OT: Laptop Advice -- Help Needed

Jay Gladwell wrote on 10/10/2008, 5:15 AM

Please, bear with me as I explain my thinking...

As I'm using the EX3 now, the memory cards are something like $750 for 16GB. That holds about one hour of HQ video.

Today, Dell has on sale the Vostro 1510 for $499. I added another GB of RAM making it $525. My question is, would this laptop be adequate for taking into the field and either dumping the two 16GB cards I have into it and/or direct recording to the laptop's hard drive?

Stats for laptop are:

PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5670 (1.8GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB)

OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic, Service Pack 1

LCD PANEL 15.4 inch Widescreen WXGA LCD Anti-Glare Display

MEMORY 2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz, 2 DIMM

OPTICAL DRIVE 8X DVD+/-RW with double-layer DVD+/-R write capability, with Roxio Creator

VIDEO CARD Intel® Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100

HARD DRIVE 160G 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive

WI-FI WIRELESS CARD Dell Wireless 1395 802.11g Wi-Fi Internal Card

This price is good today only.

Any advice would be appreciated!


Comments

baysidebas wrote on 10/10/2008, 5:29 AM
I've been recording directly to a laptop hard drive, via FireWire, for over a year now, with great success. Of course, my tripod mounted camera and static environment [interviews on stage] are a great help. For software I use Adobe OnLocation [only available bundled with PremierePro] and this does do HD. For most of the year I've been using a much less capable laptop but with no issues. I have recently upgraded to one similar to what you've described. But FireWire is the critical component here, if it isn't built-in, you'll have to [probably] get a PCIExpress FW card, and those run upwards of $80 unlike the older PCMCIA cards that can be had for about $15.

OnLocation comes with its own serial number and, if you know someone with PP and no need for it, you can probably work out a deal. That's what I did for a second copy of it.
Jay Gladwell wrote on 10/10/2008, 5:43 AM

Just found it that does come with a firewire card.

craftech wrote on 10/10/2008, 8:15 AM
Jay,

In July I bought a Vostro 1500 for just that purpose. It works just fine. The laptop cost the same as one 8GB Sony SxS card. While it is certainly not an ideal thing to try to dump cards onto a laptop during a 2 hour shoot I refuse to be victimized by what is clearly price gouging by Sony. The new firmware holds promise for the use of more reasonably priced flash memory cards as evidenced by those on the DVI forum who don't like being victimized by Sony either.

John
Jay Gladwell wrote on 10/10/2008, 8:26 AM

LOL -- "The laptop cost the same as one 8GB Sony SxS card."

BINGO! Great minds think alike.

Yeah, I've been following that same thread, but work arounds scare me. Why? If it weren't for my bad luck, I wouldn't have any! Need I say more?


Chienworks wrote on 10/10/2008, 1:44 PM
I'm not a Dell fan, especially considering their loads of proprietary parts that can only be replaced over a very short product lifetime.

You can probably get an equivalent Acer laptop for around $550 or less, and that's the regular price that you can pick up anywhere, anytime. Heck, they have them on the shelves at Wal*Mart so you can pick one up at 3:17am if you need one.
warriorking wrote on 10/10/2008, 3:57 PM
I have found Dell laptops to be very reliable, my old faithful 8600 Inspiron was replaced after 3years under warranty a couple of years ago with a E1505 and she has been a Gem...Heck I even render HD with it from Vegas 8Pro from time to time...

Specs E1505 Inspiron
Vista Ultimate
T2400 1.83 Core Duo
X1400 256Mb Video card
4Gig DDR2 667
15.4 WSXGA TrueLife
320Gig Sata 7200RPM WD HD
8X Sony Dual layer DVD+/-R Burner
3945 Wireless
Firewire
John_Cline wrote on 10/10/2008, 8:38 PM
I've been through a series of Dell laptops over the years and haven't had a bit of trouble with any of them.
musicvid10 wrote on 10/10/2008, 8:38 PM
Jay,
Before you make the plunge, it would be good to check the side-by-side performance tests on CNET and elsewhere of the Sony VAIO laptops at the same price point as Dell, Gateway, Toshiba, HP, Compaq, etc.

Besides having a superior screen for video, the entry-level Sony's often (not always) out-perform their rivals even with the same processors, etc.

Not plugging Sony here, but I am glad I bought the rugged VAIO rather than a slightly higher-priced Lenovo with a slightly faster processor, as well as any of the competitively priced brands mentioned above.

farss wrote on 10/10/2008, 8:47 PM
As you've been frequenting DVInfo you'll probably have seen that some are using the HP 2133 with good results. It's very small which could be what you want if you're going to by carrying it around with the camera.
One thing you need to watch for is does the laptop have the full Express54 slot. Some only implement the USB part of the interface it seems which means it will not work with the SxS cards.

Bob.
Jay Gladwell wrote on 10/11/2008, 3:08 AM

Thanks to everyone for their input. It's much appreciated!