Desktop replacement for video editing (under $1000?)

[biridox]

I'm going to be leaving soon for a yearlong internship in D.C., and I'd like to find a good, solid laptop to replace my desktop while I'm away. I use my computer for casual video/audio editing, so a fast processor, decent hard drive size, and nice screen resolution would be ideal.

A DVD and/or Blu Ray drive would also be nice, as well as an output to hook into an HD TV (doesn't matter if it's HDMI, mini-HDMI, or micro-HDMI)

Here are a few more specifics if it helps (though the things mentioned above are really the most important things I'm looking for):

1. Budget: Under $1,000. $6-700 range would be fantastic, $1,200 would be pushing it.

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? Probably around 15-17 inches, although this isn't a primary concern. Weight doesn't matter so much either, but if all other specs were the same I'd go with a lighter laptop/notebook.

3. What screen resolution do you want? The higher the better.

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? Both.

5. How much battery life do you need? Not a top priority.

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)? I don't do a lot of gaming, so as long as streaming video is fast, I'm good.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.) I'll be using this for video editing (Sony Vegas), as well as audio (Samplitude), & photo (Photoshop), etc. Definitely going to want a fast processor (i5 or i7).

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need? Approx. 500gb would be nice. I do have an external hard drive, so if necessary I can make do with a smaller hard drive.

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links. Newegg, Amazon, the usual...

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop? As long as it will continue to work...

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc? A Blu Ray would be nice, but I definitely at least want to be able to watch DVDs.

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. No particular brand in mind.

13. What country do you live in? USA.


Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

 

[biridox]

Alright, so after doing some independent research, this is the laptop I came up with. Of course, I also added some unnecessary (but oh so nice) extras, which bumped the price up to right under the $1,000 limit I'd set aside.

The extras:
$150 for full HD 1920 x 1080 screen (almost didn't get this, then figured what the heck... original screen was a 17.3-inch diagonal HD BrightView LED-backlit Display (1600 x 900))
$25 for backlit keyboard (again, for no particular reason other than it looks neat & is handy for sitting outside with my laptop in the dark)
$20 for 9 cell battery (originally a 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery/5.75 hours of battery life)

HP Pavilion dv7t-7000 Quad Edition Entertainment Notebook PC

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
3rd generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3610QM Processor (2.3 GHz, 6MB L3 Cache)
NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GT 630M Graphics with 1GB GDDR3 memory [HDMI, VGA]
FREE UPGRADE to 8GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
FREE Upgrade to 1TB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
NO mSSD Hard Drive Acceleration Cache
Microsoft(R) Office Starter: reduced-functionality Word/Excel(R) only, No PowerPoint(R)/Outlook(R)
No additional security software
30% off 9 cell Lithium Ion Battery
17.3-inch diagonal Full HD Anti-glare LED-backlit Display (1920 x 1080)
FREE Upgrade to Blu-ray player & SuperMulti DVD burner
HP TrueVision HD Webcam
802.11b/g/n WLAN
Backlit Keyboard
Included 2 Year Warranty
HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

Price: $1,444.99
Coupon: –$450.00 (COUPON CODE: NBJ9867 for $450 instant savings + free shipping)
Price after savings: $994.99

http/www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-Pavilion/A3G47AV?HP-Pavilion-dv7t-7000-Quad-Edition-Entertainment-Notebook-PC

If anyone's interested (and possibly even if no one is), I'll post a review with my thoughts once it arrives. Also, if anyone already knows something about this particular laptop and wants to share, I'm all ears (good or bad)! I've already purchased this one for myself, but there may be other people out there looking for something similar.

Thanks,
Krystal