Laptop solution for Adobe CS5

Robert Baynosa · July 18th, 2010, 07:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Renat Zarbailov

I was searching for the fastest laptop that carries the new nVidia GeForce GTX 480M and came across Sager. Oh my goodness, these guys rock! Here is the config I feel is suitable for AVCHD editing on the road using Premiere Pro CS5.

Customized Sager NP8850
custom gaming laptops - Welcome to Sager Notebooks

Display 17.3" Full HD LED Display with Super Glossy Surface (1920 x 1080)
Video & Graphics Card Nvidia GeForce GTX 480M Graphics with 2GB GDDR5 Video Memory
CPU Processor Intel® Core™ i7-840QM Processor ( 45nm, 8MB L3 Cache, 1.86GHz ) [$380.00]
Thermal Compound Stock Standard Thermal Compound
Operating System Genuine MS Windows® 7 Home Premium 32/64-Bit Edition
Memory 8GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - 2 X 4GB [$215.00]
RAID Storage Options Non-RAID Storage
Primary Hard Disk Drive 500GB 7200rpm SATA 300 Hard Drive [$20.00]
Optical Drive 8X DVD±R/RW/4X +DL Super-Multi Drive & Software
Wireless Network Card Internal 802.11 B+G+N Wireless LAN Module
Bluetooth Internal Bluetooth V2.1 Module
Primary Battery Smart Li-Polymer Battery Pack
Integrated Security Device Fingerprint Reader
Warranty Sager 1 Year Limited Parts and Labor Warranty
Carrying Bag Standard Carrying Bag
Total: $2,812.27 shipping included

This unit even comes with one USB3.0 port... The only question I have is whether this is a reliable brand to go with.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

imho there is no laptop more solid than a sager. the hardware is top end, the chassis is built around the best thermal management, the notebook is easy to open, service and upgrase parts.
the only drawback is that sager notebooks is not know for their customer service. becasue of this it is better to buy from their numerous online resellers.
the one i recommend is xoticpc.com. excellent service.
if theres a laptop that can do ppro cs5 its the sagers.

Tim Kolb · July 18th, 2010, 10:32 AM

I've had a couple Sagers (they're sold by other companies under their own badging), and I'd have to say that they're pretty solid in my experience. Some designs can get pretty toasty if you work with it actually in your lap...and I used to travel with a bunch of pink pencil erasers for a couple of them to give the fans more airspace...but I have done an awful lot of work on the road over the years...

I have a Dell M90 that has been a great machine when it runs...and it's cost dell a tremendous amount of money through its warranty period when it doesn't, though Dell was very responsive in my experience...throughout the three years expressed in the warranty BTW...

As far as CS4 vs CS5 for runnability... CS4 should have been 64 bit only as well in my opinion...even CS3 ran like a missile on a 64 bit machine with a decent RAM compliment. I don't think that CS5 uses that much more resources, its just that the product is finally now cut off from 32 bit systems.

I've run Premiere Pro on laptops throughout its existence, and it comes down to expectations. Whether the app will run and you can get work done is a separate issue from whether or not you can create an equivalent response to a desktop system during editing.

As Steve mentions, PPro CS5's ability to drop playback res may be a feature that makes it more suitable for portable machine use than its predecessors...

Trond Saetre · July 18th, 2010, 10:59 AM

I can also recommend Sager laptops. I have still not found any other laptop with equal or better performance.

And as mentioned by Robert, I also bought mine from Xoticpc.com and the service was superb!

Ozzie Alfonso · August 26th, 2010, 12:28 PM

Toward the end of this thread it seems like the Sager NP8850 is THE laptop to get for running CS5. I mainly use Premiere Pro, AE, and Photoshop (which runs on 32 bits). But besides my work for numerous clients, I also teach a few college classes on TV production where a workable laptop is necessary.

I've been using a Dell XPS M1330 for a few years without major problems; but now Adobe has made Premiere Pro, and After Effects only 64 bit compatible, which judging from the speed gain, it is worth the extra money.

I just took a look at the Sager. The configuration I made up comes to over $2744. I know - "you get what you pay for", but still - I might be able to do better...almost.

I know nothing about Sager nor the one I have looked at: ASUS.

I'm talking about the ASUS G51Jx, which I can get for $ 1,268.99 -excellent.
The specs:
1.6GHz Intel Core i7-720QM Quad-Core
6GB RAM500GB 7200rpm Hard Drive
SuperMulti DVD Burner
nVIDIA GeForce GTS 360M 1GB Graphics
15.6" Full HD Widescreen Display
Integrated Camera and MicrophoneBluetooth,
802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)7.3 lb

Besides price, how do they compare? As I said, I am not familiar with either system.

Can anyone direct me in the general direction of a 64 bit OS PC laptop that meets all the stated requirements? I've looked at HP, Dell, Toshiba, Asus.

By the way, I use the laptop with external everything - external screen, storage, keyboard, etc. In class I attach it via the Dell's HDMI port to a 43" HD screen. As I said - it all works perfectly well, except for the need of 64bits.

Any ideas? Anyone?

Robert Baynosa · August 26th, 2010, 06:35 PM

the 8850 is a great laptop but it is quite bulky, so you may want to keep that in mind. however at present i dont think there is a more powerful notebook system (with a single card gpu) around. i would suggest getting a 840qm for your cpu and 8gig ram though.
however if you are willing to wait till q1 2011, you may want to check out the sandybridge offerings of sager. sandybridge is the new 32nm microarchitecture of intel that will replace the present nehalem cpu's. the 2720qm sandybridge cpu , which is set to replace the 720qm, will bump speeds up to 2.22ghz from 1.6ghz. you will see an average of 400mhz increase on the 2820 and 2920 also.

Shawn McCalip · August 28th, 2010, 12:05 PM

I used a Sager 5760 for a few years while using Adobe CS2 and CS3. For the price, you do get a really solid machine. The ability to upgrade just about any internal component in a laptop was really cool and helped extend its longevity. For instance, I was able to open up the case and swap out the CPU with just a grounding bracelet and small Phillips screwdriver. The LCD inverter board eventually burned out, and I busted a hinge because I carried it around everywhere, but they were easily and inexpensively replaced. If you do some hunting online, you can find the service manuals with all the nifty exploded drawings and instructions on how to replace this or that. I bought mine from a place called PC Torque. My only gripes about Sagers are their incredibly short battery life (Any really powerful laptop won't have a ton of battery life, but fresh out of the box I was getting about 45 minutes, which is basically useless), and the amount of heat it generates. Once you start working in a graphic intensive program, you don't want to have the thing on your lap. I had to buy one of those cooling pads to keep it under control. Also, with the added heat, the fan underneath will spin up and sound like you're running a miniature wind tunnel- so if noise is a concern, be aware.

I upgraded last year to a Lenovo W700ds. The Lenovo was more expensive than the Sager, but the overall build quality is like night and day. If you're looking to pinch pennies, do what some of the others have said and get a gaming laptop. But if you're looking for something more robust and hardy, I have to recommend Lenovo. These aren't gaming rigs- they're workstations, and they definitely live up to their title. I just upgraded to CS5 on this thing, and so far it's putting CS3 to shame. This is despite the fact that I can't utilize the hardware acceleration for the Mercury Playback Engine due to my video card not having enough RAM. The Lenovo has much better heat dissipation features, and is much quieter than the Sager. You have a bit more control over your power settings, but with desktop replacement notebooks like this, don't plan on getting more than an hour. So far, the only drawbacks I've found with the Lenovo is that it came with some bloatware that needed to be removed, with the other being Lenovo doesn't want users upgrading or opening up a machine by themselves. They prefer you to send it in to a licensed tech if you need any work done. That's probably a good thing for most people, but I like to tinker with my machines...

Robert Baynosa · August 28th, 2010, 09:04 PM

you are right about the sagers usually having limited battery life. i have a sager 8690 and just like you i get a little more than 45 minutes only on battery. however i dont see this as a drwback as these machines are essentially portable desktops. my system comes with an intel 720qm i7 cpu and an nvidia 1 gb 280m, however i intend to upgrade to an i7 920xm and 8gb of ddr3 1333 RAM sometime this year. with specs like that, plus my hdd, bluray and full hd screen you kinda understand why battery life is not a premium. additionally, people in the notebookreview.com forums have stated that doing high performance work on batteries, such as gaming and video editing, is not advised as it can seriously deteriorate the battery.

i have never used the lenovo workstation you have but workstation quality notebooks generally have better build quality than consumer level notebooks (such as the sagers) but you do pay a premium for that workmanship.

with regards to thermal design, nothing beats a sager. on my 15.6 inch sager 8690 i get high 70's (celcius) on both my cpu and gpu on almost all intensive tasks and benchmarks; and i have ambient temps of 30*c. this is important since the thermal headroom allows me to overclock my videocard and will allow me to overclock an i7 extreme mobile cpu. ive seen a guy overclock his 920xm cpu (2.0 ghz) to 3.6 ghz ( without HT) which is higher than the stock clocks of a desktop 920. add to this the ease of upgrading almost every component on a sager (except the motherboard) then you can see why most notebook enthusiasts pick a sager. at a starting price of 1,200usd i think the sager 8690 is a good value.

however if you just want an out of the box experience and dont mind paying the premium, then a workstation class notebook is for you.

edit: i am in no way affiliated with sager, just a happy, satisfied user.

July 18th, 2010, 10:32 AM	#17
Tim Kolb Major Player Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Neenah, WI Posts: 547	I've had a couple Sagers (they're sold by other companies under their own badging), and I'd have to say that they're pretty solid in my experience. Some designs can get pretty toasty if you work with it actually in your lap...and I used to travel with a bunch of pink pencil erasers for a couple of them to give the fans more airspace...but I have done an awful lot of work on the road over the years... I have a Dell M90 that has been a great machine when it runs...and it's cost dell a tremendous amount of money through its warranty period when it doesn't, though Dell was very responsive in my experience...throughout the three years expressed in the warranty BTW... As far as CS4 vs CS5 for runnability... CS4 should have been 64 bit only as well in my opinion...even CS3 ran like a missile on a 64 bit machine with a decent RAM compliment. I don't think that CS5 uses that much more resources, its just that the product is finally now cut off from 32 bit systems. I've run Premiere Pro on laptops throughout its existence, and it comes down to expectations. Whether the app will run and you can get work done is a separate issue from whether or not you can create an equivalent response to a desktop system during editing. As Steve mentions, PPro CS5's ability to drop playback res may be a feature that makes it more suitable for portable machine use than its predecessors... __________________ TimK Kolb Productions

August 26th, 2010, 12:28 PM	#19
Ozzie Alfonso Major Player Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: New York, NY Posts: 355	I'm looking for a 64bit laptop also, but... Toward the end of this thread it seems like the Sager NP8850 is THE laptop to get for running CS5. I mainly use Premiere Pro, AE, and Photoshop (which runs on 32 bits). But besides my work for numerous clients, I also teach a few college classes on TV production where a workable laptop is necessary. I've been using a Dell XPS M1330 for a few years without major problems; but now Adobe has made Premiere Pro, and After Effects only 64 bit compatible, which judging from the speed gain, it is worth the extra money. I just took a look at the Sager. The configuration I made up comes to over $2744. I know - "you get what you pay for", but still - I might be able to do better...almost. I know nothing about Sager nor the one I have looked at: ASUS. I'm talking about the ASUS G51Jx, which I can get for $ 1,268.99 -excellent. The specs: 1.6GHz Intel Core i7-720QM Quad-Core 6GB RAM500GB 7200rpm Hard Drive SuperMulti DVD Burner nVIDIA GeForce GTS 360M 1GB Graphics 15.6" Full HD Widescreen Display Integrated Camera and MicrophoneBluetooth, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)7.3 lb Besides price, how do they compare? As I said, I am not familiar with either system. Can anyone direct me in the general direction of a 64 bit OS PC laptop that meets all the stated requirements? I've looked at HP, Dell, Toshiba, Asus. By the way, I use the laptop with external everything - external screen, storage, keyboard, etc. In class I attach it via the Dell's HDMI port to a 43" HD screen. As I said - it all works perfectly well, except for the need of 64bits. Any ideas? Anyone? __________________ *Ozzie Alfonso* www.ozziealfonso.com

August 28th, 2010, 12:05 PM	#21
Shawn McCalip Major Player Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Anchorage, AK Posts: 315	I used a Sager 5760 for a few years while using Adobe CS2 and CS3. For the price, you do get a really solid machine. The ability to upgrade just about any internal component in a laptop was really cool and helped extend its longevity. For instance, I was able to open up the case and swap out the CPU with just a grounding bracelet and small Phillips screwdriver. The LCD inverter board eventually burned out, and I busted a hinge because I carried it around everywhere, but they were easily and inexpensively replaced. If you do some hunting online, you can find the service manuals with all the nifty exploded drawings and instructions on how to replace this or that. I bought mine from a place called PC Torque. My only gripes about Sagers are their incredibly short battery life (Any really powerful laptop won't have a ton of battery life, but fresh out of the box I was getting about 45 minutes, which is basically useless), and the amount of heat it generates. Once you start working in a graphic intensive program, you don't want to have the thing on your lap. I had to buy one of those cooling pads to keep it under control. Also, with the added heat, the fan underneath will spin up and sound like you're running a miniature wind tunnel- so if noise is a concern, be aware. I upgraded last year to a Lenovo W700ds. The Lenovo was more expensive than the Sager, but the overall build quality is like night and day. If you're looking to pinch pennies, do what some of the others have said and get a gaming laptop. But if you're looking for something more robust and hardy, I have to recommend Lenovo. These aren't gaming rigs- they're workstations, and they definitely live up to their title. I just upgraded to CS5 on this thing, and so far it's putting CS3 to shame. This is despite the fact that I can't utilize the hardware acceleration for the Mercury Playback Engine due to my video card not having enough RAM. The Lenovo has much better heat dissipation features, and is much quieter than the Sager. You have a bit more control over your power settings, but with desktop replacement notebooks like this, don't plan on getting more than an hour. So far, the only drawbacks I've found with the Lenovo is that it came with some bloatware that needed to be removed, with the other being Lenovo doesn't want users upgrading or opening up a machine by themselves. They prefer you to send it in to a licensed tech if you need any work done. That's probably a good thing for most people, but I like to tinker with my machines... __________________ Past projects, recent projects, and more! http://www.youtube.com/user/chugach3dguy

July 18th, 2010, 10:59 AM	#18
Trond Saetre Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Bergen, Norway Posts: 3,375	I can also recommend Sager laptops. I have still not found any other laptop with equal or better performance. And as mentioned by Robert, I also bought mine from Xoticpc.com and the service was superb!

August 26th, 2010, 06:35 PM	#20
Robert Baynosa Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: philippines Posts: 51	the 8850 is a great laptop but it is quite bulky, so you may want to keep that in mind. however at present i dont think there is a more powerful notebook system (with a single card gpu) around. i would suggest getting a 840qm for your cpu and 8gig ram though. however if you are willing to wait till q1 2011, you may want to check out the sandybridge offerings of sager. sandybridge is the new 32nm microarchitecture of intel that will replace the present nehalem cpu's. the 2720qm sandybridge cpu , which is set to replace the 720qm, will bump speeds up to 2.22ghz from 1.6ghz. you will see an average of 400mhz increase on the 2820 and 2920 also.

August 28th, 2010, 09:04 PM	#22
Robert Baynosa Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: philippines Posts: 51	you are right about the sagers usually having limited battery life. i have a sager 8690 and just like you i get a little more than 45 minutes only on battery. however i dont see this as a drwback as these machines are essentially portable desktops. my system comes with an intel 720qm i7 cpu and an nvidia 1 gb 280m, however i intend to upgrade to an i7 920xm and 8gb of ddr3 1333 RAM sometime this year. with specs like that, plus my hdd, bluray and full hd screen you kinda understand why battery life is not a premium. additionally, people in the notebookreview.com forums have stated that doing high performance work on batteries, such as gaming and video editing, is not advised as it can seriously deteriorate the battery. i have never used the lenovo workstation you have but workstation quality notebooks generally have better build quality than consumer level notebooks (such as the sagers) but you do pay a premium for that workmanship. with regards to thermal design, nothing beats a sager. on my 15.6 inch sager 8690 i get high 70's (celcius) on both my cpu and gpu on almost all intensive tasks and benchmarks; and i have ambient temps of 30*c. this is important since the thermal headroom allows me to overclock my videocard and will allow me to overclock an i7 extreme mobile cpu. ive seen a guy overclock his 920xm cpu (2.0 ghz) to 3.6 ghz ( without HT) which is higher than the stock clocks of a desktop 920. add to this the ease of upgrading almost every component on a sager (except the motherboard) then you can see why most notebook enthusiasts pick a sager. at a starting price of 1,200usd i think the sager 8690 is a good value. however if you just want an out of the box experience and dont mind paying the premium, then a workstation class notebook is for you. edit: i am in no way affiliated with sager, just a happy, satisfied user.