Best Laptop Spec for Avid, Adobe etc.

Workingtitle

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Hi there,

Since I had such great advice on building a new PC last year, thought I would return for your expert guidance on building a laptop.

I'm after something that will run the latest version of Avid and Adobe CC. I really don't want a MacBook Pro! I've found a fairly decent site here in the UK called "PC Specialist" who build computers and laptops from the ground up.

At the minute I have been looking at their 17.3 inch Vortex IV model, with a few choice upgrades such as 16GB RAM, nVidia Quadro K1100 video card and a 250GB SSD system drive and additional 500GB SSD. Budget is £1600-£1700, and I already own a copy of Windows 8 Pro which I will transferring to this system.

PCSPECIALIST - VortexIV 17 Laptops, VortexIV 17 Gaming Laptops, Build Your Own VortexIV 17 Laptop


  1. Given the choice, should I go for 16GB of RAM and an I7 4910MQ processor, or go for the lower spec I7 4710MQ processor and use the money saved to up the RAM to 32GB?
  2. Will the motherboard/chipset with this be OK? Or do they save money by using rubbish components here?
  3. Does anyone else have any better suggestions in that budget range? I'm not adverse to building my own, I have built PCs in the past.
Thanks for you help in advance guys. :)


Chris
 
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Thanks for the info, I'll give them a try.

In terms of the processor / RAM query, whats best in terms of out and out computational performance for rendering graphics etc?

Thanks
 
Stick with the i7 processor, and go with 16GB of RAM to stay within budget. Eurocom laptops are easy to upgrade later so if you actually needed 32GB at some point then you could do so.
 
Thanks PP.

One further question. Having looked a little further into it, another programme I want to run is DaVinci Resolve, which relies on a high number of CUDA cores or OpenCL.

Will the nVidia Quadro K1100m be suitable for this, or should I consider compromising with a GTX card to get the largest number of CUDA cores? Or will this compromise rendering integrity in Avid and Adobe too much?
 
For Resolve, there isn't much information I could quickly find and if it's anything like Vegas Pro (which I have experience in) the only thing the GPU will render is visual effects. For basic video rendering and editing it all comes down to the CPU. I could be wrong though, but I haven't found a video editing program that utilizes GPU for basic processing and rendering.

As for Adobe, that's going to be the same way in Premier, and the Quadro would be fine for Photoshop.

Just know that the K1100m is a lower end chip but has specialized drivers to work with such programs so your milage may vary.
 
Computer option C on page 21 has mobile units listed on a laptop but they are several versions highers.

Looking at the GPU setup, it actually does more processing on the GPU than any other program. Really seems like it requires a ton of horsepower if you plan on touching 4K. Any mobile variant is going to lag behind compared to a desktop chip.
 
OK thanks. In an ideal world I would have my desktop with the required cards etc but am planning on travelling next year, so need to have something more portable sadly.

I shall have to think long and hard about this.

Thanks again PP, appreciate your help as always.
 
Yea either way going with a laptop you're going to kinda be screwed. Laptop GPUs are weak compared to the desktop equivalent. If you had more budget I'd tell you to get a Geforce and Quadro put into the same laptop.
 
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