Help with new laptop choice... PLS!!

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Help with new laptop choice... PLS!!

Postby robc333 » Sat Mar 02, 2013 4:26 pm

Hi.. I'm soo done with reading reviews on performance (gaming laptops) I thought I'd go right to the source, as I will be using this laptop mainly with PSP. I'm using this software to align videos/gifs/images with music & the laptop I currently have tends to lag on larger video/gif files during the editing process. I've read that PSP doesn't handle video well?.. so my question is will I need a powerful desktop replacement (Alienware) to solve this problem or will it still be an issue given the limitations of PSP? I would prefer the portability of the new (Macbook Pro retina) although it seems running in windows could be counter-productive.. or the (Razer Blade) IF! these would be sufficient? but will go with the heavy desktop replacement if need be. Either way I will be spending around $3000.. my main concern is to be able to work with gifs/video efficiently. those slim devices sure are appealing tho! Will the uprgade to either the MBP or Razer Blade solve my problems?

*note currently hardware acceleration is not available for me in PSP.. I know there are many cheaper alternatives.. but I've kinda narrowed it down to these..Any advice is much appreciated.. thx:)

Current Laptop
(Asus)
CPU i5 2.53GHz
RAM 4GB
NVIDIA GeForce GT 425M

(Macbook Pro Retina) $2799
CPU 2.7GHz Quad Core i7 Turbo Boost up to 3.7GHz
RAM 16GB
HD 512GB SSD
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB of GDDR5 memory
http://store.apple.com/ca/browse/home/s ... acbook_pro

(Razer Blade) $2499
CPU 2.2GHz Quad Core i7 with Hyper-Threading Turbo Boost up to 3.2GHz
RAM 8GB
HD 500GB 7200RPM HDD / 64GB SATA III SSD
NVIDIA® GeForce GTX 660M 2GB GDDR5
http://www.razerzone.com/store/razer-blade

(Alienware M18X R2) $2799
CPU i7-3630QM up to 3.4GHz w/Turbo Boost 2.0
RAM 24GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz
HD 128GB mSATA Boot Drive 750GB 7,200 RPM Storage 
Dual 2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon™ HD 7970M - CrossFireX™ Enabled
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Ali ... 048.0.html
Last edited by robc333 on Sun Mar 03, 2013 11:28 am, edited 3 times in total.

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Re: Help with new laptop choice... PLS!!

Postby BarbaraC » Sun Mar 03, 2013 5:47 am

This is purely personal opinion, so please take it as such:

Laptops are more expensive than equivalent desktops. Yes, a laptop has that nice element of portability, but in every other way, they fall short for me.

Your "hottest" pick for a laptop lags behind my son's desktop, which replaced his aging laptop. With a topnotch motherboard, video card, and CPU along with the lesser parts, his speed is incredible, and this is without the SSD drive he really hankered after. The entire setup cost well under $2000, and if at some point he wants a new CPU or motherboard, it's pretty much as easy as popping them in as opposed to buying a whole new computer. Envious of his new computer, I upgraded mine, which cost quite a bit less than a whole new computer.

Again, this is personal opinion: I prefer desktops for power, ability to upgrade, and price.

Barbara
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Re: Help with new laptop choice... PLS!!

Postby robc333 » Sun Mar 03, 2013 11:05 am

Thanks Barbara... Unfortunately I live out of a suitcase:) This is what attracts me to the slimmer Macbook type... But I don't mind lugging around the Alienware... I just don't see myself pulling it out on an airplane say. Which is fine... I just need to find out If the Macbook... (running in windows) or any other i7 CPU laptop with 1GB dedicated video, say min 8GB of ram... will render most anything I throw at it... Now I'm working mostly with gifs... And im actually quite happy with its performance.. Tho some slides will lag during playback.. But what if I want to start using higher quality video clips? I guess at what point are the ram and CPU irrelevant.. as to PSP's ability to work with video/gifs? Will the gpu acceleration ability.. Along with the other hardware improvements of a Macbook equivalent notebook be sufficient? Should I stay away from Mac (boot camp) altogether?

Thx again:)

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Re: Help with new laptop choice... PLS!!

Postby BarbaraC » Sun Mar 03, 2013 11:33 am

Video is certainly one of the tougher tests, but I imagine you'll be fine. Maybe a bit of patience might be required, but that's the price we all pay for our grander ideas. :D

My advice is always to get the absolute most and best a person can afford.

Just wondering: Why a Mac as opposed to a straight Windows laptop?

Barbara
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Re: Help with new laptop choice... PLS!!

Postby robc333 » Sun Mar 03, 2013 2:52 pm

Mainly cause its a beautiful, slim device.. n this windows 8? wth? :) but ya, I think I'll go with performance over convenience.. at least I'll know I wont have any regret.

Thx Barbara

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