The universal conclusion on this board is that the #1 item affecting render speed in Vegas is processor power. I'd focus on that first. Vegas works beautifully with multi-core processors and the render speed scales proportionally. As for ram, my own conclusion is that 2GB is plenty, based on my own tests with RamPage. A powerful graphics card gets you nothing with Vegas, so I'd concentrate on the #1 item.

Oh, and a big display would be sweet, given the visual complexity of projects one can build in Vegas.

Thanks. I appreciate your imput!

Hi

I have a Dell Latitude D820 and like it. It's the business line from Dell and it's great. I run XP and Vegas 7 on that one.

/Ulf

I spoke with someone recently who said that Dell is ramping up with an Intel Quad core laptop - I did a quick google search and came up with this - sounds like the trickle down effect is beginning. I might very well no longer have to deal with editing on a desktop.

Cliff Etzel - Solo Video Journalist
bluprojekt | solovj blog

Sager has been offering a quad core for a while, but forget about battery power if you go with that.

ADK audio's best laptop is based on Clevo570, which is the same one you can get from Sager. ADK claims they come with TI firewire chipsets, I know for a fact that all of those I saw use Via chipsets. Not that it matters performance wise, but ADK claims it does, so not sure what's up with that.

I use Sager 5790 series and ASUS G1, and have had no problems whatsoever with either one. 7200rpm drives make a noticeable difference.

I would not be surprised if ADK has done some customization to the FW chipset config. At the present time, the right TI chipset is one of the most important factors in getting top performance from a FireWire audio interface. In some cases VIA, Ricoh, etc. chipsets won't even recognize the audio card. This being a laptop, ADK would have to make sure FireWire interfaces work perfectly.

This problem bit me personally with a Belkin FW400/800 PCI card. I bought it for its TI chipset, having heard that TI was the way to go. But I didn't realize that the 400/800 combo was a wrong move. Thanks to Jim Roseberry (StudioCat) I now have a FW400 ONLY card with the proper TI chipset. It has fixed every audio interface & FW HDD connection problem I ever had. My RME FireFace400 loves that card.

I had to buy a SIIG CardBus adaptor for my T41p Thinkpad laptop, which is a little too old to have a built-in FW controller. The same approach (FW400 ONLY, TI chipset) worked perfectly. This rig is solid as block of granite for on-location 48k/24bit recording with the FireFace.

Sager has been offering a quad core for a while, but forget about battery power if you go with that.

Two things you can forget if you go the Quad route (which is the better option). Battery power as deusx says, and the "lap" part of laptop. It will be too hot to keep in your lap, in fact, there is a good chance that it will be too hot to have on a variety of surfaces. I had a very fast laptop, and I could not use it on wood tables at all, but granite counter tops were good. On a wood surface it would shut down after less than 30 minutes due to over heating. Sadly your lap is not a good heat conductor, so having it in your lap will typically also means significant overheating.

The desktop is still king for video editing, but if you are willing to forgo some speed, then there are many laptops that are good.

"I will obviously want to include a Blu-ray burner, and ensure the machine has a PCMCIA slot for the P2 cards."

The PCMCIA interface is dead, no laptop supports it. For how much longer Panny will persist with it is an interesting issue for speculation.

Bob.

If you buy a Dell, be advised that as of mid-June, Dell no longer will install Windows XP on their computers. I got my laptop just before that mistake. I am not sure how to upgrade one to Windows XP from Vista. Maybe through Microsoft?

I would also recommend against a laptop for a main editing computer. You can get much more storage and processing power in a desktop for a lot less money. I just put a Q6700 in my desktop for $200 to replace my E6600 processor. Use the laptop for a transfer device instead IMO.

John

All of this input is very helpful. Thank you.

Also, does anyone have experience working with Panasonic's P2 card technology? Is the workflow as easy as I read it is?

Without a PCMCIA slot what is the easiest way to get the footage on a Vegas 8 timeline?

I've never used a HVX200 however I think I can answer your questions.

You can buy quite a number of devices to give you the ability to read P2 cards into any computer quite cheaply. Just look for PCMCIA adaptors. At least one converts from ExpressCard to PCMCIA.
Having transferred the data your next hurdle is that Vegas will not natively edit the footage, you need Raylight to convert the footage so that Vegas can edit it.

I do have a somewhat similar camera, the EX1 and I have to do a not dissimilar dance however fortunately the transfer speed is faster than P2 and the cards hold significantly more footage. One reason I never bought into the P2 technology was the very thought of offloading cards while shooting. At least with the SxS cards you can offload cards around 7 times faster than you're recording to them.

Bob.