New Laptop! at DVinfo.net

John McCully · October 31st, 2006, 02:37 PM

I’m planning to be on the road for a while and need to get a new laptop, the primary purpose of which will be to edit HDV using Vegas 7 and of course Cineform’s Connect HD . I need a laptop that has dvi out so that I might plug into a LCD.

This is what I’m looking at:

Dell XPS 1710
Processor Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7400 (2.16 GHz/ 667 MHz FSB), Ing (RDM21BL) / Esp (RDM21BS)
2GB SDRAM DDR2 a 667MHZ, 2 DIMMS (2G2D)

Is this a good choice?

Thanks in advance for comments.

Chris Barcellos · October 31st, 2006, 04:46 PM

Core Duo is what I would be looking at too, and that is what my primary requirement would be. How many firewire ports available and is it 800?? So you could capture to firewire hard drive.

Kevin Shaw · October 31st, 2006, 04:59 PM

What's your realistic budget? Alienware has Core 2 Duo laptops (see link) which are configurable with options like dual internal hard drives, if you can afford to spring for that. As far as external hard drives are concerned, Firewire 800 shouldn't be necessary for HDV capture but wouldn't hurt if it's available.

http://www.alienware.com/product_det...EFAULT#pdp-nav

Chris Barcellos · October 31st, 2006, 05:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kevin Shaw

What's your realistic budget? Alienware has Core 2 Duo laptops (see link) which are configurable with options like dual internal hard drives, if you can afford to spring for that. As far as external hard drives are concerned, Firewire 800 shouldn't be necessary for HDV capture but wouldn't hurt if it's available.

http://www.alienware.com/product_det...EFAULT#pdp-nav

Yeah, I would agree too about 800 not being necessary, but my concern was just over doing your capture from Firewire and back to firewire drive, if the higher speed might help avoid any issues...

I've actually captured HDV and DV of course to a USB 2.0 drive on my AMD 64 3200+ laptop, so it probably wouldn't be the issue, but just for ease and speed of file transfer after it would be nice.

Andrew Clark · November 1st, 2006, 05:40 PM

Hey John -

Some other laptop suggestions:

http://www.powernotebooks.com/catego...tId=102#id1415

http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTE...Dept=computers

http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/

All are configurable to some extent.

John McCully · November 7th, 2006, 01:05 PM

Thanks for the input everyone, much appreciated. This morning I placed an order for a new Dell m90 Precision laptop with, the guts of which is:
Processor Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7400 (2.16 GHz/ 667 MHz FSB), Ing (RDM21BL) / Esp (RDM21BS)
2GB SDRAM DDR2 a 667MHZ, 2 DIMMS (2G2D)
7200 rpm 100Gig hd
NVIDIA QUADRO FX 2500M 512MB OPENGL

Should be OK for HDV editing perhaps. And I believe I should be able to connect it to my 24inch LCD and the image should look half decent!

Thanks again for the suggestions.

John McCully · November 10th, 2006, 09:35 PM

I live in Mexico. I place the order for a Precision Laptop with a Dell Latin America salesperson; a fellow named Carlos, and he is located in San Salvador. He was most helpful.

Later I get this call from Dell Austin Texas telling me to call this number, and he rattles off 15 or twenty numbers very rapidly. No way I could get that down.

For whatever reason the replay function on my cell phone would not function: I could not again listen to his message.

I check my credit card online. The purchase has gone through and is showing as an approved charge. I called my credit card company anyway and they assured me that everything was in order, the financial transactions had been completed, and the purchase amount will be due for payment no later than later next month.

I called Carlos, the Dell salesperson, and left a message, and wrote him an email telling him of this. He very soon got back to me and said he would take care of it with Dell Texas, as one might reasonably expect. I thanked him for his customer focused attitude.

Later next morning when I was taking a shower, guess what: this snotty sounding Dell nobody mechanical from Austin Texas leaves a message on my semi-functioning cell phone telling me that if I don’t call him back by 4 pm he will cancel my order. Then he repeats the rapid-fire stream of numbers, and I did get some this time, but not all. All I really need is his extension number but that comes at the end when the stream has become gobbledegook. And of course the replay function is not functioning as above.

I call the Dell Mexico number and select Customer Care. I get Marvin, also in San Salvador, lovely fellow, and tell him the story.

They can’t cancel your order, he tells me. It’s IP, that means ‘in production’, and due to ship out maybe later Monday. They can’t cancel your order.

We shall see!

John McCully · November 24th, 2006, 09:28 PM

Quick report on the Dell M90 workstation. It duly arrived. It sits on a shelf in my workstation within easy reach, lid closed, from where it feeds a nice modern 24inch LCD.

It is fast. Core 2 duo 2.11 and 2 gig of ram. Quiet as a Church mouse and cool as a cucumber even when going full bore rendering HDV out of Vegas 7.

Such a lot can change in a very short time. It was just the other day I followed John Rofano’s pursuit of the quiet performance desktop. I visited websites looking at cooling systems. I contemplated building a sound proof enclosure in which to put the thing. I contemplated taking up esoteric religions where I could pretend it was all in my head and basically ignore the hums, whistles, roars, screams, whines: calls for mercy emanating from my run-of-the-mill Pentium 4 hyperactive multi-threading antique.

I waited, as is the culture in this gracious country, Mexico, wherein I reside, and low and behold: problem solved. The Dell M90 Workstation Laptop. And it even looks nicer than a Mac! Not only have I made incredible progress in pure performance, horsepower, grunt, productivity, but with not a sound out of the beast.

So incredibly fast, and not a sound.

October 31st, 2006, 02:37 PM	#1
John McCully Major Player Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: South Island, New Zealand Posts: 609 Images: 2	New Laptop! I’m planning to be on the road for a while and need to get a new laptop, the primary purpose of which will be to edit HDV using Vegas 7 and of course Cineform’s Connect HD . I need a laptop that has dvi out so that I might plug into a LCD. This is what I’m looking at: Dell XPS 1710 Processor Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7400 (2.16 GHz/ 667 MHz FSB), Ing (RDM21BL) / Esp (RDM21BS) 2GB SDRAM DDR2 a 667MHZ, 2 DIMMS (2G2D) Is this a good choice? Thanks in advance for comments.

October 31st, 2006, 04:46 PM	#2
Chris Barcellos Inner Circle Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Elk Grove CA Posts: 6,838	Core Duo is what I would be looking at too, and that is what my primary requirement would be. How many firewire ports available and is it 800?? So you could capture to firewire hard drive. __________________ Chris J. Barcellos

November 10th, 2006, 09:35 PM	#7
John McCully Major Player Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: South Island, New Zealand Posts: 609 Images: 2	Not that simple! I live in Mexico. I place the order for a Precision Laptop with a Dell Latin America salesperson; a fellow named Carlos, and he is located in San Salvador. He was most helpful. Later I get this call from Dell Austin Texas telling me to call this number, and he rattles off 15 or twenty numbers very rapidly. No way I could get that down. For whatever reason the replay function on my cell phone would not function: I could not again listen to his message. I check my credit card online. The purchase has gone through and is showing as an approved charge. I called my credit card company anyway and they assured me that everything was in order, the financial transactions had been completed, and the purchase amount will be due for payment no later than later next month. I called Carlos, the Dell salesperson, and left a message, and wrote him an email telling him of this. He very soon got back to me and said he would take care of it with Dell Texas, as one might reasonably expect. I thanked him for his customer focused attitude. Later next morning when I was taking a shower, guess what: this snotty sounding Dell nobody mechanical from Austin Texas leaves a message on my semi-functioning cell phone telling me that if I don’t call him back by 4 pm he will cancel my order. Then he repeats the rapid-fire stream of numbers, and I did get some this time, but not all. All I really need is his extension number but that comes at the end when the stream has become gobbledegook. And of course the replay function is not functioning as above. I call the Dell Mexico number and select Customer Care. I get Marvin, also in San Salvador, lovely fellow, and tell him the story. They can’t cancel your order, he tells me. It’s IP, that means ‘in production’, and due to ship out maybe later Monday. They can’t cancel your order. We shall see!

October 31st, 2006, 04:59 PM	#3
Kevin Shaw Inner Circle Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Sacramento, CA Posts: 2,488	What's your realistic budget? Alienware has Core 2 Duo laptops (see link) which are configurable with options like dual internal hard drives, if you can afford to spring for that. As far as external hard drives are concerned, Firewire 800 shouldn't be necessary for HDV capture but wouldn't hurt if it's available. http://www.alienware.com/product_det...EFAULT#pdp-nav

November 1st, 2006, 05:40 PM	#5
Andrew Clark Major Player Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Bay Area, CA Posts: 477	Hey John - Some other laptop suggestions: http://www.powernotebooks.com/catego...tId=102#id1415 http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTE...Dept=computers http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/ All are configurable to some extent.

November 7th, 2006, 01:05 PM	#6
John McCully Major Player Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: South Island, New Zealand Posts: 609 Images: 2	Thanks for the input everyone, much appreciated. This morning I placed an order for a new Dell m90 Precision laptop with, the guts of which is: Processor Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7400 (2.16 GHz/ 667 MHz FSB), Ing (RDM21BL) / Esp (RDM21BS) 2GB SDRAM DDR2 a 667MHZ, 2 DIMMS (2G2D) 7200 rpm 100Gig hd NVIDIA QUADRO FX 2500M 512MB OPENGL Should be OK for HDV editing perhaps. And I believe I should be able to connect it to my 24inch LCD and the image should look half decent! Thanks again for the suggestions.

November 24th, 2006, 09:28 PM	#8
John McCully Major Player Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: South Island, New Zealand Posts: 609 Images: 2	Quick report on the Dell M90 workstation. It duly arrived. It sits on a shelf in my workstation within easy reach, lid closed, from where it feeds a nice modern 24inch LCD. It is fast. Core 2 duo 2.11 and 2 gig of ram. Quiet as a Church mouse and cool as a cucumber even when going full bore rendering HDV out of Vegas 7. Such a lot can change in a very short time. It was just the other day I followed John Rofano’s pursuit of the quiet performance desktop. I visited websites looking at cooling systems. I contemplated building a sound proof enclosure in which to put the thing. I contemplated taking up esoteric religions where I could pretend it was all in my head and basically ignore the hums, whistles, roars, screams, whines: calls for mercy emanating from my run-of-the-mill Pentium 4 hyperactive multi-threading antique. I waited, as is the culture in this gracious country, Mexico, wherein I reside, and low and behold: problem solved. The Dell M90 Workstation Laptop. And it even looks nicer than a Mac! Not only have I made incredible progress in pure performance, horsepower, grunt, productivity, but with not a sound out of the beast. So incredibly fast, and not a sound.