Old 08-12-2019, 03:06 PM   #1
vdubreeze
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Default Current laptop for Reaper video editing?

My daughter in college has been editing video on her 2009 MacBook Pro and using her school's networked Premier. I've been knocking around a bit on the video side of Reaper, and I think I'm going to get her a copy so she can work on her own without being tied to the school's software for her own projects. I'm fairly confident Reaper will be a good fit. However, she has decided that she's going Windows for the laptop to replace her well worn MBP, and we agree there are many better options for the $1,500-$2000 budget going that route. I'm actually relieved because I wasn't looking forward to examining the current Apple offerings, even though I'm completely on Macs myself. I can show her what works well enough and what doesn't on her MBP and my 2015 MBP as far as Reaper doing video, but I know not much about non-Macs. In looking at all of the options for a 13" (that she can edit on when convenient and hook up to a monitor when appropriate, I'm a bit hazy on what matters and what doesn't for video as far as which processor and graphics.

Any advice on a sturdy Windows laptop in that range that Reaper is happy doing video on? Obviously she can use another computer for critical and heavy duty work. But I want her to be able to do some rough work on the same laptop that she's be upgrading her basic classes one to.

Thanks for any wisdom on this : )
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Old 08-14-2019, 07:35 PM   #2
Kundalinguist
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I don't have a direct answer for this as I don't use laptops. However, I have a suggestion.

Blender is a free open source software that does a lot of things very well. I also use it for some video editing.

The reason I mention this is that you could probably find some information about decent laptops from the Blender community because they are focussed entirely on the demands of video editing and 3D rendering.

Whatever they're using that's newer and more cutting edge (in terms of connectivity as well as CPU) is probably where you ought to be looking, too. That way, when you install Reaper for video editing, you'll know you can count on your machine to do the job.

Working in audio, we can often get away with much less power than 3D graphics folks. I figure if you follow their lead, you can't lose.

Good luck.
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Old 08-15-2019, 09:36 AM   #3
vdubreeze
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Thanks, Kundalinguist. I appreciate your response.

Right now we're going by the manufacturers' category of "gaming" laptops, for better or worse, as they begin with better graphics than the shared graphics on standard use laptops. And we're skipping over the lower end MX250 cards to start with, although if limiting it to one she can carry around all day all over campus that's pretty much the card in any 13" with discrete card for under $2000. Then again, the kind of video work for her own projects will benefit from a discrete card but won't really need the kind of video performance a hardcore gamer computer delivers, so it may suffice. Some of the ones we looked at veered into smaller 15" territory and some were pretty light but for the most part they crossed the line of all day portability.

My eyes were opened to some of the much less expensive 13" Windows laptops that felt pretty good, so we may decide a new $500 very portable one in time for the start of the semester a week away and a 15" serious one when the dust has settled.

Thanks for the tip about Blender users. I will see what they're saying over there : )
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