Laptop for drone video editing 4k

Ok, will have my finger on the button 29th :rofl:

I will be very interested to see what you put here I know nothing about computers and I always prefer to get advice from someone who I can trust thanks for helping us all

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07SZ1DRSQ

ASUS TUF FX505DV 15.6" FHD 120Hz Thin Bezel Gaming Laptop (AMD R7-3750H, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 6GB, 512GB PCI-e SSD, 16GB RAM, Windows 10)

£899

Seems a great price for a RTX 2060 laptop with 16GB ram and 512GB PCIe SSD.

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They also have this on special which has 8GB ram, smaller SSD and lower CPU/GPU.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07S2ZLNS2/?th=1&psc=1

£598.50

Seems good, it’s around 20% slower processing power than the I7 8750h though. Not sure if I would see any real world difference…

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Yeah the i7 8750H is 6 core 12 thread and ryzen 7 is 4 core 8 thread.

How much of that gets used comes down to the software.

I’d be more inclined to go with a better CPU than GPU.

It’s just finding the right balance.

The Currys one is hard to beat at the moment and only thing letting it down is the RAM.

Thinking the 17" screen would also be better given portability is not an issue for you.

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Just dug this out from a review @richardmarsh888 some guideline for editing spec.
( I use a i9 7980, 64gb ddr4 3600hzs, and a Titan V.) bit overkill but then some applications I use does max it out.

Computer Buying Cheat Sheet

Here are your basic specs to look for when buying a computer for video editing:

  • Memory/RAM : 8-32 GB RAM or as much as you can afford (ideally at least 16GB)

  • Processor : Multi-core Intel i5/i7/i9 models (i9 is best). Preferably 4 or more processor cores.

  • Storage : At least 256 GB hard drive, 7200 RPM, preferably SSD (fastest)… buy as much as you can afford, you can always add external hard drives.

  • Graphics card : Depends on video editing software. For example, Premiere Pro and Davinci Resolve do well with both AMD and NVIDIA. (Minimum 2GB memory)

It’s good to budget sometimes but can be false economy for some apps.
And yeh! Apple Macs were made for this kind of work ( so they say ?)

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Factor in the software you are going to use as a possible cost. Premiere is expensive, never your own as it is subscription based and buggy as hell. da Vinci free version is mega powerful and unless you are editing drone footage for the current Bond movie will be more than enough for your likely purpose. Probably best for you to investigate what their suggested requirements for CPU/GPU/Ram (which da Vinci is very picky about) are so you can base your purchase on those. 16GB is pretty minimal for this sort of stuff IMO.

I use da Vinci on a iMac 27" 32gb late 2015 but not the most outstanding GPU. Nevertheless performs flawlessly with pretty much anything and runs Windows alongside as well. da Vinci won’t even run on my elderly workday laptop.

There are a number of other free very powerful video editing packages which don’t have quite the demands of the really high end packages. A few hours pre Black Friday looking at some YouTube video reviews of the main ones would be a good move for you. It is often the best approach to first be clear what software you are going to use and make your hardware choice based on that.

It is always a temptation to throw as much money as you can at something (which I do regularly!) only to find it is massive overkill and unnecessary expense. So I end up with 4 expensive drones when I only need one and very little in the way of decent weather to fly any! However the cold wet days are ideal for improving video editing skills with batteries stored safely away.

Have a look at Laptops Direct and Ebuyer for possible good deals. Not everybody on the forum would recommend the Drones Direct part of the “Direct” group but I have found all of them very good to deal with.

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Would recommend highly a laptop with “usb 3.1 generation 2” ports. And also an external drive that supports the same spec. The Samsung T5 is a good example of one of these drives and fairly affordable now. Shifting 4k video between memory chips/drones and the computer can take a while and the above spec is substantially faster than any 7200rpm drive or usb 3.1 generation 1 set up I used before. Hope that helps! (I also have an external micro SD card reader of usb 3.1 gen 2 and it zips through data transfers).

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At the moment the front runner is https://www.scan.co.uk/products/156-msi-gp65-leopard-9se-078uk-gaming-laptop-144hz-i7-9750h-rtx2060-6gb-16gb-ddr4-1tb-hdd-256gb-ssd

I cant seem to find anything comparable in whole at a lower price. I would love to have a better understanding of the video software and tailor the computer accordingly but I don’t know enough about it. I am currently looking at the adobe elements and photoshop package for £120.

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Richard, its always good to get a cross section of views.
for learning ref; check out on line some of the Gaming/Editing laptops reviews, also video editing software reviews, some interesting reviews around.

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Perhaps start by looking here then?
After that look at other packages like Filmora 9 which is well thought of and very powerful.

If you are inexperienced in this area the learning curve and what a package can do compared to what you want it to do should be the primary concern. So essential to look at video reviews to see how these editors work as they are not all equally easy to use. Hardware is not really a big issue as there is no shortage of suitable candidates. Important to make sure however that whatever software you choose is easy to get to grips with. I notice your budget has risen from < £1200 to nearer £1400 and MSI would not be on my list at that price whatever its spec seems to suggest. A good deal is not necessarily a good solution for what you want. You can do much better than that for that sort of price IMO.

Adobe Premier Elements and Photoshop Elements are still a cost and IMO not a great combo anyway. If you actually need photo editing then Serif Affinity Photo is a much cheaper and for most people far more than they will ever need and very easy to use and available cheaply on iPad now as well.

I admit to some (considerable actually) bias against Adobe stuff as in recent years they have moved to a ridiculously expensive subscription model for all their professional stuff with just a few cut-down Elements packages and what they do is incredible bloat-ware with most of the facilities for most folk not needed. I used to use Adobe software but there are better easier options either for free or at a fraction of the cost.

I would advise to choose software first following studying reviews of different editors and then it is more sensible to consider hardware based on that.

Then perhaps look at Best Video Editing laptops rather than being bamboozled by our very personal and picky tastes!

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This one probably seems expensive but more of a prosumer model with 100% sRGB screen and great build quality.

You’d want to upgrade the RAM to 16GB.

https://deals.dell.com/en-uk/productdetail/3ka8?clickid=1101l7stvxbk&VEN1=100l1256&dgc=af&dgseg=arb&cid=248317&lid=62986&acd=2397248317629860&VEN3=851205002802132492

Processor

9th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-9750H, 12 MB Cache, 6 Core, up to 4.50 GHz

Operating Systems

Windows 10 Home 64bit, English, Dutch, French, German, Italian

Video Card

NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1650 4GB GDDR5

Display

15.6-inch FHD (1920 x 1080) Anti-Glare InfinityEdge Non-Touch 100% sRGB 500-Nits Display

Hard Drive

256 GB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid-State Drive

Memoryi

8 GB, 2 x 4 GB, DDR4, 2666 MHz

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I bought my laptop from PCSecialist
15.6" Matte Full HD IPS LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™ i7 Quad Core Processor 6700HQ (2.6GHz, 3.5GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM) 16GB Kingston SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz (2 x 8GB)
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 950M - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12
1st Storage Drive 250GB Samsung 850 2.5" EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR 520MB/sW)
2nd Storage Drive 480GB KINGSTON V300 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb (450MB/R, 450MB/W)
Memory Card Reader Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
1 x UK Power Lead & 120W AC Adaptor

This all cost me £854 February 2016 The only thing I would change is a better graphics card. But that would have put me well over my budjet.

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I ended up getting this today. Got them to price match to £1149. Dont think I could have got better for the price.

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/hp-omen-15-6-intel-core-i7-rtx-2060-gaming-laptop-512-gb-ssd-10193606-pdt.html

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Great choice!

Was literally just about to post the same laptop from AO that came in around what you paid using a discount code.

https://ao.com/product/7dy22eaabu-hp-laptop-black-69738-251.aspx?WT.srch=1&WT.z_MT=drytinder&WT.z_RTM=PHG&WT.z_CN=304092&WT.z_AG=Forum&WT.z_AT=&WT.z_KW=drytinder

Good CPU, 16GB Ram, RTX 2060.

Ideal and I’m jealous.

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Thanks! And thanks to you and others here for guiding me in the right direction!

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Good price and good spec Rich.
Well done!:+1:

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I need to update laptop so I can download mavic air videos any ideas welcome thanks

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MacBook Pro

Just works.

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