Laptops to run Davinci Resolve?

Would really value any suggestions please on makes/models of laptops etc - without spending the earth - people tend to use for running Davinci Resolve to edit video. I am a Windows OS, rather than an Apple person, so would prefer to stick with the former. Would like to also be able to edit in 4k. Have seen the DR min. technical specs. New to droning and totally new to video editing! Thanks so much in advance.

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You’re missing out on the Apple M-series silicon :confused:

It eats 4K video for breakfast while pointing and laughing at the Windows machines costing four times as much and unable to keep up.

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Runs okay on my 2019 Intel MacBook… and it keeps the whole house warm whilst it does :wink: :rofl:

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It will of course boil down to price, but these are the main considerations:

CPU: The higher the speed and more cores, the better. You really want an i7 or greater
RAM: I’d say 16GB as a minimum, but 32GB would be better
HDD: THe fastest (and largest!) you can find. If you were planning on keeping your drone footage on a separate drive, ensure that’s an SSD (M.2, and check the speeds as not all drives are equal). You’ll be looking at a minimum of 1TB here
GPU (Graphics card): Again, the faster the better. Nvidia is the market leader here, but the model numbers will range, depending on the age of the laptop model. I’d do a lot of research in this area.

If you’re on a budget, then I’d spend more on the graphics card, hard drive and RAM (if you’re considering moving from 16 to 32GB), in that order. However, note that the free version of Resolve is limited to a single GPU - not important for a laptop, but will be if you are spec’ing up a desktop PC for performance. While a better CPU will help with overall computer performance, if the focus is on DaVinci performance then it’s all about providing the most and fastest bandwidth for your data. More RAM is going to give you that bandwidth, and a decent SSD will help with any reading/writing.

Hope that helps.

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Get the M4 Mac Mini. I’ve only used Windows for the past 30-odd years but have iPhones and ipad, so bought the M4 when it was released. It all integrates so well and DV runs great on it.

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Ahh yes Apple products. Do what they do beautifully but at a higher cost than anything but the top spec gaming lappy’s. Plus you’re buying into the Apple philosophy which is “Think of a number, double it, times that by 3 and that’s what it’s gonna cost. ( don’t forget to make sure it can’t easily be upgraded by the owner) :joy::joy::joy::joy::joy::joy::joy::joy:

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That was my point :roll_eyes:

An Apple M-series computer is 4x cheaper than the Windows equivalent of a same spec required to encode 4K video as fast as the Apple silicon does.

I’m not sure that last sentence was grammatically correct, I’ll try again later :rofl:

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@GerryA what’s your budget for the laptop?

No point in us recommending you spend £1,000 if your budget is capped to £400 :slight_smile:

A little guidance will get you some good recommendations :smiley:

£570 is a fair bit cheaper than top-spec gaming laptops :smile:

Edit: you do need monitor, kb and mouse if you don’t have those already. And the base Mac Mini is pretty stingy with storage but you can get a portable ssd to hang off it for £70/1TB.

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Each to their own but I say go Apple or go home ( joking aside ) I could never go back to windows :scream::joy:

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Thing is Apple products work well with each other. Connectivity to other Apple products is a doddle. Where I’ve found they let me down is connectivity with non Apple tech. My iPad won’t connect with my Android phone. Last year at Foxton Locks a couple of boat owners asked if I’d take photos of their boats from the air. After downloading the photos to my phone, I transferred the first set to a fellow android phone user via Bluetooth. No probs. Second boat owner had an iPhone and neither of us could even pair the phones together. I ended up with his email address and sent the images via email when I got home.

The second last line on the advert, Works with iPhone/iPad. That’s my point right there. With modern tech it should work well with any other tech.

What way are you trying to connect? And to do what?

WhatsApp or email from phone. It’s easy enough to do. BT is rubbish for large data transfers anyway.

Ummm, ok :person_shrugging:t2:

@GerryA was just looking for a laptop to edit some 4K video :slight_smile:

Paul, in the example above, I tried to pair my android phone with my iPad, the Apple product just ain’t having it. Same problem at Foxton Locks, wouldn’t pair with an iPhone so I could send the images via Bluetooth. Whats the point in Apple putting Bluetooth on their products if it won’t accept files/ images from non Apple products ? Rather defeats the purpose :wink:

I accept your point. But he did say he’s a Windows user and didn’t want to consider anything else :wink:

Thanks. Nice heat bonus, at this brisk Feb time of the year! :blush:

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Thanks PingSpike, really helpful. 'Those pesky windows laptops!':blush:

Thanks so much (The) Martin - that’s super helpful.