Basic Laptop + Camcoder vs. Advanced Laptop

[achilles007]

Basically I have the choice between two laptops-- one 500, the other 800, with my budget being $800:
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834246484

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230144



I am purchasing the laptop for college-- general activities such as internet, email, microsoft office, and video uploading and editing (i think).

the only problem -- which you could've garnered from the last words in my preceding sentence-- is I have no experience and no clue about how to make videos, edit them or upload them. Hell, I've never even used Windows Movie Maker or a youtube account for uploading them. I don't have a camera either, which brings me to my initial question.

should I blow all $800 on the laptop equipped with the i7 quad, nVidia 540M?
Or should buy the $500 basic laptop with decent memory, and spend the $300 on a decent camcorder? (I mean afterall, even with all the latest computer technology you can't make a video, without the device to actually film/record it on).

And again me being totally new to the video editing thing and knowing the $500 computer isn't state of the art, would I be able to get by on managing with it? perhaps play around with some simple basic programs before moving on to something more advanced?

 

[achilles007]

perhaps I should simplify this down a bit:

800 budget.

Laptop needed for college: Basic functions but also as well needed for making videos

But I dont have a camcorder to take the videos with.

will I be able to get by on a basic 500 laptop plus recorder for my first couple of years playing around making videos, or is their something else I should look into first?

 

[Zingam_Duo]

Blow the money on hookers and use pencil and paper in collage!

 

[achilles007]

lol... how i wish i could.

 

[navalweaponsofficer]

Get a quad core Intel laptop i5 in the $500 price range and a camcorder. A $500 laptop with an i5 will be able to edit and recode HD video fairly quickly. It will run any productivity program you should need for school. Just don’t plan on it playing games with high system requirements.

 

[achilles007]

Get a quad core Intel laptop i5 in the $500 price range and a camcorder. A $500 laptop with an i5 will be able to edit and recode HD video fairly quickly. It will run any productivity program you should need for school. Just don’t plan on it playing games with high system requirements.

Navalweaponsofficer, I thought the only i5's available on laptops only came in dual core? I was not aware that they made quad core for mobile devices also...

 

[navalweaponsofficer]

Good call, I missed that. That makes your decision a little harder I do recommend a quad core for HD editing and encoding but a dual core is also capable of doing it just fine. I currently edit and encode HD video on my Core 2 Duo E7500 and it does the job just fine encoding is fairly slow but I just run it overnight. I also have a laptop with an Athlon II x2 P320. I have also used it do edit and encode HD video with no problems. The I5 2 core 4 thread in that laptop when boosted is faster than my E7500. If I was making the purchase I would buy the i5 laptop and the camcorder.