Buying a Laptop for Video Editing, Mid-Range gaming

Ryutso

Distinguished
Aug 21, 2010
1
0
18,510
1. What is your budget?
Anywhere from $500 to $1250

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
Any size from 13" to 17"

3. What screen resolution do you want?
Really only working with 720p video for now, but 1920x1080 should be future-proof

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
Portable if it can be helped. Desktop replacement would be too heavy.

5. How much battery life do you need?
I'm not looking to play movies all the time on a 30 hour flight, but a moderate length. Maybe 4-7 hours.

6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
League of Legends at Medium settings
Minecraft on Medium
Some Steam games on Medium


7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
Video editing mostly

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
Considering a small SSD for OS and program storage and then a Large HDD for a scratch disk

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
If I can get it from eBay or Amazon cheaper than Newegg or Tigerdirect, I'll take it.

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
At least 5 years

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
Blu-ray reader would be nice, but only a DVD writer is necessary

12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
I really have no qualms about any brand.

13. What country do you live in?
United States

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
I'm open to suggestions.
 
Solution
Check out the Lenovo Y510p series: http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/y-series/y510p/

They range from $800 to $1100, with various features.

This T530 would be a good choice too, and you can customize it to add your specific features: http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/t-series/t530/

ACTechy

Honorable
Oct 25, 2012
127
0
10,710
Check out the Lenovo Y510p series: http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/y-series/y510p/

They range from $800 to $1100, with various features.

This T530 would be a good choice too, and you can customize it to add your specific features: http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/t-series/t530/
 
Solution

mc962

Honorable
Jul 18, 2013
114
0
10,660
^Also recommending that y510p series

Or do y410p if you want a 14", they're essentially the same laptop but with different size and the 15" predictably has slightly better hardware

Depending on which model you get you can get an sshd instead of the regular hdd. It makes things quite snappy (not necessarily as much as a full ssd, but this is cheaper, and still really good)

Battery life can get to around 5 hours depending on what you do with it (y410p)