I use the Dell Inspiron 9300 with Premiere Pro 2.0 (and same with Premiere Pro 1.5) The laptop barely cost me anything and it runs the entire Production Studio great. Also, it has a higher end graphics card, so if you plan on upgrading to Premiere Pro 2.0, you can use the GPU to speed up previews with certain effects.
However, Dell has now released the Inspiron 9400. It is a core duo notebook and VERY fast. I gave it a spin a few days ago and the difference was almost 40% faster.
Here are a few tips:
If you are looking to purchase a laptop, keep a look out at https://www.slickdeals.net. You can easily pick the 9400 for less than $1400. However, once you DO purchase it, select the lowest amount of RAM possible. Dell charges you around $400/GB. You can get 2gbs of RAM from https://www.newegg.com for a total of $200.
Let me know if you have any more questions…
Aanarav Sareen
premiere@asvideoproductions.com