Hi all,


I have come to the conclusion that I must upgrade my hardware if I am to successuly edit on a laptop. I have (as many people) always used PC's both at home and at work. Due to my needs I will need to edit on a laptop. Currently you can get some pretty impressive PC spec laptops (3,2ghz 2gb ram, 256 dedicated graphics etc etc) but I have been, recently, drawn to the g4 powerbook range (1.6ghz, 128 dedicated graohics etc etc).

My question is what do you guys use? Can anyone out there recommend a setup (laptop) they use for editing - especailly with High definition.

Thanks again for all your help.

Tristan

ooooh the ultimate debate - but its an easy choice.

Some would say Macs are over priced and u only paying for a lable. I work with both. The office i use a mac, at home a pc.

For you though - If u ewanna edit on a laptop buy a mac and get Final Cut Pro. - You know it will work, it will be stable and you'll be laughing.

You will need to buy an external drive. As macs now support firewire800 go that route, otnerwise firewire400 or usb2 - dont be tempted by a regualr usb drive. - It wont be fast eneough.

All in all - Even though there are some really nicely specced windows laptops out there tbey just are not good eneough. They are not designed to handle vide editing. MAcs on the other had - Well the G4 laptops were designed with Final Cut Pro in mind.

I am hoping to buy my own mac soon, oooh G5!! At home I'll have both a highend PC and a G5 - YAY!!
Here's a link for a place I bought my office mac from - they were ace and about hafway down this page there is a laptop bundle.
http://www.macdvd.co.uk/bundles.htm

Good luck

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Hey, thanks for taking the time to reply - much appreciated. Yes, it seems that in the editing world (especially with laptops) much points to the g4 powerbooks. They just seem to be far more geared up to my needs (i.e. the ability to edit on the move).

Thanks for your help on this one and for the link!

Tristan

Suddenly I feel very inadequate and not much of a man after checking that link irishmark. I love the way some of them are priced at "only £7,695" big ones. That's the equivalent of kicking sand in my face on a busy beach. I shall think of those macs as I fire up my PC at home tonight and wait the 5 minutes it takes to respond to any input.

Cheers

You'd be surprised your looking similair money for an equal spec PC...once you add the software and a decent edit card, decent monitors etc... It adds up very quickly.

To be fair though for someone who isnt too IT savvy for an out of the box edit solution Apple are better... but if your happy messing about inside a PC you have far more flexibility... (If a little less stability )

(just my opinion and I am PC biased!)

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Hah, this dicussion really is age old... I'd go with the mac laptop, it's made for final cut. I agree with Irish.

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how about when using Avid express?

ok, so heres a question...

which of these (roughly ish kind of ) equivalent beasts would be better (most stable/speediest)?

in the red corner...

Quad 2.5GHz Intel PowerMac G5, 2GB 533 DDR2 ECC SDRAM, 500GB Serial ATA - 7200rpm, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT 256MB SDRAM, AirPort Extreme + Bluetooth, Apple Keyboard & Mighty Mouse, Mac OS X, two 20" flat panel Apple Cinema Displays, One FireWire 800 port, Two FireWire 400 ports, Three USB 2.0 ports

and in the blue corner...

Dual 3.0Ghz Xeon FSB800 2MB Cache, 2GB ECC DDR400 RAM, one 74GB 10,000RPM Primary HD, one 400GB 7,200RPM Video Capture Disc, 256Mb PCI-Express NVidia Quadro FX 3400, Avid Cert 64bit Firewire Card, Standard Keyboard, Optical Mouse, two 19" Formac Gallery 1900 Oxygen Xtreme-3 TFT monitors, Windows XP Pro... (Yes, i've looked at Red Sub )

my guess is the PC - although that is the pricier option...


edit:

actually, may lower the graphics card on the PC - 128Mb PCI-Express NVidia Quadro 1400... makes that package £ 3878.89 (still alot tho!)

What are the prices?

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Mac: £4,266.99 (although apparently i can get a discount through my day job...)
PC: £ 4628.00

both prices including VAT