Building my own Laptop?

G5 Powerbook :

 

I stand corrected.

 

if you go back further you got the ibook remember all them coloured one orange, lime, grape etc but i wouldnt bother with them for video work, day to day its fine

 

If you're going Alienware then I'd go for the Sager. It has the bigger screen, the Radeon HD will work just fine for video work, you get 16GB of RAM. Which is way more than you will ever need. If the additional cost of the OS is an issue. Get a free Linux distro. The choice of video editing apps isn't as good as what you have in Windows or on the Mac. But they do the job.

This was for video work right?

Edit: You'll need a 64-bit OS to take advantage of that 16GB of RAM. Windows 7 comes with both options as does Linux. Alternatively you can enable PAE if you really need a 32-bit OS for some reason. I don't know how you do that in Windows. It never worked on my Dell XPS 700 with XP despite supposedly already being enabled. In Linux it's a simple case of installing the PAE version of the kernel.

 

PAE hasn't worked right in Windows desktop editions since XP SP1 IIRC (and that might not have worked either). Microsoft didn't want people having ungodly amounts of RAM without paying for the premium OS (Windows Server).

 

Given that fact the only difference between Windows NT 4.x client OS and the server variant was a setting in an .ini file. That doesn't surprise me. It's not a new tactic on Microsoft's part.

 

No such thing ever existed - that was one of the reasons for the move to Intel from PPC.

 

I am starting to have doubts about all this, I don't know much about laptops. I just want one that I can do some HD editing and won't be obsolete in a year or two.

 

Then you probably don't want a laptop - and certainly not a cheap one.

 

I travel a lot so I can't get a desktop.

 

since it is primarily (or is it?) for HD video editing have you asked the guys on Digital Director? http://www.videoforums.co.uk/ If you are just doing the occasional HD thing then I don't see the point in getting a top end laptop, better knowing what spec you can get away with, probably min 4GB ram, ideally 6-8. I don't know which software is best, some are more suited to HD than others, I'm happy with SD and tbh don't do enough video to justify upgrading my laptop or PC

 

If your doing video editing your daft not go with a mac, I used to edit video for 3 years straight and all we used where mac's in some-cases we set up live feeds and edited while it was being shot.

Used the same machines for years without any problems

 

Right now I use my mom's mac book, every time I plug my miniDv camera into it, it tells me to down grade the video quality from HD to Large otherwise there will be playback issues.

 

What you using to import it and do you have enough space to import the hd video? what is the spec of the macbook, playing raw HD footage take a fair bit of ram and storage

 

Computers are obsolete before they leave the factory. Currently most are designed to last around 2-3 years. It sucks I know. But that's how it is. Dell always have clearance deals on and they have a factory outlet as well for reconditioned stock. BTW Dell own Alienware

 

Hello,

It's never worth it to build your own laptop. Laptops are terrable for custom builds and when you combine power with mobility, it gets pretty expensive. Your best bet would be to go with a dell series laptop that best fits your needs as far as processor and graphics card, then upgrade the ram and hard drive yourself to save money.

Devin

 

Actually I decided to just get a Mac. If I don't like it I can just throw it up on ebay.

 

good choice, mac's are great for media. it doesn't take too long to get used to them either and once you are, it's really easy to use. Congrats

 

Thanks mate!