e.g., DivX or Xvid), VC-1/WMV9, and H.264 (VLD, IDCT, Motion Compensation, and Deblocking). In our tests for example a 1080p H.264 encoded movie was playing fluently at a very low CPU utilization (about 1%). A 1080p Youtube Flash video stressed the CPU only at 4%.

Furthermore, the GPU is able to decode two 1080p streams simultaneously (e.g. for Blu-Ray Picture-in-Picture).

full review here
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-445M.35835.0.html

 

[herpaderp]

If you're looking to do lots of video editing, you should get a laptop with a new i7 2xxx processor. They're quite a lot faster than the previous generation i7s, and draw about the same amount of power, so you can't really go wrong with them.

I'd need to know what your budget is though before recommending something....

-Edit- Also, just so you know, the 640m is a dual core processor with hyperthreading, whereas the 740qm is a real quad core w/hyperthreading. That alone will make a huge difference when doing processor-intensive tasks like video editing. I'd have to say your two choices really aren't the best, one is a dual core with a slower (and specialized) graphics card, while the other one is decent, but you could get something newer for the same money.

 

[Micro Watt]

Yes I've seen the two reviews you've linked already. I am not sure which of the two processors will give me better performance in video editing. One has a higher frequency but is dual-core. THe other has a lower frequency but is a quad-core.

Any ideas?

thnx

 

[Arris]

Yes I've seen the two reviews you've linked already. I am not sure which of the two processors will give me better performance in video editing. One has a higher frequency but is dual-core. THe other has a lower frequency but is a quad-core.

Any ideas?

thnx

Depends on the the editing software. The big players all seem to take advantage of quad core. My friend who has a business in recording and editing of videos recently compared my i7 2600K quad core with his old Core2Duo.

Ok yesterday I did a little h264 testing on a friend of mines monster PC just to see how quick it really is. I was dumbstruck to be honest. It was awesome. Here are some results.

The original video was 1min 47 sec, Apple ProRes 422 (LT) and 1920x1080.


Tested two machines, see if you can guess which would be quicker.
System 1: Intel Core 2 Duo at 2.6GHz running Mac OSX and using MPEGStreamClip for MAC
System 2:Intel 4 Core with hyper threading (+ 4 virtual cores) at 3.4GHz and 4.6GHz running Windows 7 and MPEGStreamClip for PC

Video was encoded to 1920x1080 H264 20MBPS AAC 128K 100% quality single pass.

Results:
System 1: 7min 45sec
System 2: 2min 03sec (3.4GHz suggested clock speed)
System 2: 1min 38sec (4.6GHz over clocked)

Obviously there are architecture advantages to the i7 2600k/different OS/ram/mobo, i.e. many other advantages over the older Core2Quad but definitely would suggest the "slower" quad over the dual core for video editing.

 

[Ghosty Dog]

Yes I've seen the two reviews you've linked already. ...

Any ideas?

thnx

Yeah. Two ideas.

1/ Research the cpu's to a point you can make a comparison chart that is useful to you.
or
2/ Flip a coin.