Funny this came up at this time. I do the majority of my editing on a desktop but have used a laptop in the field for the last four years a lot. My current laptop is a HP dv9700 that has run CS3 production premium very well for all its life as it is a 32 bit system.
Now my desktop will render out a complex 2K project in CS5 faster than my laptop will do a SD version with similar effects. Actually what takes four hours on the laptop will render out in 5 min on the desktop, if that.
My problem lately is that my field requirements are growing fast and I need to do more in the field. Instead of just capturing I need to be doing some more editing and color correction. I’ve been looking at some laptops today and there are some that can do a lot more nowadays.
A couple that have my eye is the MSI GT60 and 70, dual SSD and a fast graphics card and plenty of memory. I’m considering all the Apple’s and my favorite HP’s with their mobile work stations but also looking at the others. Some ASUS are not to shabby either.
I’ve never had a problem with laptops as long as they supported the system requirements for the software, just that I’ve had issues with render times and playback in AE but with looking at the current offerings things have changed a lot now that some of this cool 64bit hardware has gotten up to speed with laptops.
I will be ordering one within days and when I’ve put one through some paces I’ll post the results but I’m pretty sure the limitations have changed in the laptop world.
