What Laptop for CS4 editing?

I'm looking into editing in Premiere Pro CS4 on a Laptop machine using the Matrox Video for Windows (VFW) software codecs to edit offline. I need to be able to perform multicamera editing with up to 4 cameras and do basic editing on a timeline. We have 2 Axio LE systems at the office and we are setting up a laptop system so that we can edit offline at home. Then when we return to the office we can just bring the project files from the laptop onto a Axio for further editing.
I have a couple of questions such as; what computer should I get with what video card? I know matrox has a few but which one in particular is recommended? I don't just want the minimum requirements. We use M2T files for our editing that only work in matrox projects. Will they work using the VFW codec for CS4? Will I need a separate hard drive for video files, what kind, speed and connection will I need? Firewire, what? I understand what the minimum requirements are but what do you recommend? I absolutely need a video card that can give me some preview out of the computer.
Also with the CS4 license, if I put our existing software on the laptop will we have any authorization problems. Only one of the computers will be in use at a time. Will I have to buy 2 new CS4 to CS5 upgrades when I'm ready to upgrade CS5 or only 1?
Thank you!

One license allows installation on two machines. If you want to install on a third machine, you need another license.
This may be a good notebook:

Similar Messages

Suitable laptop for video editing

Hello,
for months now I am looking for a suitable laptop for video editing of my footage captured by Canon 60D (and also GoPro). Since it is in a HD quality and h.264 format it puts a great strain on the CPU. I already had to return an ASUS U30J and Dell XPS14 both with i7 processors because of their terribly slow performance :(. So now, I really want to be 100% sure that the laptop will be able to smoothly handle my footage. I am using Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 for video editing and I do need a laptop (preferably 15'') as I travel all the time.
Here are the specifications of the Force 16F2 laptop built on MSI 16F2 (from the xoticpc.com), which I have chosen so far:
FORCE 16F2 / MSI 16F2
- 15.6” FHD 16:9 LED Backlit Wide screen (1920x1080) Super Clear Glare Type Screen
- 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-2720QM, 2.2-3.3GHz, (32nm, 6MB L3 cache)
- IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU (Cools better than all Compounds)
- nVidia GeForce GTX 560M 1,536MB PCI-Express GDDR5 DX11
- 12,288MB (12GB) DDR3 1333MHz Dual Channel Memory (2x4GB 2x2GB)-
- Standard Finish
- - 500GB (w/ 4GB SSD Memory) Seagate XT 7200RPM NCQ Hybrid 32MB Cache (Serial-ATA II 3GB/s)- or 750GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache Buffer (Serial-ATA II 3GB/s)--
- 750GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache Buffer (Serial-ATA II 3GB/s)-
- Raid 0 Stripe Enabled (Requires 2 or 3 Hard Drives. Combines Hard Drives for performance)
- 500GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache Buffer (Serial-ATA II 3GB/s) in ODD Bay
- 3 Year Complete Care Warranty - 3 Year Parts with Ground Shipping, 24/7 Telephone Tech Support & Lifetime Labor Warranty
I would like to ask you what do you think about this configuration regarding my requirements? Will this system be powerful enough to handle the h.264 footage? I would like to use both the SLR camera and the laptop as long as possible and don't have to change the laptop in one year time or so. That's why I would like the system to be powerful enough to withstand even future demands of the software, etc.
I was also not sure about the 500GB (w/ 4GB SSD Memory) Seagate XT 7200RPM NCQ Hybrid 32MB Cache (Serial-ATA II 3GB/s. Do you think it is a smart choice? Is the 4GB SSD memory of any use? Or should I rather go with the 750GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache Buffer (Serial-ATA II 3GB/s)?
I don't have any previous experience with the raid system, do you think that the Raid 0 Stripe Enabled (Requires 2 or 3 Hard Drives. Combines Hard Drives for performance) is the right choice for smooth video editing? I know that I have to use at least 2 hard drives so that's why I'd rather order 3 HDD to get the best performance..
This configuration is worth 1800USD, I would obviously like to save some money as I will need to pay also the shipping costs, tax and duty (I currently live in New Delhi)... So if you think that something from the system might be downgraded and I would still get good video editing results, please let me know.
Do you think that the 3 Year Complete Care Warranty - 3 Year Parts with Ground Shipping, 24/7 Telephone Tech Support & Lifetime Labor Warranty is of any use when I am not from the US? Should I rather go with the 1 Year warranty?
I would very much appreciate any feedback from you!
Misha

Frederick, I will firstly answer your questions, I am in no way a pro video editor, my projects are up to 10MB of size although I wasn't yet able to edit the h.264 footage properly ... I mostly do events and quite simple projects, effects, two to three timelines... I use only h.264, my older projects are in DV quality thought. I usually have to rush to finish a project since I have limited time during the travels.. I usually work at one, maximum two projects at the same time
Now, I have been trying to figure out what would be the best configuration for me and ended up with these two options, which are touching (maybe even overflowing) my budget... Both are worth around USD2100 (without shipping, etc.). Either I will be going for one SSD disk for the OS or for maximum CPU and RAM. Which configuration would you recommend me? Do you think that the second configuration is an overkill when taken into account the size and scope of my projects?
With SSD disk:
FORCE 16F2 / MSI 16F2
- 15.6” FHD 16:9 LED Backlit Wide screen (1920x1080) Super Clear Matte Type Screen
- 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-2720QM, 2.2-3.3GHz, (32nm, 6MB L3 cache)
- IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU (Cools better than all Compounds)
- nVidia GeForce GTX 560M 1,536MB PCI-Express GDDR5 DX11
- 10,240MB (10GB) DDR3 1333MHz Dual Channel Memory (1x4GB 3x2GB)
- Standard Finish
- - 120GB OCZ Vertex 3 MAX IOPS Sandforce Solid State Drive (Up to Sequential Read 550MB/s - Write 500MB/s SSD Serial-ATA III)
- - 750GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache Buffer (Serial-ATA II 3GB/s)-
- HDD Raid Settings - OFF
- 320GB 7200RPM WD or Seagate (Serial-ATA II 3GB/s) in ODD Bay
- 3 Year Complete Care Warranty - 3 Year Parts with Ground Shipping, 24/7 Telephone Tech Support & Lifetime Labor Warranty
With better CPU and RAM:
FORCE 16F2 / MSI 16F2
- 15.6” FHD 16:9 LED Backlit Wide screen (1920x1080) Super Clear Matte Type Screen
- 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-2820QM, 2.3-3.4GHz, (32nm, 8MB L3 cache)
- IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU (Cools better than all Compounds)
- nVidia GeForce GTX 560M 1,536MB PCI-Express GDDR5 DX11
- 16,384MB (16GB) DDR3 1333MHz Dual Channel Memory (4x4GB)-SPECIAL
- Standard Finish
- - 750GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache Buffer (Serial-ATA II 3GB/s)-
- - 750GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache Buffer (Serial-ATA II 3GB/s)-
- HDD Raid Settings - OFF
- 320GB 7200RPM WD or Seagate (Serial-ATA II 3GB/s) in ODD Bay
- Stock OEM Thermal Compound ( IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU Provided FREE with Processor Upgrade!)
- Internal 7-in-1 Card Reader (MS/MS Pro/MS Duo/MS Pro Duo/SD/Mini-SD/MMC/RS)
- Internal Bluetooth + EDR
- Built-in 802.11 Wireless B/G/N - Stock Wireless Card
- Integrated Digital Video Camera
- Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio - Included
- Smart Li-ion Battery (9-Cell)
- 3 Year Complete Care Warranty - 3 Year Parts with Ground Shipping, 24/7 Telephone Tech Support & Lifetime Labor Warranty
Frederick, regarding the RAM I checked the 8GB option and it comes in 2GBx4 so I won't be able to save those slots. Plus I have been searching for prices of the RAM, HDD and SSD in the US and they don't seem to be that great for me to even consider them... I would simply have to pay more and would end up with unused parts from the basic configuration. I think that the Xoticpc have quite reasonable prices of the upgrades they offer... Plus I can count on higher prices of the components here in India so all in all I think that it would cost me too much energy and save me minimum bucks... That's why I thought I might go for the 16GB RAM straight away if it isn't an overkill for me. As I said before, I would love to save money (after all I am a woman who controls the common budget) so please let me know, if I am just wasting money for high end technology which I won't be able to use . I rather think that in the future once I will finally be able to make some money when I will have a machine to work on, I might upgrade to better hard drives (SSD possibly). But right now I need a laptop on which I would be able to smoothly edit the HD h.264 footage.
Thank you very much for your help!

Dell Latitude E6410 Laptop for PPCC editing?

I'm thinking of purchasing a Dell Latitude E6410 Laptop for mobile editing when I travel. My question is would it be sufficient to use for editing on PPCC? It will have an Intel Core I5 processor and 8gb of RAM.

I've personally used a e6410 with Premiere Pro CS5 with 8GB of RAM and while it does "run" Premiere Pro, it is FAR away from what I would deem a good laptop for Premiere Pro. This model is years old and the newer models do several things that help with Adobe a lot: take more RAM (16GB is much better than 8GB for PPro), drives are faster (SSDs much more common, my e6410 had a 256GB SSD and not many did back when this model was born 4 yrs ago), and as Bill already pointed out much more cable 22nm die quad core CPUs with hyperthreading (so, 8 cores available to PPro for editing).
You do not mention your workflow, but obviously editing DV would be much more acceptable on marginal hardware than trying to edit AVCHD or GoPro 4k!
I would expect a used e6410 to be worth about $250 today (street price). I really don't know why you would buy one now really? You can buy a sub-$1000 Asus and with a few modifications put together a really good "new" laptop so that may be a better option for you today.
Regards,
Jim

Need suggestion for Best Laptop for Premier Editing on the Go

Hello,
I am a longtime user of Premier and Aftereffects and planning to buy Premier CS4 in the next few weeks.
Considering I travel a lot I need a good laptop to edit my shoot while traveling. I would like to hear from this forum the recommended laptops for editing. I am budgeting around US $2,000/-.
Secondly should I request the laptop vendor for Windows XP instead of Windows Vista considering XP seems to have better speed than Vista. If CS4 is completely 64 bit then I may end up with Vista.
One review suggested Gateway P-7811FX is a good laptop for Photoshop / Premier CS4 since it is a gaming laptop and understand it weighs 9.1 lbs.
Thanks for reading this posting and all the suggestions - pointers in advance.

Holy crap...do NOT get a Gateway anything.
Gaming technologies and build concepts sometimes are useful in video production builds, but not always. Stuff like graphics rendering often doesn't affect video.
HP has a 17" laptop line in the dv7 that is pretty nicely configured. Dual 7200 RPM drives available, as well as on board eSATA built in (for additional storage, or for connecting to an external RAID array).
Vista 64 is preferable, since the OS can utilize more RAM. Even if the suite itself is only 64bit compatible (as opposed to completely 64bit "aware") you still benefit from the OS being able to delegate an entire set of RAM to each application without sharing from a small pool of only 4 GB. I believe you can configure that dv7 laptop with up to 8 GB of RAM (or at least it's capable of up to 8 GB, but maybe you have to purchase your own upgrades separately).
Vista 32 runs PPro and AE very fast on my laptop, faster than XP Pro ever worked for me. Vista is a little bit smarter about handling physical RAM and processor resources (Vista SP1 made the OS very usable, and 3rd party support is a non issue if you are purchasing new components or a new machine, as you seem to be doing...hiccups come with trying to get 5 or 10 year old hardware and software to work on a new OS like Vista). Don't believe too much of the hype until you've given it a shot.
Oh, about 64 bit support...Photoshop CS4 is 64-bit native (Windows Vista 64 only, not Mac OSX). After Effects and Premiere Pro can open multiple instances of the application for rendering and such to take advantage of RAM availability. After Effects and Premiere Pro do approach this slightly differently from one another, but the end result is still that you have a 32 bit application that is trying to act like a 64 bit one, and from what I've seen so far, that makes a difference over 32 bit OS.

Powerful laptop for video editing?

Sometimes people ask what laptop to buy for video editing. My laptop has the following specification.
1 gigabyte graphics memory (NVIDIA GeForce GT 620M)
Intel core i7 3632qm CPU (quad core, 2.2 GHz with maximum 3.2 GHz).
5400 RPM hard drive in two partions C: and D:
6 gigabytes with RAM
I use Windows 8.1, with Windows settings for maximum performance.
I have spent more than 200 hours editing a project which is about 110 minutes long.
RAM, graphics card respectively CPU have been no limitation. But my hard drive must often work hard.
Partition C: became full with media cache files since my project is so big. So in the future I will put the media cache files on partition D: For this project I solved the problem by deleting those media cache files which were no longer needed.
Alright, I have been forced to split up my long project into smaller pieces. So I have projects which each contains a few hours with raw material, out of which there is about 10 minutes on the timeline. For each project I export a video file. These files I import into another project where I join them into one video file which is 110 minutes long.
I find it inconvenient when PE 12 needs more than one minute to load a particular project. This is the reason why I split up my long project into smaller pieces.
To avoid confusion, I never use video transitions. And I only use video effects when I am forced to correct poor footage. So in each project there is at most about a minute of footage to be rendered. I mean, even though I don't render, PE 12 works well.
I hope this will help those who need to buy a laptop for editing.

Thanks for the comments.
Sorry for this delay in answering. I didn't check if there was any comment because I didn't expect any.
a.
I should had expressed myself differently.
No, I have not monitored CPU usage because it is the hard drive which limits how fast my laptop works.
There is one advantage with having a track for video expanded rather than collapsed. One can see what one has already put on the timeline without moving the cursor. If one waits until the computer has generated pictures on the timeline.
But I realized that with my laptop one has to wait uncomfortably long for those pictures to be created. So it is faster to move the cursor to that position where I have guessed that I have already put the footage I want to find.
b.
I have not tested multiple monitors. Neither would I bother if CPU usage increased because it is the hard drive, not the CPU, which limits how fast my laptop works.
c.
I have not used Premiere CC so I have not checked the hardware requirements.
Unless I have misunderstood something, Premiere CC has somewhat higher hardware requirements than Premiere Elements. Understandable since professional camcorders use higher bit rate (more information per second) than cheaper camcorders.
So presumably I would be forced to split up my projects in even smaller parts to make everything manageable. On the other hand, using footage which is intra frame compressed rather than inter frame compressed would mean that the hardware needs to work less hard, so perhaps it would be possible to edit long projects.
At the same time, some professional programs can work with proxy files, and in that case the high bit rate for professional footage would be no problem.
Besides, unless something is wrong with my memory, Edius has somewhat lower hardware requirements than Premiere CC, so possibly that program would be more relevant for usage on my laptop.
Higher bitrate means that there is room for fewer hours with raw material on my single hard drive. So with 100 Mbps I would in practice be limited to creating movies which are at most about 40 minutes long.
One advantage with professional video editing software is that it can edit video with higher resolution than 1920*1080. But I doubt that would work on my laptop.
Thanks for your congratulations.
Yes it works. And after posting in another forum in my native language, another film maker commented that he had edited on a laptop with even less powerful CPU. For him it was also the speed of the hard drive which limited how fast his laptop worked.

HELp! Best laptop for photo editing.. or would a PC be better?

I'm looking to buy a new computer. Would love for it to be a laptop but a PC would be ok too.. Any information on which is best for photo editing.. hopefully a large volume of photo editing.. which ones already have photo programs installed on them? help!

Well.... the biggest limiter will be how much you can spend...
But, you need to look for a higher end processor and a fairly decent graphics card.
No new computers come with any decent graphics program.
If you like my post, or solution to your issue/question, go ahead and click on the little star by my name and/or accept the post as the Solution. It makes me happy.
I'm NOT an employee of Best Buy, or Geek Squad, though I did work as an Agent for a year 5 years ago. None of my posts are to be taken as the official stance that Best Buy will take on your situation. My advice is just that, advice.
Unfortunately, that's the bad luck of any electronic, there's going to be bad Apples... wait that's a horrible pun.

Laptop for video editing

Hello People
I am seeking for medium price, new laptop with firewire , and efficient in compression of video material. I can spend 600$ for it .

krakers wrote:
Hello People
I am seeking for medium price, new laptop with firewire , and efficient in compression of video material. I can spend 600$ for it .
Look for a laptop with the fastest CPU and largest amount of hard drive space you can find. Also, if you're editing HD video, look for one that has a 1920x1080 display - but you won't likely find that at a $600 price point. However since you mention Firewire I assume you're still editing standard definition MiniDV video, which fortunately isn't too CPU-intensive to work with. (I guess some HDV cameras combine high-def and Firewire, but these are fairly rare - AVCHD is far more common.)
Graphics chipset doesn't matter much for video editing. These days, the only thing differentiating GPUs is 3D rendering performance. For 2D work, every chipset out there is more than sufficient.
*disclaimer* I am not now, nor have I ever been, an employee of Best Buy, Geek Squad, nor of any of their affiliate, parent, or subsidiary companies.

What should I look for in a laptop for CS4?

Hi All:
My laptop which I use heavily for photoshop supports openGL 1.5 only. So
I suppose it will not work with the new features in CS4. As I would
really like some of the new features it looks like as I need to upgrade.
So the question, how do I pick one that has good chance to work with CS4?
From what I've read here CS4 is picky about what video it will work
with and I don't want to spend money on a laptop that doesn't support
the flavor of openGL that CS4 likes. And no I don't want an Apple, they
cost just too much for what you get.
John Passaneau

[email protected] wrote:
> Get a desktop ...... for a world of Photoshop CS4 bliss it's the only way.
>
> On the whole desktops are half the price and double the power as laptops are really limited for this sort of thing.
I have a desktop, but the problem is the desktop is not were I am. I'm
mobile, its not. I'm taking care of my 86 year old mother with dementia
and I can't be near her and near the desktop at the same time so the
laptop is the best answer. I've been fairly happy with using the laptop.
The screen calibrated well and it's been fast enough. But the new
versions of lightroom and CS4 seem to hit new highs in computer horse
power requirements. Like Microsoft, Adobe seems to be telling their
users "if you want usable performance, get a bigger computer." And I
will but looking at the video spec's and deciding if they are compatible
with CS4 is not easy.
John Passaneau

HELP - Choose mid specs laptop for video editing in Premiere and After Effects

Hello there,
Basically I have DSLR Camera (Canon 600D) which I use to film in Full HD (1080P 50fps) for my movies (short plays and medium plays).
So, I am thinking to buy a laptop with main porpouse to edit my videos in Premiere CS6 and After Effects CS6 and I would like to ask you guys if you can help me choose one. Maximum I could spend is 1000€.
So, I don't care how much time my laptop will take to export movies, but what is most important to me is smooth editing ( fast pre-rendering). I know that pre-render / in software render uses Nvidia CUDA cores to acelerate the process.
I choosed these two laptops:
ASUS K750JB:
Intel i7 4700HQ 2.4 - 3.4GhZ
12GB RAM 1600mHz
Nvidia GT 740M 2GB DDR3 384 Cuda Cores <<< ---- can this one do the job done?
1TB 5400RPM <<<--- I am thinking on buying 60GB SSD extra for OS and Adobe Programs
17.2'' Screen 1600x900
Price: 799€
HP Envy 15-j011sp:
Intel i7 4700MQ 2.4 - 3.4GhZ
8GB RAM 1600mHz <<<---- I could buy 4GB extra
Nvidia GT 740M 2GB DDR3 384 Cuda Cores
1TB 5400RPM <---- I could buy 60GB SSD extra
15.6'' Screen 1920x1080
Price: 810€
So, as you saw, Two of these laptops have 740M Graphic card. Asus is parcially alluminun, but HP is totally alluminum.
Do you think these two are good for edit videos from my DSLR camera? As I said, I don't care how much time it takes to render movie. What is most important to me is editing smooth experience.
Thank you!

Do either of these laptops allow you to install a second drive? This ASUS G750 that I am using now does and it made a world of difference when I cloned the OS/Applications disk from the 1 TB 5400 rpm drive to a 128 GB fast SSD and installed a second 256 GB SSD (both are Samsung 840 PRO SSD's). Without doing that I am quite sure you will be disappointed.especially with your media from a DSLR. See the excellant article by Harm on laptops

Which of the mac laptop is good for film editing?

Please I need to kwn the right mac laptop for film editing?

pro or semi-pro?
Any high-key MBP with SSD and lot of memory, preferably i7 core
plus one of this: http://www.promise.com/storage/raid_series.aspx?m=192&region=en-global&rsn1=40&r sn3=47
for home video once a month - any with lot of HD space and memory
* any means 2011-2012 MacPro models

Best affordable choice for video editing & other stuff?

I've been a PC user forever. I'm looking to enter the world of Mac. I do video editing with Adobe CC on a windows 7 Destop PC with an i7 Quadcore and have a nice LED monitor. I'd like a Mac capable of doing graphics well and has the processing power of an i7. I was thinking of a Macbook rather than than a iMac because I don't need the built in screen - I already have a very nice LED monitor. I also like the idea of portability. So I figure i could hook up the Macbook to my LED monitor when at my desk, and then be able to port it around when I wanted to go mobile. Is this reasonable? Is a macbook laptop capable of this kind of processing? I know my HP Powerbook with Win7 struggles doing this kind of stuff even though it has a dedicated nVidea Graphics and is an i7 2.3GHz with 16G memory, so I never use my HP laptop for video editing. I thought about the Mac Pro, but that is WAY out of my budget. Is there a Macbook that would be good for video editing and not break the bank? Like I've said, I'v discounted the idea of getting an iMac because of space & (I already have a decent size LED monitor that I'd like to continue to use and share with my Windows PC.

the last 2 and the bottom of this link would be more than adequate: http://store.apple.com/us/buy-mac/macbook-pro

I need some performance advice for video editing

or
I am deciding on which Mac Book Pro to purchase for video editing. My choices are:
2012 - 2.3 Ghz Quad-Core i7 w/ 500GB Serial ATA@5400 rpm 8G RAM
or
2013 - 2.0 Ghz Quad-Core i7 w/ 256 Flash Storage 8G RAM
The one is a year newer but .3 Ghz slower processor and I'm really not sure if it would matter that much for video editing. (FCPX, After Effects, etc.) I know the Flash Storage would be faster as far as opening applications etc., but for video editing, I didn't know.
Can someone more qualified than me recommend which would be best. I need a laptop for video editing, but I need the least expensive I can get so I am looking at refurbs from Apple.
Thank you!

If you look at the 2013 Retina models in the Apple store, you'll see the higher end version has both the Intel Iris and an additional Nvidia graphics module. The higher end models have this additional circuit, which is to provide faster and smoother graphics for video, games, etc.
I'd suggest looking at both model benchmarks at everymac.com. Here's the 2012:
https://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/macbook-pro-unibody-faq/macbo ok-pro-13-15-mid-2012-performance-benchmark-comparison.html

ExpressCard vs Firewire 800 for HD-editing?

Hi,
I'm just started at a filmschool and I need a laptop for HD-editing.
I was looking at the new MBP 15'', but it doesn't have the ExpressCard / 34 slot.
Is this a big problem? When isn't firewire 800 good enough?
Thanks in advance
Sjogogo

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
I Import AVCHD files into my MacBook Pro over both Firewire and USB and don't find either interface a problem overall. With 10GB+ files it takes a while with either but there's no faster option ...

What laptop to get for CS5 or CS6...

Increasingly there appear questions about which laptop to get for CS5/6.
First, the question is why a laptop and why not a desktop?
Laptops are always at least 2 to 3 times slower than a desktop, they are significantly more expensive than a desktop with the same or better performance and they need a wall outlet to use. Batteries don't last long enough for editing and you need a wall outlet for external components (disks, monitor, BD-R etc.) that are required. All that makes a laptop more like an expensive, underpowered luggable machine.
For video editing machines it is always best to use a machine for video editing only and use a second system for other applications and this is especially true for much weaker laptops than desktops.
So, let me repeat the question: What are the considerations to use a laptop over a desktop? You have to be very clear about it to sell the idea to the one responsible for the budget. You also have to be clear about the performance penalty, if you decide to go forward with a laptop.
OK, we got this out of the way. You have good arguments to get a laptop and you have succesfully sold the idea to the one responsible for the available budget.
So what are your choices and what do you need to look for in terms of specs?
First, let me remind you of the article Adobe Forums: What PC to build? An update... because it contains a number of relevant issues that influence your choice. Basically there are three approaches possible:
Get a laptop from a brand company like Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Toshiba and the like.
Get a customizable laptop from specialist companies like Sager or Clevo.
Get a custom builder like ADK Video Editing build you a system tuned to your needs.
All these solutions have a number of common components, under the assumption you want to edit HD material:
CPU: at least a quad core i7 processor, preferably with hyper-threading. The faster the better.
GPU: at least a nVidia GTX 660M or better with 1+ GB DDR5 memory.
Disks: at least 2 internal 7200 RPM disks.
Connections: minimum is eSATA plus USB3 ports.
Monitor: at least 1920 x 1080 resolution and 15.4" screen size or bigger.
Memory: bare minimum is 8 GB but workable is only 16 or 32 GB.
Looking at brand names one may come up with a short-list like:
Now, in their standard configurations they are all lacking on some aspects. Insufficient memory, only single disk, or lacking connections. If these can not be configured to meet the above practical minimum requirements, where at least 2 disks is the most crucial, there is only companies like Sager and Clevo to look at. Something like this is about bare minimum, because of the underspecced video card:
Despite the price this will still be around 3 times slower than an equally priced desktop. If that performance penalty is too big, then one can consider a system like this:
Again, despite the price, this system will still be more than 2 times slower than a far less expensive desktop, but hey, you knew that when you decided on a laptop and got approval for the budget, right?
The last option is to go to a custom builder to get a laptop that is exactly tuned to your needs and budget. It will not be less expensive than the Sager route, but it will get you the best balance between performance and price for your needs. Additionally, you get great service if ever needed.
To sum this up, a laptop is a compromise. A compromise in performance and price. It is not for the faint of heart, faint of wallet. It is not a laptop, it is a luggable system on a wall outlet. An alternative is coasters under a desktop system and you can use other wall outlets as well, but with a better price and far better performance.
I hope this will help people to decide if they really need a laptop and if affirmative, to get the right system for their needs.

As usual, Harm has provided very knowledgeable and helpful advice in this matter. I would like to add that if you are inclined, and feel it's worth a gamble.....New Egg has been selling refurbished Asus i7 laptops that have almost all the necessary components for a lower price than normal. You may have to add more memory yourself and add a quality SSD for OS and programs and pagefile, ( cloned from the supplied drive). Then, use the supplied drive for media and all else in the second bay....or, as an emergency backup of your original configuration. I am not sure,but I think if you put a second Marvell controlled SSD in the second bay instead,( Corsair Pro or Plextor Pro...no Sandforce), you may get the benefit of SATA III speeds from BOTH drives for best laptop performance.....I am not sure if earlier criticisms of SSD degradation still apply with these newer Marvell controlled SSDs.
      I DO know that my old Asus G73JW tested MUCH FASTER on Harm's PPBM5 benchmark when I added extra memory,( from 8 to 14GB ), AND used a Corsair Force 120GB SATA II SSD in each of the two internal drive bays. On that site you can see similar laptops to mine performing way slower using less memory and conventional spinning HDDs. At the time, I was careful to choose SSDs that had a high read AND write speed. I have had no issues with my SSDs. I also have used the Seagate Momentus XT hybrid HDD as project drive.....and scored lower on the PPBM test,( not submitted).
      Harm is right.....any laptop will not approach the performance of a good desktop setup....not to mention PPro CS 6 appears to be even more powerful and demanding than the 5.03 I'm using. People are reporting needing at least 32GB memory and more than 2GB video card memory to get better performance.
   Someone posted about Exotic PC selling upgraded laptops, ( some Asus) with up to 32GB memory and muliple HDD configurations....you may be able to upgrade a laptop similarly yourself for less money. Watch the sales at Tiger Direct and New Egg....you may find some thing workable.

What Macbook Pro to get for video editing?

For software like adobe after effects cs5, what macbook would be the best, I have pretty limited money so is the base model ok? if not whitch one works well?
Thanks!

The top end non-retina, 15" anti-glare is the best. SSD preferred, has a Superdrive. RAM and hard drive upgradable later by the user.
The retina has a glossy screen which is hard on the eyes and using in various places, it's battery life is terrible and the images are not correct as it's blowing things up to mach the higher pixel rate. No Superdrive. You can't open the machine up, you can't clean the fans of dust you can't upgrade it later, you will have to max it out at purchase for a small fortune and go way over budget. Plus there really isn't too much difference in the quality of the screen with regular MBP's anyway, just eats battery life to drive that huge pixel screen. You'll be replacing it a lot sooner than the standard 15"
Don't waste your money on the 13", it lacks a dedicated graphics, the CPU does it thus it's HOT. Won't 3D game well if your also into play.
Top end 15" antiglare is perfect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_X0wo6dIsMU
Actually the MacPro is the perfect choice of power and performance for video editing, with it's substancial cooling. But you want a laptop , just know things will take longr and the machien will be hotter as a result and wear out sooner if your doing 3D gaming or video often.

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