What laptop should I buy?

December 28, 2005 11:10 AM

I want to buy a new laptop, one that might be good enough to do stuff w/ digital video. Also, should I stick with Dell or is there another company w/ a good service plan?

(1) I have an awful Dell Inspiron 1100 that I've owned for the last three years. It breaks down fairly regularly, but I bought the service plan where they come over and fix everything. The new service plan costs almost $400 and I have until Feb to decide. But I figure at that price I should just buy a new computer. Is this reasoning sound? Also, should I buy a new computer with a service plan? Is there a company that has both good computers and a decent service plan?

(2) I don't play games or anything demanding like that, though I do occasionally do some photoshop, etc. But I'm thinking of buying a digital video camera and maybe try to make some movies with it. Do I need a mac for this? Otherwise, I guess I want to get a laptop that'd be powerful enough to handle this. If this isn't possible, then I'd just take a great laptop.

(3) As you can guess, I want a PC, as my previous files are PC and my work uses all PCs.

(4) The only other feature that'd be nice would be a DVD burner.

(5) I'm not quite sure what my price range is here. I bought my inspiron because it was cheap and I learned that you get what you pay for. Also, I'm not sure what the price range is for laptops right now.

Anyways, I'd appreciate any suggestions.

posted by kensanway to technology (15 comments total)

Also, I should add that although I bought the Dell for the service plan, my calls to them are almost always frustrating and make me feel like I'm acting out a one-act scene from Kafka or Brazil.
posted by kensanway at 11:11 AM on December 28, 2005

As a former computer technician and current "IT dude," I'm going to say that Dell is not necessarily worse than any other company out there. With the number of units these companies manufacture, coupled with the fact that they all pretty much use the same parts, I'd say you really want to look for the right feature set for the right price.

Personally, I've been fairly happy with Dell. We use all Dell machines in my office and my own personal machine is an Inspiron 6000. I've had no problems.

I honestly think that many problems come from neglect/misuse. The most common problem I've seen is people not carefully removing the power adapter, severing the connection to the motherboard and rendering the unit dead. As for manufacturer's defects, they're going to happen to a certain percentage of machines no matter who you buy or how you look at it, so just hope for the best and get at least a 1-year warranty. All hard drives can randomly die (and Dell or any other company isn't making the hard drives), and on top of that they're easily replacable. Motherboards and LCDs are what you need to look out for, and again most damage to both of these that came into my tech shop were due to neglect.

If you're paying for accidental damage, you're admitting clumsiness. I fear my laptop, I respect it. There's not a scratch on it. I usually go refurbed with a 1-year warranty. If anything's going to die from a manufacturer's defect, it usually happens within the first year from my experience.

Not that what I'm saying is "it." There are many different ways to look at it. That's just my 0.02 :)
posted by Ekim Neems at 11:27 AM on December 28, 2005

I do most of my work in Windows too but when it comes to movie making I'd recommend an Apple laptop with Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro, and external firewire/USB drives for video storage.

It's true you could do the same using a Windows laptop and Adobe's video suite for Windows but movie makers prefer and better understand the Apple/Final Cut workflow.
posted by StarForce5 at 11:29 AM on December 28, 2005

But I'm thinking of buying a digital video camera and maybe try to make some movies with it. Do I need a mac for this?

Unless you want to deal with the hassles of Windows-based digital video editor software, your best bet is indeed a PowerBook with a Superdrive (DVD burner). The Applecare service plan is very good and Apple gets the highest service rating of computer vendors for its warranty repairs.
posted by Rothko at 11:32 AM on December 28, 2005

It's true you could do the same using a Windows laptop and Adobe's video suite for Windows but movie makers prefer and better understand the Apple/Final Cut workflow.

1. Avid more directly compares with Final Cut, and it supports Windows and OSX equally well

2. The current generation of Apple notebooks are rather slow. Expect to see Intel based notebooks in mid January.

3. As far as I know, Apple doesn't do same-day service like dell does. You can take your mac into an apple store, but if it needs any parts they don't have, you will be without a computer for a few days.

4. If you like the Apple aesthetic, but want to stick with x86, or need high performance now, look into Sony's VAIO notebooks. I have both Apples and Sonys, and find the build quality and overall execution to be roughly similar. Dell is clearly a cut below, but they sort of make up for it with the same day service.

5. I have three notebooks and a few desktops, so if any one machine fails, I can tolerate a few days for repairs. When I only had one computer, it was a dell notebook with next day onsite service.

6. For basic video editing, just about anything will be fine. I put some short stop-motion videos together with an 800 mhz p3 notebook and 500mb of RAM. If you are doing more sophisticated editing, get as much power as you can. People that have the quad proc G5 towers find that everything runs much faster, but it still could be faster.
posted by b1tr0t at 11:53 AM on December 28, 2005

If you're only doing home movies, either iMovie or Windows Movie Maker will be fine.

I agree with the above posters that Dells aren't too bad. Right now www.bensbargains.net has a $500 Dell laptop that you could upgrade to have a DVD burner for just a bit more...
posted by k8t at 11:58 AM on December 28, 2005

My dell laptop has had an issue or two, but for the most part has held up great. The issue or two it had were probably my fault, too. I was kind of hard on the keyboard.

If you've got the money to spend on a Thinkpad (formerly IBM, now Lenovo) I'm told they're spectacular, but if you're looking for the cheapest deals, I'd follow slickdeals and techbargains daily for a week or two and spot a great Dell deal. There's good deals all the time.
posted by twiggy at 12:00 PM on December 28, 2005

I'm on my third Dell Latitude laptop from work and I hate them. I'd much rather have a Toshiba or HP. The newest one is a D600 and I've already got the "click of death" happening. I think the problem with Dell is they keep no inventory so they actually manufacture the machines after they are ordered. While that works great in a restaurant I don't think it translates into making solid machines.
posted by any major dude at 12:49 PM on December 28, 2005

I manage a department that supports a fleet of ~60 notebooks in the field that spend their time in fairly harsh environments (machines shops, railyards, factories) and are largely used by salesmen who are not technically inclined and are not particularly gentle with their machines. Since we made the decision to move to Thinkpads (T and X series) 3 years ago my techs lives have been vastly simplified. Very happy with both the product and the support. The transistion to Lenovo has not yet caused any change in the ownership experience.
posted by tcskeptic at 1:07 PM on December 28, 2005

I edit with Vegas 6 and it rocks the wasteland. I also use FCP and Avid, but prefer Vegas for sheer ease of design and workflow. You can edit HD on this using the Cineform intermediary codec which is built in. It works well with off-the-shelf systems, but if you look on the vegas forum there's a lot of discussion about what's the best system to run it on, including laptops.

http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/forums/ShowTopics.asp?ForumID=4
posted by gallois at 1:08 PM on December 28, 2005

Whatever you decide, I highly suggest you get a Pentium M and not a Celeron M. You might even want to wait a month or two, because Intel's new Yonah chipset is going to be making its way into laptops soon. That might be one of those things that make you say "doh!" -- shelling out for a Pentium M and then having these new chips come out at the same price point.
posted by Ekim Neems at 1:26 PM on December 28, 2005

I bought my Dell M70 earlier this year specifically to do video editing, and I have a friend who edited his digital feature film on his laptop which was a Dell M60. They're the business, but the down side is that they're not cheap.

Really, when it comes to editing, it's the editor, not the program. If all you have is Windows Movie Maker, or Avid Free DV, you'll still be able to cut something together. I'm a big fan of "no frills" editing. Pesky things like dissolves don't maketh the editor(eth). Maybe go with Avid Free DV, cos then if you get really serious with your new hobby, you could buy the next version up, and you're already familiar with the program.

Maybe Avid *is* overrated (the debate between editors will never be resolved), but it's cool that they have tiers of versions, so if you want to learn the ropes you can use their free version, and if you want to do everything you can pay through the nose for the opportunity, and everything in between.

Bottom line, Final Cut is cool, and Apple is all trendy and stuff, but there's plenty of options for PC editing so you don't need to go with Apple (as some have suggested above).
posted by ancamp at 1:43 PM on December 28, 2005

Here's the deal (at least in my opinion)...

1. PC or MAC? If you are comfortable with a PC, get one. Same deal with a Mac. Which ever platform you use most often and find that you are most comfortable with is going to yeild the most enjoyable results. You don't want to waste time learning a whole new GUI.

2. A laptop can in fact handle video editing. I bought mine with the same intentions1 year and a half ago (Compaq R3000z). Like you said, though, you do get what you pay for. Spend more now so it lasts longer and saves you time and money (and headaches!) Here are some things you want o look for:

A. RAM - A gig or more will ensurethat there is little waiting time when rendering. If you can, spring for one 1 gig stick of ram over two 512Mb sticks so you can easily upgrade in the future.
B. External HDD - An external hard drive of AT LEAST 100 gigs should be purchased. Truth is, most laptop hard drives just don't have the access times or space that their heftier counterparts do. Plus, it's a great way to archive your masterpieces so you can later recut them if you want.
C. Screen Resolution - Go big. Way big. Most video editing apps are designed to be run on a multi-monitor setup. You have one. You must make up for that by having as much room as possible on the one you do have (mine? 1920x1200)
D. Processor - I would recommend not getting anything that has an M on it. Mobile processors are nice for spreadsheets and emails, but video editing is one of the mot demanding things you can do with a computer. Go for something meaty.


In my own experience, I have found the high-end Compaqs to be quite nice. The last bit of advice I can offer a new editor is the following: read as many tutorials as you can. I chose to work with Adobe 6, then 6.5, then Pro, then Pro1.5 along with Encore and After Effects. There actually are people out there who want to share their knowledge with you for free!

Pixel2Life
Wrigley Video Tutorials
posted by ThFullEffect at 2:46 AM on December 29, 2005

Also, DVD+R is worthless, go DVD-R or wait and get an external drive.
posted by ThFullEffect at 2:48 AM on December 29, 2005

MacBook Pro.
posted by sirsteven at 9:59 PM on January 12, 2006