I’m using the MSI GT72s 6QE Dominator Pro G.

As an owner of a Surface Pro 3 with an i7 I can't recommend it for video editing at all. Maybe SD footage but certainly not higher grade HD like XAVCS or better.

So OldSmoke .. what would you recommend these days for a laptop?

It depends on what you are editing but it won't be a budget laptop. Minimum a 4 core 8 threads with a dedicated AMD GPU and 32GB of RAM for 1080 60p editing.

Get the biggest high res screen you can afford.

Thanks for the input. As with most things these days there are more questions than answers. I just need to get the proper footing before I make what looks to be a pricey decision.

Mikey, will you be editing and rendering 4K?

If it's vanilla 1080, you won't need all the horsepower.

Yes, I have been shooting with a Panasonic GH4 in 4K and rendering to 1080. It is a bit of a bear on my system now which is getting some age. I was thinking of a laptop for awhile for space and convenience and using my system now for the storage and photo editing RAW images..

My laptop, mentioned early on and apparently completely ignored by everyone here, works great, and while 4K would be too cold for it (4K = 4 Kelvin = -269.15°C = -452.5°F), it works flawlessly with 4k.

I checked it out Red Prince. It is a top end machine for sure. However, it looks like it is geared more toward gaming with a lot of bells and whistles in the price that might not be needed.

Here is one I am looking at within my price range that appears to have everything I might need to accomplish my tasks. Any input on this would be appreciated. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1304024-REG/asus_gl753vd_ds71_17_3_republic_of_gamers.html

However, it looks like it is geared more toward gaming with a lot of bells and whistles in the price that might not be needed.

That’s why I got it. I don’t play games, but in my experience gaming computers are the best for video editing.

I understand that, but it is essentially a desktop in laptop form from what I reviewed.

I understand that, but it is essentially a desktop in laptop form from what I reviewed.

That's the only way to do it and yet, it will never be as powerful as a desktop. As for your selection, I would rather look into a model with an AMD card.

I would rather look into a model with an AMD card.

I wouldn’t. One of the reasons I got my laptop was it has an excellent Nvidia card. I only owned one computer with an AMD card, but that was enough for me to make sure never to get an AMD card.

Same for the microprocessor, after having an AMD one, I will never buy a computer with anything but a genuine Intel processor.

The reason you would want an AMD card is that at the moment, OpenCL is much better supported under AMD vs Nvidia which makes an AMD card more suitable for Vegas.

I used to be Nvidia only guy but due to their limitations under Vegas I changed to AMD and I am glad I did.

To each his own, I guess. I’m perfectly happy with my Nvidia OpenCL performance.

I do appreciate all of the comments. I have a 9 year old desktop that has been updated and modified over the years. Just about everything has been changed, but the way this technology moves along it is impossible to just go and get the flavor of the day and see if it is what we have been hoping for. What works for some just isn't enough or don't work for others. I keep looking at the specs and they all look the same except for the brand names. You would think that it all works. Why it shouldn't or don't I'll never know.

My choice was Dell precision i7 M4600 mobile workstation with AMD FirePro vcard. You can get refurbished for 500€..

Did some testing today with my Surface Pro 3. I have two Dell Ultrasharp 27" 2560x1440 connected to my Surface and I installed SVP13 again just for kicks. I converted some of my XAVC-S footage to XDCAM, that is the best implemented codec in SVP in my opinion. The best the Surface can handle is XDCAM 1280x720 29.97p. I tried 59.94p as well as 1920x1080 29.97p and both may pass for some users but not for me. However, once you drop some FX and transition on these two formats the fps goes down to half. I doubt single or dual monitor makes much of a difference. XDCAM 1280x720 29.97p which is MPEG2 flavor does ok and even I could use it provided I convert the project media to that proxy format.

Note: This is all for preview set to Best/Full.

I do love my Surface Pro 3 for all my office work; it's light, battery live is good (not great), I can use it as a tablet too and when docked, it can drive my two monitors and if I wanted a 3rd monitor or its own display to watch TV.

Later this year I may change to a Surface Book or wait for the new model to come out; let's see what that can do.

I'm still at indecision. I've been reading a lot and as usual am amazed at all the choices good, bad, or indifferent. Information overload.

Here is a review from a few days ago called The Best Laptops for 4K editing in 2017. However it is not specific to Vegas and I don't know whether the respective graphics cards play nicely with Vegas.