dissapointing i7 laptop experience

[Lars Siden]

At least the Dell XPS Studio 16 has a RGBLED LCD as option, full HD, 1900x1200

// Lazze

[Randall Leong]

Originally Posted by Craig Coston

What resolution are you running your laptop at? I am looking into purchasing one but was unsure whether I can get around the minimum resolution requirements. I was thinking I could at least "trick" CS5 into installing if I hook up an external monitor and use it as my primary while I install.

Technically, CS5 has a minimum screen resolution requirement of 1280x900.

[Andrew Clark]

Originally Posted by Lars Siden

At least the Dell XPS Studio 16 has a RGBLED LCD as option, full HD, 1900x1200

// Lazze

Looking at the Dell site, the specs for the XPS Studio 16 shows 1920x1080 for the resolution. However, they do offer a 1920x1200 display but .... it's in their M6500 series laptops ... Dell Precision M6500 & M6500 Covet Mobile Workstation | Dell

Also, Sager offers one as well, though it's not a LED LCD display ... custom gaming laptops - Welcome to Sager Notebooks

[Robert Baynosa]

Originally Posted by Andrew Clark

Looking at the Dell site, the specs for the XPS Studio 16 shows 1920x1080 for the resolution. However, they do offer a 1920x1200 display but .... it's in their M6500 series laptops ... Dell Precision M6500 & M6500 Covet Mobile Workstation | Dell

Also, Sager offers one as well, though it's not a LED LCD display ... custom gaming laptops - Welcome to Sager Notebooks

that sager is huge. its as powerful as a desktop though.

maybe you would wanna get what i got instead. its the sager 8690. mine has the i7 720qm, 4gig 1333mhz RAM, 280m gtx gpu, full hd 1920x1080 led screen, 500 gig hdd, bluray.
the screen is gorgeous but wont give you as many colors as an rgb. for my work on 720p and a few 1080p videos, the i7 720 is adequate but i would suggest you get at least an i7 840qm. the 280m will acelerate hd video playback and effects if you apply the primiere nvidia gpu hack. also get an ssd or fast hdd as premiere accesses the disk a lot.
a system like that would come out to around 1700-1800USD with an ssd. not bad at all. for the power you get. just be sure to get the nvidia version since cs5 doesnt support acceleration via ATI cards.

[Lars Siden]

1920x1080 is correct, I'm always mixing up the numbers. 1920x1080 is true HD and Widescreen.

I stand corrected :-)

// Lasse

[Bob Krieger]

I am a computer/technology teacher and just attended the ISTE 2010 convention/conference in Denver last week. Adobe and a big booth there as did Dell and a number of other manufacturers. The conference is geared toward teachers who use technology (any technology) in their classrooms and is a big draw each year. Just think NAB for geek teachers. (I am one, so I can say that! ;) )

Adobe showed their CS5 Production Suite there using a MacPro laptop. The footage they used was native RED. It sailed through the demo. (I realize, though, that demos are just that. A demo of what MAY be possible.)

Dell was really marketing their netbooks to schools, but I asked a few of their reps about CS% on a laptop and their recommendation was NOT Alienware, but Precision workstations. We went through a few rounds of, no it's not possible, to yes, it is possible.

I used my wiles as a teacher who makes the final decision, to get the two together and the Adobe guys installed Premiere Pro CS5 on the lone Dell Precision laptop. It ran 64 bit Win 7, with 6GB of RAM and had a simple 250GB 7200 RPM single HD. It also had an nVidia 1800m video card. The system worked realitively nicely. We had no external RAID (G-RAID, or other device for video), nor was I able to "tweak" the list of Mercury GPU's to add the 1800M. I had shott a number of scenes using my Canon T2i at 1080 mode and we directly copied them to the Precision using the built-in SDHC port.

Once we set the resolution at playback on the device to its minimum, I was able to edit as normal and produce, without undue hiccups, a final 5 minute piece. (Basically, I just cut and pasted a bunch of shots; added random transitions, generated an AVI movie and played it back.

It wasn't bad at all! I can't see editing a feature with this setup, but for newsgathering, short and quickie edits, even a 7 minute film for the 48 hour Film Project, yes I can see it being very useful!

My observations... your mileage will vary... Enjoy!

[Andrew Clark]

Originally Posted by Robert Baynosa

that sager is huge. its as powerful as a desktop though.

maybe you would wanna get what i got instead. its the sager 8690. mine has the i7 720qm, 4gig 1333mhz RAM, 280m gtx gpu, full hd 1920x1080 led screen, 500 gig hdd, bluray.
the screen is gorgeous but wont give you as many colors as an rgb. for my work on 720p and a few 1080p videos, the i7 720 is adequate but i would suggest you get at least an i7 840qm. the 280m will acelerate hd video playback and effects if you apply the primiere nvidia gpu hack. also get an ssd or fast hdd as premiere accesses the disk a lot.
a system like that would come out to around 1700-1800USD with an ssd. not bad at all. for the power you get. just be sure to get the nvidia version since cs5 doesnt support acceleration via ATI cards.

That seems like a rockin' little 15" Sager you got there. A 15" w/1920x1080 resolution is a bit tricky to find in a laptop....but a definite must if one is to enjoy the full beauty of BluRay's!! Will definitely keep that one in mind.

Thanks Robert.

[Andrew Clark]

Originally Posted by Bob Krieger

...Adobe showed their CS5 Production Suite there using a MacPro laptop. The footage they used was native RED. It sailed through the demo. (I realize, though, that demos are just that. A demo of what MAY be possible.)

** Hmmm....I wonder if they "tweaked/hacked" the GPU in the MBP?!

Originally Posted by Bob Krieger

...Once we set the resolution at playback on the device to its minimum, I was able to edit as normal and produce, without undue hiccups, a final 5 minute piece. (Basically, I just cut and pasted a bunch of shots; added random transitions, generated an AVI movie and played it back.

** Thanks for your observations on this; though I'm curious to find out how a fully loaded (and tweaked) M6500 would perform utilizing CS5 PPro.

[Craig Coston]

Originally Posted by Randall Leong

Technically, CS5 has a minimum screen resolution requirement of 1280x900.

I'm asking for real world experience. Can you get around that spec by installing while connected to an external monitor, and if so, will CS5 launch once the monitor is set back to the laptop's LCD and at 1366x768. That's what I want to know. I don't have a laptop to try it on. My current one doesn't meet minimum specs for CPU, RAM, etc, so I can't even test the resolution issue.

[Robert Baynosa]

Originally Posted by Andrew Clark

That seems like a rockin' little 15" Sager you got there. A 15" w/1920x1080 resolution is a bit tricky to find in a laptop....but a definite must if one is to enjoy the full beauty of BluRay's!! Will definitely keep that one in mind.

Thanks Robert.

sagers are not usually available thru retail. but this is the best place to buy them:

Gaming Laptops - XOTIC PC - Gaming Notebooks - Custom Laptops - Custom Notebooks

also one of the best in customer service. although it is sold as a gaming laptop, the sager 8690 is as close as youll get to a portable workstation imho. my only regret is that i should have gooten the 820qm cpu instead.
they did just come out with the sager 9285 which is a 17inch notebook. it has the new nvidia 480m gtx gpu, 1200p HD screen, uses the i7-980x desktop cpu and can house 3 hdd/ssd's in many raid configs. if youre looking for a real workstation this is it. it is much bigger/heavier than the 8690 though and costlier at around 3500usd or more. but check it out if you truly want a beast.

[Robert Baynosa]

my bad. you posted about the 9285 a few posts ago :D

[Mike Dulay]

Originally Posted by Guillermo Ibanez

In fact, I've been trying Vegas trial and it runs smoothly on my laptop, it's even capable of playing HD clips with a few effects on real-time, i was pleasantly surprised.
I don't understand how the performance can be so different! This might mean that I will be moving to Vegas altogether. It's a shame because I like premiere and the integration with AFX but can't afford to be struggling with the software everyday.

What did you end up doing in terms of NLE and Adobe After Effects? I'm looking at an off-the-shelf Sony laptop with a i7 740QM (1.78Ghz) and am wondering if this might be good enough to run After Effects.

[Robert Baynosa]

Originally Posted by Mike Dulay

What did you end up doing in terms of NLE and Adobe After Effects? I'm looking at an off-the-shelf Sony laptop with a i7 740QM (1.78Ghz) and am wondering if this might be good enough to run After Effects.

i dont use it extensively but have played around with AE CS5 a bit. id say you would need at least an 840qm and a fast mobile CUDA gpu to even have a chance of rendering your previews in realtime.