Laptops for Vegas Pro in the field

[David Norman]

I have used it with my x230t by lenovo which has a i7 CPU, 8gb of RAM and a SSD, but you could not preview in full HD.

You need a discrete GPU that will play nice with Vegas (not easy) and the fastest GPU you can get in a notebook.

And either a really big battery, external battery or plug in.

or be okay with previewing the content with less than native resolution.

Sony Vegas Movie Studio
Intel i7 3770, 32gb, 2xRAID0 Intel 240gb SSD, 2x2TB WD Green, 3×23″ Samsung LCDs
http://www.SelmaBearsSoccer.com

[Brad Leigh]

I’m pretty happy with my HP elitebook. Win 7 pro. Has esata, Usb 3.0, and firewire. I would suggest the best i7 you can afford. Be careful some laptop i7 versions are dual not quad processors. ( my elitebook is a new gen i5 that will beat some old gen i7 dual processors)
Fastest i7 you can afford, I do get by editing HD though I have to dumb down the preview res if I get beyond simple cuts and dissolves. ( I am using HDV files usually which is less processor intensive)
I would look for dedicated ram for the video.( mine has 2gigs dedicated ram, doesn’t use system ram) and I don’t think there are many Laptops that would have a good enough GPU to pay extra for it. Usually the video processing in laptops is pretty weak.
Just my 2 cents.
Brad

i7 2600 3.4 Ghz 8Gig Ram , Win 7 Pro, Vegas Pro 12

[David Norman]

good point about some i7 CPUs being dual core.

are are some notebooks with GPUs that are good, but they are either gaming or workstations… generally heavy

Here is a powerful notebook that would be fantastic!
https://www.dell.com/us/business/p/precision-m4700/fs

or if you wanted something that was nicer looking and more portable…
https://www.razerzone.com/gaming-systems/razer-blade-pro/

Sony Vegas Movie Studio
Intel i7 3770, 32gb, 2xRAID0 Intel 240gb SSD, 2x2TB WD Green, 3×23″ Samsung LCDs
http://www.SelmaBearsSoccer.com

[Simon Laidlaw]

I researched this thoroughly about 12 months ago and the best value for performance ratio was a Dell Precision M6600.

Nearly the most powerful laptop with large full HD screen, long battery life and lots of RAM.

Only problems I’ve had are with CUDA rendering but I think that’s more an issue with Vegas than this machine.

It runs is Intel Core i7-2720QM CPU @2.20GHz with 16gb Ram

I also ran Avid MC6 on this machine using dual screen on the office and it ran like a charm.

http://www.cutmustard.tv

Members

[Chas Smith]

Thanks to all who have posted so far, I appreciate your taking the time to explain everything. I wanted to toss something else into the mix which may sound blasphemous considering this is a Sony Vegas Pro forum…but I have to ask since someone brought it up.

Since I’m looking at a location-edit laptop for quick/same-day edits… would there be another choice of NLE software to consider?
Don’t get me wrong, I think Vegas is great but there are times it gets quirky and/or slows me down. I’ve had colleagues tell me I should just “get a Mac/Powerbook w/FCP” for location stuff. But I’d like to stay in the PC realm.

Any thoughts? I see some local news shooters use Avid or Edius on their rigs.

Thanks,

Chas

[Chas Smith]

Incidentally, does anyone know if Sony makes a laptop that’s optimized for (Vegas) video editing? I had a VAIO (F650 I think) years ago that I bought hastily because of the Y2K bug worries. It handled video “OK” (standard def) and had a great little video program called “MovieShaker”… a random edit selection that strung together scenes from your HD to fit a pre-selected theme. It was great for quick promo bits to give clients a pre-vis of what-if’s.

You’d think Sony would have a laptop paired with Vegas that would smoke…. but I’ve yet to run across anyone who uses Vegas Laptops for pro-video work. I wish I could find the MovieShaker or something like it as it was waaay cool for what it was.

Chas

[Ian Pearson]

I use Vegas 11 on an MSI laptop GT780DXR-095. I bought it used for 750 bucks on ebay. It has Quad I7 Sandy Bridge, 12GB Ram, dual hard drive bays and I replaced one with an SSD for another hundred bucks, and use the other for video and data files. It came with a GTX 570M graphics card and full 1080p display. The GTX 500 series are the best Nvidia cards for Vegas due to architectural changes in the later series that messed up render acceleration. If I’m plugged in to power, I get great performance. I get Good/full 1080 24p at full speed even after adding some color correction filters. If I’m on battery it’s not quite as snappy but still very useable. I love this thing. FYI its a BIG laptop.

Ian

[‘jan Van der meer’]

Hello Chas or others any ideas? Me also travel a lot, edit a lot in Vegas and wanna edit fine with loads of batt power! BUT now in 4K (Gh4) so what is the best choise for a laptop easy quickest and safe to carry!????