Laptop recommendations for After Effects / Premiere 03.2013

Laptop recommendations for After Effects / Premiere 03.2013

by Michael Garske

on Mar 23, 2013 at 1:47:52 am

I've always been a Desktop editor but I think it would be nice to have something to edit on the go with. Mostly for Premiere but also a bit of AE. I posted here because I figure AE will be the more demanding of the two. I'd like to keep my budget under $1,200 unless a couple hundred more gets a significant boost in preformance.

currently I'm considering this:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/924651-REG/lenovo_59359559_y500_intel...

I've also found this but I'm not sure because the nVIDIA Quadro K1000M rates lower on specs than the 650M:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/903480-REG/Lenovo_24384bu_W530_Intel_...

That last one has a greater capacity for ram which is nice but I'm not certain what features I should value higher on a laptop for CS6. I feel I've got a bit more leeway for building desktop computers as far as component upgrades are concerned. But with a laptop on my budget it seems that I'll have to pick and choose feature upgrades since they're pre-built and all.

1.) What do you think of the two I've selected and can anyone recommend a machine in that price bracket?

2.) What hierarchy of importance should I look for components? CPU, Ram capacity, Graphics, etc...

Thanks for your help as always!

Re: Laptop recommendations for After Effects / Premiere 03.2013

by Michael Garske

on Mar 23, 2013 at 3:33:17 am

I leaning now towards this model:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/891165-REG/ASUS_g55vw_dh71_i7_3630QM_...

I understand despite what the manufacture says it's capable of supporting 32Gb of ram.

Re: Laptop recommendations for After Effects / Premiere 03.2013

by Ridley Walker

on Mar 23, 2013 at 6:03:53 am

Or...

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/924705-REG/toshiba_psplzu_06r002_inte...

Re: Laptop recommendations for After Effects / Premiere 03.2013

by Todd Kopriva

on Mar 23, 2013 at 7:12:19 am

For After Effects, the factors that matter most are, in order, these:

1. RAM and CPU
2. fast disks (preferably SSD for caches)
3. GPU

At the risk of being redundant, I really need to stress that the GPU is _last_ for After Effects.

For Premiere Pro, the GPU is somewhat more important. A system more for Premiere Pro would have less RAM, with the money saved spent on a better GPU.

Don't skimp on the speedy disk drive(s).

See this page for information about hardware for Premiere Pro and After Effects: http://adobe.ly/pRYOuk

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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
After Effects quality engineering
After Effects team blog
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Re: Laptop recommendations for After Effects / Premiere 03.2013

by Michael Garske

on Mar 23, 2013 at 5:34:10 pm

Thanks for that. I forgot to mention I'm leaning towards a 15.6in for portability. If they make that model in that size that looks like a plan. I wish these didn't come preinstalled with windows 8 though. I have heard compared to windows 7 64bit it can cause your system to run more slowly. I am considering buying a ssd to install os/adobe suite on. Or is it more important that the cache be on ssd? I assume its not a good idea to put both on the same drive.

Re: Laptop recommendations for After Effects / Premiere 03.2013

by Todd Kopriva

on Mar 23, 2013 at 10:32:23 pm

> I assume its not a good idea to put both on the same drive.

Not correct.

The important thing is to not put use the same drive for two things that need to be read or written at the same time. This isn't a concern with applications/OS and After Effects caches, since the former are read at application load time, and the latter are read through application running. They don't conflict.

On the other hand, you don't want to store footage and caches on the same drive, since they're being read (or written) at the same time in many cases.

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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
After Effects quality engineering
After Effects team blog
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Re: Laptop recommendations for After Effects / Premiere 03.2013

by David Price

on Jan 23, 2015 at 9:36:56 am

Just to ask a little further about your advice on where to store footage/caches Todd, ("On the other hand, you don't want to store footage and caches on the same drive, since they're being read (or written) at the same time in many cases.")

Am I correct in thinking that ideally 3 drives are needed, (for aftereffects/cinema 4d work predominantly), one to store footage, one for caches (is this good enough for a hybrid drive with 8gb cache?) plus one other drive to render to? Or would two suffice?

Second question is, with an nVidia 860M do I need to worry at all that it's bitrate is only 128, as opposed to an 880M that starts at 256? I only ask as somewhere else I heard it was considered possibly more important than the videocard's memory. (which both are 4gb). Just really wanting to eliminate any bottlenecks for Photoshop/AE/Cinema4D workflow.

For clarity I'm looking into an Asus N51GM with 1TB sata 7200, GeForce GTX 860M plus adding either one or two 240GB ssd's. (I will also be running a cintiq and possibly separate monitor too).

Many thanks for any clarity on this!

David