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Notebook for video editing and 3D modeling/animation?

post #1 of 16
3/8/04 at 2:02pm
Thread Starter 
It's still going to be a bit of time before I can get a laptop, but I'm starting to compare systems now. My primary uses will be for video editing and 3d modeling/animation. Occasionally it would be forced to play a game or two, but that's not the primary use. Screen resolution is important, but stuff can't be so small I can't see what it is. I typically work on dual 21" monitors running at 1280x1024 each, so I'm guessing that 1920x1200 on a 15" LCD would be a bit scrunched. Also, having a dedicated numeric keypad would be a huge plus.

I've been looking long and hard at the Sager 8890, Sager 4780, the Dell D800, 8600, and now the new 9100. Through playing with a system at work, I did find that a 1.6G P-M in a D600 will render out a frame of animation faster than my desktop 2.4G P4.

What do you guys suggest. Bear in mind that this would be my first notebook, so be gentle. Money is most definitely a consideration as the local the local authorities will not allow me to sell my children

It just sucks knowing full well that whichever decision I make will be the wrong one

Thanks for your help,
Rick
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post #2 of 16
3/8/04 at 2:20pm
For that I would go with the 8890 with raid setup. I do the same thing and use a firewire for all my data storage and swap disk activity inn programs requiring a scratch disk. Its not onpar with a sata raid setup, but aa big improvement over a non raid setupp for what you are doing. Also go with as much memory as you can get. I have a gig and almost always max it out when doing serious editing. settle for a slower processor and more mem if necessary.. Remember this is only my opinion.
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post #3 of 16
3/9/04 at 11:22am
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the info, Nandro.

If I may, which LCD display did you opt for with your 8890, the 15in or 16in?
And, how do you like it? Is it pretty easy on the eyes with your editing package?

Thanks,
Rick
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post #4 of 16
3/9/04 at 11:28am
I have the 16" sxga+ 1400x1050 on my 8890. I use it with the native res and it works fine for just about everything i do.
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post #5 of 16
3/9/04 at 11:52am

I'm in the same boat

I've been researching a desktop replacement for the same reasons. And I'm also torn. For me it's a toss up between the 8790 and 8890. I'm currently leaning toward the 8890 due to the SXGA.

I primarily use 3ds max and using an ATI card scares me a bit. I love my nvidia ti4600 and I'm hoping that using a poor opengl card wont hinder performance very much. Actually I'm hoping it will be better but I dont think anyone has benchmarked the mobility 9600 against the nvidia ti4600.

I'm also semi-waiting to see if they put the 9700 card into the 8890. Or possibly even the go5700.

I've also been researching the AMD based hypersonic system and I may go that route if they throw a go5700 in it.
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post #6 of 16
3/9/04 at 3:17pm
For rendering ull want the fastest processor you can get, ram is nice but its more important for video editing over render times. I just got my 4080 and plan on running 3d max and maya on it, i really dont expect any problems to occur, especially with the vid card, i have alot of trust in ati. Of course going from 2 21 inch monitors to a laptop isnt going to be too fun, but like me im sure u got it for on the road stuff and not every day stuff and will be mostly working on your desktop. I think even the 4080 is great for that. If you arnt carrying it around a whole bunch i would go for one of the 17 inch sagers just because of the bigger screen, but if u are then a 15 or 16 im sure ud get used to pretty quick. The 4080s screen is amazing. If your going for a desktop replacment I really would just get a desktop instead ud be less limited in the future.
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post #7 of 16
3/9/04 at 9:58pm
Thread Starter 
Eh, I'm not really going for a desktop replacement, per se. I'll still have my desktop(s) for the hard-core stuff. But I am looking for something powerful enough to do 80%. I work full time, do some freelance stuff, and I teach 3D modeling and animation part time at a local community college. I'd love to be able to sit in the recliner out in the family room with the wife and kids watching tv and working on my lessons and stuff. Right now, I'm out in one room working while they are out in the another room either watching the tube, or playing a game. Not condusive to the whole family experience if you know what I mean.

I was considering the 17" screens, but I'm not too sold on the whole 900pixel height. It would probably be large enough, but I really need to see one with my applications (MAX, LightWave, trueSpace, Media Studio Pro, etc.) running before I could jump on that.

Rick
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post #8 of 16
3/9/04 at 10:57pm
There is always the option of using the 17" screen now and then when the new ones come up upgrade the screen yourself or hopefully PCT or Sager will do it for you (obviously for a fee of course).
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post #9 of 16
3/10/04 at 4:16am
well my 4780 displays adobe and macromedia well... I haven't loaded my worldbuilder, may or max yet, was waiting for spring break before stting up video audio and 3d
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post #10 of 16
3/10/04 at 6:16am
I would suggest non-widescreen for video editing (at least until they get WUXGA 1920 x 1200 screens released). I use Premier Pro and with all the tracks you tend to want for vertical rather than horizontal space. Using a dual display is probably the best option, but certainly either get 16" or wait until they release the high resolution 17"ers. (Probably a couple of months away yet but should fit your time frame).
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post #11 of 16
3/10/04 at 9:35am
I agree with Aussie. Fortunately though I can wait until that screen (WUXGA) comes out and once it does I will replace my current screen with the new one.
What is the width and height of the 16.1" screen?
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post #12 of 16
4/11/04 at 6:04pm
Hey Beastman, I'm also thinking of getting a 4080 for DV editing. Because it seems to give me everything I want without bankrupting me. And I also want to run premiere pro, so your'e post has been encouraging.

I had a question though (and if anyone has input, please post). Can the 4080 be configured for dual screen editing? What does that entail and could any laptop be capable of configuring that way?
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post #13 of 16
4/12/04 at 12:20am
I use 3ds Max6, and maya5 and they run great on my 5680. For the guy above who's scared to run 3ds on an ATi card, you have to remember this is a laptop, and nvidia is second fiddle with them so don't worry about openGL performance. Run 3ds in DirectX 9 mode(its better anyways) and it destroys any nvidia card as their DX9 support is still inferior.
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post #14 of 16
4/12/04 at 10:20am
I have a 8890 with 16in screen. I use Maya on it all the time. I use Shake and After Effetcs on it sometimes but haven't done any heavy editing on it yet.

My 2 cents if your doing heavy video editing you want to get raid or firewire HD's that have external power. I do mostly 3d work so the 7200rpm HD is fine for myself. Really just depends on what type of editing your doing and how big of a chunk of film your working on at 1 time.

If your going to use your laptop for rendering out heavy animations/scenes get as much ram as possible. It will help out alot. Speically if your using raytracing for shadows. You can setup Maya's renderer to store much of the shadow/depth map info in RAM as it renders so it doesn't have to recalculate it all per frame. It will just update what it has already rendered. I would agree CPU & GPU speeds and most important but the amount of RAM is right up there.


The only thing I have noticed in maya that is kinda annoying is the lite green & blue colors it uses for selected objects is sometimes hard to see. That can be changed in the properties easy enough. Also finding border edges on polys can be hard to spot (again can change color in properties)
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post #15 of 16
4/12/04 at 4:39pm
I just oredered the system described in my sig for Avid editing and After Effects compositing. It's the same Clevo computer as the 8790.

There are three main reasons I chose this model over others:

  1. Screen Resloution 1440x900 is close enough to my preferred 1280x1024. Anything larger than that would be too hard for me to read.
  2. Size/Weight It's lighter and smaller than the 8890 (and I don't need the third drive)
  3. Video Card I wanted the 9700, not the 9600 in other models.

Aussie makes a very good point about horizontal resolution being needed for the timeline. I suppose that if you're comfortable working in 1600x1200, then go for the 8890 (I'm not- if I set my 21-incher to 1600x1200 for anything other than games, I constanly hunch forward in my chair to read [and my vision is better than 20/20]).

The manufacturer of my system specializes in video editing and came highly reccommended by Avid.
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post #16 of 16
4/12/04 at 4:48pm
Also, I hear good things about the built-in sound on the 8790. People with the subwoofer seem to like it, and I don' think other models offer the subwoofer.
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