Hi folks

I took a gamble (and failed) the other day and bought a 2nd hand HP A8 laptop (£145) its an touchscreen, AMD quad core with 8gb. it wont even play 4K without juddering let alone edit it without using proxies, where as the i5 quad with 8gb will play 4k but still wont edit it without proxies.  The hp is a nice lappy, but its even 2 seconds slower opening gmail page

My question is, would adding another 8gb and a SSD drive help or is it just down to the CPU and onboard graphics where the bottle neck is at?

I cant afford an i7 setup......

To answer your question, adding another 8GB won't hurt, as you never really know where the app developers use memory and how much. And an SSD will certainly help you out, but you can use a normal drive to run the player or e3diting application, just make sure you put all your video material on the SSD and render out to the SSD.  But the best thing you can add to your laptop is a good graphics card, if there is a slot available. I use a pair of RX480 cards and they work very well. I stopped using a laptop for video work some time ago because I could not putr the cards in it I wanted to use. My editing machine is now more like a gaming box, turbine engine, water cooled thrusters, plasma fueled flux capacitor, the whole works. There is more liquid sloshing around in it than me....

Geebax Posted at 2018-6-11 22:57
To answer your question, adding another 8GB won't hurt, as you never really know where the app developers use memory and how much. And an SSD will certainly help you out, but you can use a normal drive to run the player or e3diting application, just make sure you put all your video material on the SSD and render out to the SSD.  But the best thing you can add to your laptop is a good graphics card, if there is a slot available. I use a pair of RX480 cards and they work very well. I stopped using a laptop for video work some time ago because I could not putr the cards in it I wanted to use. My editing machine is now more like a gaming box, turbine engine, water cooled thrusters, plasma fueled flux capacitor, the whole works. There is more liquid sloshing around in it than me....

lol, yeah, i think i will need to move away from the lappy idea, the graphics card is the downfall, i dont mind so much in using proxies but as it stands, on the 2nd user hp, a 2:50 min clip takes about 20 mins to render and thats before i can do any work on it lol

Bashy Posted at 2018-6-11 23:01
lol, yeah, i think i will need to move away from the lappy idea, the graphics card is the downfall, i dont mind so much in using proxies but as it stands, on the 2nd user hp, a 2:50 min clip takes about 20 mins to render and thats before i can do any work on it lol

Yeah, I understand. In my opinion, the most important things are, in order:

1. Lots of CPU cores (mine has 6)
2. At least one, preferably two, good GPU cards with a decent amount of memory on the card.
3. A fast, large SSD as a video work disc.
4. A reasonable amount of main memory, maybe 32GB, but it is not advantageous to have any more, as editing programs use CPU cores and GPU more than memory.

In my case, on my machine, Da Vinci Resolve renders out 4K from the 4K originals at faster than real time, I think about 30 fps on material shot in 24 fps.

WOW, that is quick, i think mine is 1 fps lol

I have found that one of my pc's is lower spec but faster than my lappy's, not by a lot mind but its noticeable, thats deffo the graphics card but also the drive too, pc hdd's are normalyl at 7200rpm where as the lappys are normally 5400rpm

I think my AM3 machine can go up to 6 cores, so that may be a cheaper option, although, im not sure how much ram it can go up to, poss 16 or could be the 8 thats in there now, if so, thats no good will have to investigate when i get it back, tis on loan atm....

I doubt if you can upgrade the graphic card on this laptop.  Alternate option is to use a light weight codec.

The more you spend on trying to get this to run satisfying the longer it would take you to find the money for a machine that really makes you happy, i would say don't waste money on the attempt.

Geebax Posted at 2018-6-11 23:07
Yeah, I understand. In my opinion, the most important things are, in order:

1. Lots of CPU cores (mine has 6)

Just a little detail worth notice if only using DaVinci as a now and then hobby tool and not going to spend the money for the studio version there would be no need for more GPU's on Linux/Windows.

"DaVinci Resolve 15 only supports a single processing GPU on Windows and Linux and 2 GPUs on the latest Mac Pro."

That said i have yet to see my Nvidia GTX 1080/8GB being really busy but only has used DaVinci for short few minutes clips with dual video tracks so far.

KedDK Posted at 2018-6-12 05:52
Just a little detail worth notice if only using DaVinci as a now and then hobby tool and not going to spend the money for the studio version there would be no need for more GPU's on Linux/Windows.

"DaVinci Resolve 15 only supports a single processing GPU on Windows and Linux and 2 GPUs on the latest Mac Pro."

Yes, quite correct, but up until a year ago I was using Sony Vegas Pro, which (theoretically) can use multiple GPU cards. I then decided to switch to Resolve, but the computer had been built previously for Vegas. I know the CEO of Blackmagic Design, we were work colleagues, and for that reason, I have bought the Studio version.

Cheers guys, i decided to put it straight back on the market with a much better ad than the seller did and turned a healthy £55 profit, not so sure it will get me that i7 yet mind lol

Any thoughts on this thing please, I know it will need a bit more ram for a start

MOBO: Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD5H
CPU: Intel core i7 4770 3.40Ghz Turbo @3.9Ghz
RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport 2x4GB (bls4g3d169ds3)
HDD: Western Digital 1.5TB(1.36TB) (WD15EARX)
VGA: Zotac GTX 760 2GB 256bit DDR5
PSU: Cooler master G650M Semi Modular 80plus Bronze (Have all the cables!)
Case: Gigabyte Zalman Z11 High performance Midi-tower (Blue led)
ODD: Lite-on

I am not the one to give advise for those things, just sounded like your laptop attempt sounded like it would be expensive in the long run while possibly you wouldn't be satisfied anyway.
What i did was the lazy way, i bought a HP Omen 880-110NO DT on Black Friday along with 64GB Ram, it cost me about the same as the P4P+ and render incredible fast.

Bashy Posted at 2018-6-12 19:23
Cheers guys, i decided to put it straight back on the market with a much better ad than the seller did and turned a healthy £55 profit, not so sure it will get me that i7 yet mind lol

Ha, ha - maybe you found another source of income now :-)

If it needs to be a laptop I think it should be a workstation.
I was so tired with not being able to view properly 4k videos on my previous Laptop so I bought a Lenovo Thinkpad P51 Workstation. That thing is fast.

It comes with a Nvidia Quadro M1200 graphics card and has bays for 2 additional harddrives.
I got the whole package with additional memory/drives etc - and man - never in my life I have paid so much for a computer.
The only reason why I did this is I travel a lot workrelated and sometimes I take the drone with me.
I want to be at least able to do some happy video viewing.

There is a great site to download all kinds of video files to test a system with.
I downloaded them all and on my previous system it was over quite early.
The P51 plays them all flawlessly:
http://jell.yfish.us

Bashy Posted at 2018-6-13 01:10
Any thoughts on this thing please, I know it will need a bit more ram for a start

MOBO: Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD5H

That should do quite nicely, my Microsoft Surface plays back 4k video quite nicely with i5 and 4GB RAM, and the graphics output to support 4kb @ 30 fps.

Mostly about the only time you'll ever use more than 8GB memory is in video editing, and many of the editors are still biased towards processor core numbers for rendering (the more the better). the GTX760 has 4k output (Monitor from Santa ?). Some editors also use some of the processing power available in the graphics cards for some functions. So the GTX760 may help a bit as well. I would recommend an SSD for OS and installed applications. They are many times faster than mechanical drives, in fact see if your motherboard supports M.2 PCIE SSD cards for even faster data storage/transfer, they are eye-watering fast.

Bashy Posted at 2018-6-13 01:10
Any thoughts on this thing please, I know it will need a bit more ram for a start

MOBO: Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD5H

I would add a second HDD. Use the 1.5 TB as storage because its only a 5400 rpm drive (kind of slow) and buy a 256 SSD (or 512 if you can pay a bit more). Put your OS on the SSD and then place all your raw footage on the 1.5 TB. Move what you want to edit over to the SSD for editing.

I like a tower option for video stuff because you can upgrade the internal components a lot easier than a laptop.

Here is what I have and I have no issues with 4k footage and I don't have to edit with proxies.

HP EliteDesk 800 G1 SFF
i5-6500 CPU @ 3.2GHz
8GB RAM
64-bit OS
NVIDIA Quadro K1200
2 internal 256GB SSD hard drives (1 for the OS and 1 for video files)
2 external hard drives (1 - 1TB for OS backup and 1 - 4TB for all pictures and finished video files)

Sadly  i just woke up this morning and it sold during the night, i couldnt have gotten to it before Tuesday anyway, it was up at £350 too

Bashy Posted at 2018-6-13 19:06
Sadly  i just woke up this morning and it sold during the night, i couldnt have gotten to it before Tuesday anyway, it was up at £350 too

Keep hunting, there are always bargains appear now and again.

Yeah, im on it, thanks

Any thoughts on this one please?

Powerful laptop. Intel i5-4200M 2.5GHz, 8Gb of Ram, 120Gb SSD+1Tb HDD, Nvidia Geforce 840M (2GB DDR3 dedicated), Windows 10, Blacklit Keyboard, 15.6 Full HD BrightView LED-Blacklit Touch Screen (1920 x 1080), Beats Audio with 4 speakers and twin Subwoofer, Fingerprint sensor, Aliuminium body

Intel i5-4200M 2.5GHz, 8Gb of Ram, 120Gb SSD+1Tb HDD, Nvidia Geforce 840M (2GB DDR3 dedicated)

I decided to go for the above as i was resinged to using proxies anyway, for my budget of £300 i was finidng it hard pushed to find the specs i was after for editing 4k, turns out that this machine aint too bad for what it is, i've gone from 20 minutes to 3:30 to encode over 2 minutes of 4k to proxies, i can even scrub through fairly well without using proxies but i think once i start editing and adding to it that will start to stutter quite badly but before, the stuttering was there, really bad. The geforce is automatically chosen and at 90-100% whilst endoding of i couldnt expect anything more from it considering. I add 8gb ram but that will be pricey cause theres 2x4gb in there so they have to go., also the 1tb drive is only a 5400rpm so i will update that at some point to at least a 7200rpm , all in all, i am happy with it, it only takes about 10 seconds to get to windows from off

Bashy Posted at 2018-6-20 20:01
Intel i5-4200M 2.5GHz, 8Gb of Ram, 120Gb SSD+1Tb HDD, Nvidia Geforce 840M (2GB DDR3 dedicated)

I decided to go for the above as i was resinged to using proxies anyway, for my budget of £300 i was finidng it hard pushed to find the specs i was after for editing 4k, turns out that this machine aint too bad for what it is, i've gone from 20 minutes to 3:30 to encode over 2 minutes of 4k to proxies, i can even scrub through fairly well without using proxies but i think once i start editing and adding to it that will start to stutter quite badly but before, the stuttering was there, really bad. The geforce is automatically chosen and at 90-100% whilst endoding of i couldnt expect anything more from it considering. I add 8gb ram but that will be pricey cause theres 2x4gb in there so they have to go., also the 1tb drive is only a 5400rpm so i will update that at some point to at least a 7200rpm , all in all, i am happy with it, it only takes about 10 seconds to get to windows from off

If I were you, I would not bother upgrading the HDD to a 7200 rpm unit, it just uses more power for not a lot of gain.  If anything, upgrade the 120 GB SSD to a 512 GB one, and keep the HDD for archiving material.

Geebax Posted at 2018-6-20 20:15
If I were you, I would not bother upgrading the HDD to a 7200 rpm unit, it just uses more power for not a lot of gain.  If anything, upgrade the 120 GB SSD to a 512 GB one, and keep the HDD for archiving material.

The 120, that was going to be upgraded anyway at some point, so i suppose i could do that 1st, its only got a very small space in the machine for it prob about 2'' square so will have to do some research on that.. found it, about £120 for 500gb (evo)

Bashy Posted at 2018-6-20 20:27
The 120, that was going to be upgraded anyway at some point, so i suppose i could do that 1st, its only got a very small space in the machine for it prob about 2'' square so will have to do some research on that.. found it, about £120 for 500gb (evo)

If that is a Samsung EVO drive, then that is a good one. I have a pair of them in my editing machine. A 500 GB drive allows you to have the operating system, all your applications and plenty left over for the project you are working on at the time. If you keep all your material in a single folder, including the final render, you can then move it to the terabyte HDD to archive it once you are happy with the result.

Just done a CPU upgrade on the i5 lappy, its now running i7 4800MQ @2700GHz with a 3700GHz turbo, was lucky for it to be a non solder, i didnt go into it blindly, at the very least i had a white cane, i took some advice online and a guy said he had upgraded his with this CPU without issues, so i spent £75 and took a gamble on a, the cpu being a good one and b, that it would work  and not blow that or the mobo, phew.... opens something like premier pro in 6 seconds,  Sadly its still bogged down due to the gpu and it cannot be upgraded, not as far as i can tell and i doubt its on the underside of the mobo, it still taking  22 minutes to encode 5 minute in 4k to 320x240, you can clearly see from the image that the geforce 840M 2gb is the bottleneck. The machine is now faster in every way other than the gpu, but hey, at least ive improved the resale value quite a bit lol the SSD will be next.....

forgot to add this image