Laptop recommendations for After Effects / Premiere 03.2013

[Michael Garske]

I leaning now towards this model:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/891165-REG/ASUS_g55vw_dh71_i7_3630QM_8GB_DDR3_500GB_HD_Windows_8.html

I understand despite what the manufacture says it’s capable of supporting 32Gb of ram.

[Ridley Walker]

Or…

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/924705-REG/toshiba_psplzu_06r002_intel_i7_3630qm_12gb_ddr3_1tb_hd_windows.html

[Todd Kopriva]

For After Effects, the factors that matter most are, in order, these:

1. RAM and CPU
2. fast disks (preferably SSD for caches)
3. GPU

At the risk of being redundant, I really need to stress that the GPU is _last_ for After Effects.

For Premiere Pro, the GPU is somewhat more important. A system more for Premiere Pro would have less RAM, with the money saved spent on a better GPU.

Don’t skimp on the speedy disk drive(s).

See this page for information about hardware for Premiere Pro and After Effects: https://adobe.ly/pRYOuk

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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
After Effects quality engineering
After Effects team blog
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[Michael Garske]

Thanks for that. I forgot to mention I’m leaning towards a 15.6in for portability. If they make that model in that size that looks like a plan. I wish these didn’t come preinstalled with windows 8 though. I have heard compared to windows 7 64bit it can cause your system to run more slowly. I am considering buying a ssd to install os/adobe suite on. Or is it more important that the cache be on ssd? I assume its not a good idea to put both on the same drive.

[Todd Kopriva]

> I assume its not a good idea to put both on the same drive.

Not correct.

The important thing is to not put use the same drive for two things that need to be read or written at the same time. This isn’t a concern with applications/OS and After Effects caches, since the former are read at application load time, and the latter are read through application running. They don’t conflict.

On the other hand, you don’t want to store footage and caches on the same drive, since they’re being read (or written) at the same time in many cases.

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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
After Effects quality engineering
After Effects team blog
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[David Price]

Just to ask a little further about your advice on where to store footage/caches Todd, (“On the other hand, you don’t want to store footage and caches on the same drive, since they’re being read (or written) at the same time in many cases.”)

Am I correct in thinking that ideally 3 drives are needed, (for aftereffects/cinema 4d work predominantly), one to store footage, one for caches (is this good enough for a hybrid drive with 8gb cache?) plus one other drive to render to? Or would two suffice?

Second question is, with an nVidia 860M do I need to worry at all that it’s bitrate is only 128, as opposed to an 880M that starts at 256? I only ask as somewhere else I heard it was considered possibly more important than the videocard’s memory. (which both are 4gb). Just really wanting to eliminate any bottlenecks for Photoshop/AE/Cinema4D workflow.

For clarity I’m looking into an Asus N51GM with 1TB sata 7200, GeForce GTX 860M plus adding either one or two 240GB ssd’s. (I will also be running a cintiq and possibly separate monitor too).

Many thanks for any clarity on this!

David