laptop

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laptop

Postby aznfs » Tue Jul 06, 2004 9:34 pm

ok just for starters i dont kno where the best place to stick this thread is and i has relativly nothing to do with video hardware....

ok

i want to get a laptop but i have the restrictions of the laptop not being too over priced and has to be able to handle all of my current programs ... vegas 4/5 + DVD , after effects, sound forge and acid.... hmmmm is there any way to cool down a laptop when it is rendering stuff.... i need i had my brother's laptop on my... lap... and it was BURNING

help :?
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Postby KirinRiotCrash » Tue Jul 06, 2004 10:17 pm

I work on a laptop, too, and yes it burns up when it's exporting videos and doing heavy stuff (even playing graphics intensive games like UT2004). My iPod also feels like a Hot-Pocket if I choose to export my video to my iPod when used as a FW400 drive.

One thing that I have always done was elevate the laptop using a thick book (like a dictionary) or a medium sized box that programs are packaged in (in my case, it's my iLife 04 box) ... something big enough to raise it but small enough so that air flows underneath the laptop where it's usually hot, usually where the location of the hard drive and processor is. (On my iBook, my hard drive where my left palm rests and the processor is where the F5 and F6 keys are at so there's some space underneath there)

The heat is normal on some laptops because they are designed to dissipate heat through the enclosure, even though a fan is present. It doesn't even have to be overclocked to feel hot! Of course, manufacturers design laptops differently. On a personal note, I have never used a PC laptop ... I have used a lot of PC desktops but never use a PC laptop on a daily basis so my only laptop experience are with iBooks and Powerbooks.

Since you're looking for a laptop, I'll make a few suggestions.

Considering the software you have (assuming you have enough licenses to install them on a second machine otherwise, you need to do some license transfers), I would recommend an Alienware laptop. I heard they're really good when it comes to PC laptops and quite extensible (even the GPU can be replaced which is really awesome!).

Also, since you're doing video editing, I recommend that you get a laptop with a 5400 or 7200 rpm hard drive as laptop hard drives can be rather difficult to upgrade in the future vs. a hard drive for a desktop machine.

Additionally, if you plan on getting an external hard drive for your laptop, get a laptop with a FireWire 800 port (or IEEE 1394b) ... the bandwidth of a FW800 drive is much faster than that of FW400 or USB2.0 (say roughly around ATA-100 speeds).

Hope some of that makes sense. Good luck in shopping for a new laptop.
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Postby madmag9999 » Tue Jul 06, 2004 10:40 pm

why use a laptop to edit? laptops are not as good as desktops for obvious reaons. the only real reason to want a laptop is to write things on a plane or something. i dont see a reason to use it at home for editing. but if you must have one then get one. but you will have to dish out $1500+ on it to have it do what you want. there are a few things you can do to help cool your laptop, i know they get quite hot from experiance. my friends laptop overheats while converting dvd to xvid. to cool it you could get one of the cooling stands that has fans in it and you stick your laptop on it and it sucks the heat away. thats the only way i see to do it. but yea if you want to edit on a laptop look at dishing out $1500 - $3000 on it.
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Postby Akai Rurouni » Tue Jul 06, 2004 11:16 pm

This may or may not help, but I have an HP Pavillion ze4610. It cost < $1000 (even less for me because of rebates at the time), but it's power is less than impressive. I'm not saying it's bad - I like it quite a bit, and it was a good deal for the price. I'm just starting with video editing, so I can't really comment on how well the various Adobe software and such perform.

DVD Decrypter, DGIndex (formerly DVD2AVI), VirtualDubMod, EAC, and Audacity seem to work fine.
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Postby TaranT » Wed Jul 07, 2004 1:15 am

This is the cooling pad that I'm using:
http://www.targus.com/us/product_details.asp?sku=PA248U

It's sold at CompUSA and Best Buy for $30. I don't do rendering with my laptop, but with this pad, and after a few hours of Web browsing, the bottom of the machine is as cool as when it's turned off. It's super quiet, too.

One thing I looked for was a pad that exhausted air out of a slot in the back of the pad; i.e. towards the rear of the machine. I saw a pad that blew air out the bottom which is kind of useless if you're trying to use it on your lap or a carpet or sofa.

All of the cooling pads that I saw were powered off a USB port so expect some battery drain.
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Postby aznfs » Wed Jul 07, 2004 1:20 am

KirinRiotCrash wrote:I work on a laptop, too, and yes it burns up when it's exporting videos and doing heavy stuff (even playing graphics intensive games like UT2004). My iPod also feels like a Hot-Pocket if I choose to export my video to my iPod when used as a FW400 drive.

One thing that I have always done was elevate the laptop using a thick book (like a dictionary) or a medium sized box that programs are packaged in (in my case, it's my iLife 04 box) ... something big enough to raise it but small enough so that air flows underneath the laptop where it's usually hot, usually where the location of the hard drive and processor is. (On my iBook, my hard drive where my left palm rests and the processor is where the F5 and F6 keys are at so there's some space underneath there)

The heat is normal on some laptops because they are designed to dissipate heat through the enclosure, even though a fan is present. It doesn't even have to be overclocked to feel hot! Of course, manufacturers design laptops differently. On a personal note, I have never used a PC laptop ... I have used a lot of PC desktops but never use a PC laptop on a daily basis so my only laptop experience are with iBooks and Powerbooks.

Since you're looking for a laptop, I'll make a few suggestions.

Considering the software you have (assuming you have enough licenses to install them on a second machine otherwise, you need to do some license transfers), I would recommend an Alienware laptop. I heard they're really good when it comes to PC laptops and quite extensible (even the GPU can be replaced which is really awesome!).

Also, since you're doing video editing, I recommend that you get a laptop with a 5400 or 7200 rpm hard drive as laptop hard drives can be rather difficult to upgrade in the future vs. a hard drive for a desktop machine.

Additionally, if you plan on getting an external hard drive for your laptop, get a laptop with a FireWire 800 port (or IEEE 1394b) ... the bandwidth of a FW800 drive is much faster than that of FW400 or USB2.0 (say roughly around ATA-100 speeds).

Hope some of that makes sense. Good luck in shopping for a new laptop.


ok technically im going to buy vegas 5+DVD and after effects for the laptop i am currently using vegas 4 for my desktop... when i get the programs though ill prolly transfer the license of v4 to my laptop and have the more powerful 5+DVD on my desktop

i also have an external hard drive(which hold most if not all of my dv/huffyuv source) and i run around with that is usb 2.0 and firewire... i cant live without a computer that doesnt have a firewire... dunno im just paranoid

madmag999 wrote:why use a laptop to edit? laptops are not as good as desktops for obvious reaons. the only real reason to want a laptop is to write things on a plane or something. i dont see a reason to use it at home for editing. but if you must have one then get one.


the laptop is actually a computer i have when ill be running around home-->UCR-->friend's places. i want the laptop to do the normal functions and if i get bored in class.... start making a pointless AMV to pass time :lol: the part of the laptop being able to hold and edit video is there for my own personal (and dumb) reason :roll:

anyone have any other suggestions for parts? oh yeah i also dont want to be carrying around a suitcase size laptop.... MODERATION
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Postby madmag9999 » Wed Jul 07, 2004 2:21 am

well for the parts just do with what you would for a desktop...
this one has nice featers and good reviews. if you want to go intel (but i dont see why you would) then this would be a decent choice. both of these have quite shitty graphix cards, but are you seriously planning on gameing on a laptop. also id suggest getting a cooling pad if your going to edit video.
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Postby aznfs » Wed Jul 07, 2004 2:32 am

madmag9999 wrote:well for the parts just do with what you would for a desktop...
this one has nice featers and good reviews. if you want to go intel (but i dont see why you would) then this would be a decent choice. both of these have quite shitty graphix cards, but are you seriously planning on gameing on a laptop. also id suggest getting a cooling pad if your going to edit video.


i doubt i would even do any games on a laptop... maybe some space cadet pinball or something :lol:
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Postby DaNuKa_SAN » Wed Jul 07, 2004 11:20 pm

well geming sorta comes with the territory^^'
u cant do some good video editing unless u have good graphic specs...u see were im gettin to here rite?

try going for some of those new ATI mobility ranges...they come out cheaper than Nvidia
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Postby aznfs » Thu Jul 08, 2004 12:30 am

DaNuKa_SAN wrote:well geming sorta comes with the territory^^'
u cant do some good video editing unless u have good graphic specs...u see were im gettin to here rite?

try going for some of those new ATI mobility ranges...they come out cheaper than Nvidia


im looking into the mobile ATI's rite now
doesnt matter too much bout the video specs hey i made videos in huffyuv and dv on a computer that ran halflife at like 8fps... screw it ill just play games using SPRITES only :lol:
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Postby madmag9999 » Thu Jul 08, 2004 1:57 am

yea sure a good vid card helps in editing. but it is not as important as havenig a good cpu and lots of ram. the vid card will not dramacticly increase the rendering time. unless you running some 8mb voodo or something :P
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Postby madmag9999 » Thu Jul 08, 2004 2:07 am

sorry bout the duble post but i was just thinking about battery life. if you get such a high end laptop and want to render on it and run the heat pad off of its power i highly dought the battery will last even an hour. so unless you plan on having it plugged in or haveing extrabatteries this is a huge problem.
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Re: laptop

Postby dwchang » Thu Jul 08, 2004 11:20 am

aznfs wrote:ok just for starters i dont kno where the best place to stick this thread is and i has relativly nothing to do with video hardware....

ok

i want to get a laptop but i have the restrictions of the laptop not being too over priced and has to be able to handle all of my current programs ... vegas 4/5 + DVD , after effects, sound forge and acid.... hmmmm is there any way to cool down a laptop when it is rendering stuff.... i need i had my brother's laptop on my... lap... and it was BURNING

help :?


I recommend buying a Compaq/HP "R3000Z." I can't seem to get the link to work, but just go to Compaq's site and go to "notebooks" and you'll see it.

It's an Athlon-64 based laptop with decent graphics, plenty of memory, HD space and so on. I'd debateably say it's more powerful than 80% of the computers most .org folks use to edit with (those being desktops too).

Since it's an Athlon-64, I don't imagine you'll have much trouble in terms of speed and so on, so that should help with the editing and so on. I just bought one for my ex-girlfriend (don't ask >_>) and although it's a bit bulky (7 lbs compared to thin-and-lights which are 5...although I don't recommend editing with a thin-and-light), it's really powerful. The stigma that laptops are "weak" for gaming/editing is no longer true.

What's best is you can probably make a good "R3000Z" set-up for under $1,200 and that's a steal considering most non-64 bit laptops are around that price.

Anyway, that's my two cents.
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Postby TaranT » Thu Jul 08, 2004 11:44 am

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Postby dwchang » Thu Jul 08, 2004 12:20 pm

TaranT wrote:Review of the Compaq R3000Z

eMachines also has an Athlon 64 laptop.


Yeah i knew about the e-machines laptop, but

A) I dislike E-machines
B) It only comes with Windows XP Home Edition.

It looks like that review is pretty positive. He had gripes with the graphics card, but well...a Geforce 4 is pretty good for a laptop and for editing, it wouldn't matter.

I do think a valid complaint is that the HD is 4200 RPM and I didn't know that, but for my ex, it's alright since she doesn't edit and so on ;).

He also points out the weight thing which I mentioned, but all "Desktop Replacements" weigh that much. You can't get a powerful machine unless it's fairly bulky. I have a thin-and-light, but I sure as hell can't do much with it. However, I bought it more for going to classes and so on (the mobile aspected).

Thanks for the links!
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