What could fix my speed issue?

Question

Hi Guys, I recently bought CS6 Production Premium on a Student Discount - I got a new laptop earlier this year with the intent to use it for lots of my editing, however lots of the time when I am editing either 1080i (the format our school cameras record in) or 1080p from our Canon 650D, even with the preview quality set on 1/2 or 1/4, the video can become jumpy and out of sync with the audio, usually solved by stopping the video, rewinding and then starting again. I'm currently editing a production for my school, the videos of the camcorders were MTS files (AVCHD), which I edited separately at first in a multicamera sequence, then exported into a H.264 video for editing in a new sequence (I'm probably crazy doing it this way round, but I'm still learning Premiere Pro) and it can happen every few minutes. The specs of my laptop are below - it's a Sony Vaio, and I believe I met all the specs except the HDD speed (my question!)
Product ID : SVE1512C5E
Description : Laptop SV-E1512C5E - Configurable
Price  :               538,48
Memory : 6 GB 1600 MHz DDR3-SDRAM
Hard drive : 500 GB Serial ATA (5400 rpm)
Graphics : AMD Radeon(TM) HD 7650M 2GB
Battery : Battery life up to 4 hours
Keyboard Style : Backlight keyboard
Sony Creative software : No Imagination Studio Suite
Optical Drive : Blu-ray Disc(TM) writer
Wireless LAN : Wireless LAN (IEEE 802.11bgn)
Processor : Intel® CoreTM i5-3210M, 2.5GHz
Display : 39.5cm LED 1366 x 768 + webcam
Finishes : Black
McAfee Security Software : No protection
Adobe® Creation : No Adobe Creation
Adobe® Lightroom® : No Adobe® Lightroom 4
Microsoft® Office 2010 : Office 2010 Trial
Operating system : Windows 8
Language and keyboard : English (QWERTY)
Could the hard drive be the reason behind my issue? The requirements said it should be 7200rpm, but this drive is only 5400rpm. If it is, I'd rather not have to change the drive, but look at an external hard drive instead.
I found on Amazon a Seagate 2tb USB 3.0 hard drive, if I stored all my editing files on that, would I see a speed difference? If not, what else would you suggest?
Thanks in advance.
Jon
Message was edited by: JonITB [fixing formatting]

Answer 1

....I have an i7 laptop WITH an NVidia CUDA card......and MTS files are difficult to edit natively.....esp.with more than one track.  This AVCHD MTS particular codec is harder to edit than the Canon MOV files from my DSLR.
    However, you CAN improve things without buying a whole new laptop to temporarily get by.....it'll still be slow....but, better.
A.   USE THE USB3 high speed  external port.....connect a cheap, ( $30-50) external USB3 DOCK and plug into it ANY 2.5",or, 3.5" HDD (7,200rpm),or, SSD for a fast location to place your media,( video files)AND all cache and preview files.......project files can remain on slow internal "C" drive.
      A super fast,great SSD....the Crucial M4.....has been on sale recently for CHEAP!!!!   Ideally, you would make BOTH drives M4's....and scrap the 5400rpm drive. Using USB 3 is buggy....you have to UNCHECK box in Windows device manager ( under "USB3 Root Hub"), which allows Windows to SHUT OFF the drive whenever it wants!
THEN, if drive still won't work right.....enter BIOS on startup and make sure correct selection is made concerning USB3 controller....I had to select "E" something....rather than "X" something to get it to work....now OK with Windows reporting over 300MB per sec. transfers between my internal M4 SSD and external Corsair Force 120 SSD !!!
B. MOST IMPORTANT FOR YOU :   you will have to do like everyone in "the old days"....like 2 years ago......and TRANSCODE the sections of footage you want to use as source material into a more "edit friendly" codec for your PC and PPro. Unless you are doing pristeen broadcast work..... esp.as a student.....using MPEG 2 is a fine compromise...yes, you lose a little because of compression, ( not really noticeable...you can test).....but, it stays HD and is MUCH easier for you to work with without creating massive files that need a fast data rate to run......you can reseach many other codecs which will work on weaker, older computers. The free DNxHD for Windows works, too.
C. REALIZE that if you really like to edit HD video a lot........READ THIS FORUM THOROUGHLY and STUDY the PPBM 5, ( 6&7) websites to learn as much as you can about what hardware and what setups work...and what doesn't....before spending any money !!! ALSO REALIZE that continuing to edit on your current system may be HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH .....CAUSING PREMATURE BALDNESS AND ALZHEIMER'S SYNDROME, AS BY THE TIME YOUR MACHINE FINISHES RENDERING....YOU WILL BE DROOLING OUT OF THE CORNER OF YOUR MOUTH IN A WHEELCHAIR AT THE  "RETIRED VIDEO EDITORS OLD AGE RESORT" IN SUN CITY ARIZONA !!!!!!!
*** almost forgot!!!!....connect , using HDMI port, an external HDTV or monitor to see entire user interface......you can select the external as a timeline monitor,or, use it for the PPro interface with the laptop screen as the timeline monitor.
Also, INCREASING YOUR SYSTEM MEMORY MAY HELP......the Sony website says you have 8GB memory....not 6......if you only have two slots, it STILL may be possible to place two matching 8GB sticks in there.......this would help, if possible to do.
best solution : ....BUY NEW MACHINE !!!!!