Desktop/Laptop Brands for NLE??

[Lee Mullen]

Can you advise what brands other than Dell that have reputable PC's for editing full HD (AVCHD, MXF) with at least 32GB RAM etc and a nice 24" monitor??

[Chris Hurd]

I know that Adobe endorses HP, because they were using HP systems at a CS6 demo I attended last May at their company headquarters in San Jose. There are at least three HP machines that can handle CS6; one each in a desktop, an all-in-one and a laptop. They are:

The HP Z820 Workstation: HP Z820 Workstation | 16-core Dual Processor Xeon Workstation

The Z1 All-In-One (27" screen): HP Z1 All In One Workstation PC | Powerful 27 Inch AIO Computer

The HP EliteBook 8770w (17" screen): 8770w Mobile Workstation Laptop With Dedicated Video Memory | HP

I had a half-day hands-on with a fully loaded Z1 and found it to be more than adequate for all the major CS6 apps. Hope this helps,

[Kyle Root]

If you're not going to build one yourself, you can go with a custom builder like Puget Systems.

Out of all the custom builders I've looked at in the past, they seemed to have the most straightforward options to me.

I almost used them last year, until I decided to try and do it on my own. Which I did, with great success. As long as you do a little research and homework, it's easy to save a lot of money doing it yourself for a powerhouse system in my experience.

[Harm Millaard]

I agree with both Chris and Kyle.

The HP Z820 is a great machine and a custom builder can get you even more bang-for-the-buck, because they build a system specifically tuned to your needs. In addition to Puget, I would like to recommend ADK Video Editing who have a solid reputation, both in terms of the build and in after sales service. Contact Eric Bowen.

However, the tier 1 brand names like HP and Dell have some drawbacks. They are attractively priced machines if you stay with the standard configuration. As soon as you change any of the specs from standard to something better suited for your needs, you better pull out a very thick wallet.

Recently I build a monster system myself and while it was very expensive at around € 7.5K, the HP Z820 with similar performance would come out close to € 25-30K.

If you are interested in this lengthy article, look here: Intro Part 1

[Al Bergstein]

Originally Posted by Jalan Salur

Can you advise what brands other than Dell that have reputable PC's for editing full HD (AVCHD, MXF) with at least 32GB RAM etc and a nice 24" monitor??

I'm using a Lenovo laptop that has quite good specs. The 520 series and up can do the job, and have a docking station that allows two DVI or HDMI monitors to be plugged in. I would not recommend anything lower for serious editing.

Since you are apparently in the Indonesia, the prices are likely to be higher than in the US for these name brand computers. So I don't know how to compare.

The downside of no name build it yourself computers is that issues of compatability with high end cards can crop up. The major companies have to get these issues fixed to continue working with corporations, and for example, Dell, HP and Lenovo have pretty close relationships with Microsoft. This means, and I've seen it happen, that if there is something that goes wrong, you will likely see a BIOS upgrade, or software upgrade to address it. Sometimes it takes a while, but they do get the job done. Harder to expect with a computer built out of a lot of off the shelf parts, but they sometimes work fine. I've owned both and returned to paying for name brands because of that. Just a question of what you can afford in your local market. My experience with HP was not as good as with Lenovo, lately. I've been very happy with Dell desktops and still am using one, in addition to the Lenovo. Main thing to watch out for in any brands are having full size card slots for high end graphics cards and a powerful enough power supply to drive a fully configured editing machine. Lots of lower end, none workstation class computers are under powered for our needs. When you buy a workstation like an HP or Dell, you know you are paying for the capability to put in way more capacity than most users ever need.

[Trond Saetre]

If you want laptops, you might want to check out the Sager (Clevo based).
They are customable, and you can pretty much get anything from "entry level", to the top notch systems.
I bought mine from xoticpc.com, and I will buy my next one from them when that time comes.

[Sareesh Sudhakaran]

HP is numero uno in this game. The other brand I know off is Boxx.

However, I would not recommend ready-made solutions. It is far cheaper to build your own machine. And even expensive setups have failure rates.

[Battle Vaughan]

+1 on the Sager (Clevo) brand. I have a Sager 9170 with 32 gb ram and an nVidia 980M graphics card, runs CS6 a treat. Also, one of the few remaining laptops with a firewire port, should you have need of mini-DV input.

[Panagiotis Raris]

Originally Posted by Kyle Root

If you're not going to build one yourself, you can go with a custom builder like Puget Systems.

Out of all the custom builders I've looked at in the past, they seemed to have the most straightforward options to me.

I almost used them last year, until I decided to try and do it on my own. Which I did, with great success. As long as you do a little research and homework, it's easy to save a lot of money doing it yourself for a powerhouse system in my experience.

Originally Posted by Harm Millaard

I agree with both Chris and Kyle.

The HP Z820 is a great machine and a custom builder can get you even more bang-for-the-buck, because they build a system specifically tuned to your needs. In addition to Puget, I would like to recommend ADK Video Editing who have a solid reputation, both in terms of the build and in after sales service. Contact Eric Bowen.

However, the tier 1 brand names like HP and Dell have some drawbacks. They are attractively priced machines if you stay with the standard configuration. As soon as you change any of the specs from standard to something better suited for your needs, you better pull out a very thick wallet.

Recently I build a monster system myself and while it was very expensive at around € 7.5K, the HP Z820 with similar performance would come out close to € 25-30K.

If you are interested in this lengthy article, look here: Intro Part 1

Chris, Kyle and Harm have it spot on. I have an (ancient) Dell i used with CS3, then switched to desktops. I have firsthand experience with a custom Puget Systems (I believe they were PugetPC back in 04/05 but i may be incorrect). I have never used HP workstations, and like their counterparts, price is a big issue. Puget at least lets you customize a laptop to the hilt, and their customer service was excellent then. I do not know of any way to truly 'custom build' a laptop yourself in the ground-up sense, but then again i haven't looked in a long time. Back then, it was Puget, Alienware, and Sager that gave the greatest range of customization for the money. Again i haven't looked in a long while. 64MB of VRAM was tops then.

My latest customized laptop is a 2003-ish Inspiron 5150 with an LED backlit screen (CCFL died) and a Transcend 128GB PATA SSD because the Toshiba 100GB died and i am used to SSD speeds. I use it for recording audio via an SB Audigy 2ZS Notebook PCMCIA card. And because no one in their right mind would steal a 10+ lb old laptop with an AC adapter the size of a carton of cigarettes and the weight of a half-kitted DSLR rig.

[Battle Vaughan]

Originally Posted by Battle Vaughan

+1 on the Sager (Clevo) brand. I have a Sager 9170 with 32 gb ram and an nVidia 980M graphics card, runs CS6 a treat. Also, one of the few remaining laptops with a firewire port, should you have need of mini-DV input.

Sorry for the typo, it's nVidia 680M

[Tim Kolb]

I'll +1 the Lenovo W520. It's my travel machine and I used 17" (both 4:3 and 16:9 form factors) laptops for years, but jamming them into most luggage with a TSA-friendly removal slot is a chore as they are so big...the 520 has a 15.6" LED backlit monitor which is 1920x1080 at full res, and with an i7 proc, 16 GB RAM, and a Quadro M2000, it works very nicely for PPro editing as well as lots of the AE work I do, etc.

It's not as sexy as a MacBook Pro or an Alienware...but it works very smoothly for what I have invested in it.