Hey everyone, I am looking around for a laptop now and I don’t know that much about computers. I want to be able to edit all of my uni movies and stuff so I need a firewire port and enough memory and stuff like that. I will need it in 2 years for college stuff too. So does anyone have a good suggestion for a good laptop I could get that would be good for that kind of stuff? I can’t spend too much probably around $500US. Can I get something kind of good for that?
For $500 you’re not going to be able to get a Laptop that will be decent for video editing. The only laptops you can get that cheap are the low end Dell laptops.
Ok, so what do you think is the lowest price range for something that is decent for video editing?
Well unless you want to be running stupid adobe premeire (because you’re not going to be able to run Avid very well), you’ll need to get one of these
That is probably way more than my mom will let me spend. I am not really picky about my editing program but I want something better than windows movie maker which I am using now.
Do you have to have a laptop?
For the $500 (USD) range you’re looking at a desktop computer like a Compaq or eMachine. For $500 you can actually get a pretty decent desktop computer (sans monitor) that would easily handle video editing. Then when you go to college spend about $200 or maybe less on a LCD monitor cause CRT monitors are to big to fit on the tiny desks you’ll have in college. A useful laptop is probably going to start in about the $800 range and go up depending on features. Anything less is going to feel really cramped in terms of memory, speed, and storage and probably won’t have things like a CD or DVD burner.
If you’re looking for discounts you can ask around at the big stores (like Best Buy, Circuit City, Staples, etc.) for what kind of factory refurbished PCs they can get. Refurbished PCs sell for a little bit less than the same PC new. It will save you a little bit of money but you have to hunt around more to find one that suits you. You can find refurbished laptops too.
I think I was planning on actually taking it to class for notes and stuff.
I have been looking at the macmini it’s not a laptop but it looked pretty good for $600 (I would probably want the middle one).
I think a laptop would still be easier but apparently they are alot more money…I am still open to suggestions though.
mac mini would be nice, but you need a screen keyboard and mouse though, a laptop wont do you much good video editing, maybe a mac book, deffintly an apply with an intel chip would get you there though
A laptop would be handy at college (or university). But I was able to get through college and two degrees without a laptop or even wanting a laptop. If I needed to use a computer while on campus I went to one of the labs.
I find it easier to take notes with a pencil and paper. It is easier to jump around on the page with a pencil and paper than on a computer. It is also much easier to put in a sketch or little drawing in the notes with a pencil and paper. For classes like economics, science (chemistry, physics, etc.), and math you need to be able to quickly write out equations, graphs, and drawings during lecture. I can’t see doing that on a standard laptop easily.
What you do is take your notes with pencil and paper then that evening or later in the week you go over the notes and clean them up and review. At that time you can type the notes in to your computer so they’ll be searchable and easier to read.
But it also depends on where you go to school. Some schools now have systems for collaborative note taking during lectures. People in lecture will network together and share the task of taking notes for the lecture and do it all collaboratively with software designed for that type of process. And then some classes had the option of being able to pay to buy the notes for each lecture. So it all depends on the process at whatever school you end up going to and what you end up studying.
And once you get to college there are special student discounts that may make it cheaper to buy the computer once you’ve been admitted to college and can prove your studentyness than buying it before.
For $500 you might be able to find some low end laptops at Walmart, but for anything good you’ll be looking at closer to a grand. Also keep in mind that if you’re going to take notes with it you’re either going to need an uber battery, or spares. I take notes on my Averatec 3120x, but I don’t have classes straight through the day, so I can get away with two batteries. Also keep in mind that batteries degrade over time. When I bought my laptop 3 years ago, the battery lasted 3 hours, now it lasts only 2:20 hours. My second battery is a year and a half old and it’s gone from 3 hours to about 2:45.
I’d say get a Mac mini for a main machine, and then checkout e-bay or Walmart later for an older/cheaper laptop. I’m partial to the Averatec’s, partially because they have kept the same basic design for their 3000 series laptops, so they still make batteries and stuff for mine 
Also keep in mind that you don’t need a power machine for note taking, my laptop is a 1.2Ghz Celeron, with a 20Gig hard drive, and it’s more than enough power. My “backup” laptop, an old iBook (300Mhz, 6G drive) is also plenty for note taking, except it has no battery
Like Mr. Childs says, the best medium for note taking is pencil and paper.
A computer (unless it’s a tablet computer) isn’t as versatile as a piece of paper for notetaking… what if you want to “scribble in the margins” or draw a picture or just put arrows from one note to another on your page? Most computer programs won’t let you do this without a series of keystrokes, mouse clicks, etc. this takes time. With a pencil your thoughts appear on paper instantly.
The bottom line is: the computer will distract you. In class you need to pay attention to the lecturer, not your computer.
Here’s a free tip… if you’re planning on keeping your textbooks and the professor’s lecture follows the book closely, take notes in the margins of your book, on the pages from which the professor is lecturing (if the pages have enough space). This allows you, when reading the book outside of class, to recall the lecture that pertained to that page in the book. And it saves paper 
The only problem with taking notes in the margins is that it sometimes lowers the resale value of the book. I don’t know about other schools, but the used book business here at Bishop’s is pretty big.
A laptop can be very good for note taking, depending on the subject. For math it will be pretty much useless. I did manage to take notes in my Database class by using Dia for the diagrams, and my prof lectured slowly enough that I could actually write my notes in HTML
For English though, the laptop rocks. It is much easier (for me) to keep ideas in order, and just get more done. The laptop can be a distraction, but it depends on the class… I had a class where I was falling asleep, even when I gave up on paying attention and started watching Defect instead… I also have had classes where I barely stop typing because that’s how much info was given us… 3 to 5 pages single spaced notes
Here’s what got me through school, buy a used book. It’s cheaper (more beer money) and look for one with notes already in the margins and good use of highlighting.
As for editing, it’s what I do for a living. I only use Macs, a G4 at home, a G5 at the office, and on the low end I have an iBook G4 1ghz that does a great job even when using Final Cut, iMovie would be perfect. I’m thinking about replacing my old G4 tower with a new Intel iMac but you could probably run iMovie pretty well on a Mac Mini.
Hope this helps
Ok thanks, all of that helps. I am thinking about the $600 mac mini. Is that my best option for editing for that price?
all i have to say is:
Macs are the shitz.
Macs are good… that’s what I’ve been using for almost 2 months now. Though, it’s not as fast as the pc I built… the new intel macs are probably much faster. I hope apple releases their OS to run on any x86 hardware… I am moving towards only using open source software so I can use any operating system and could easily switch if I don’t like something (afterall, macs are more proprietary than any other OS). Right now, I still use Adobe’s products which unfourtunately don’t work on linux or bsd (I haven’t tried wine in a while).
Anyways, I think you need to look at what your requirements are. If it’s video editing, then you need to to figure out which software meets your needs, then buy a computer to fit that requirement. Video editing is very resource intensive and will require overnight, or even longer, runs of creating the final output. Obviously having a faster processor and more memory will help that. With a small budget, I don’t think you’ll find a solution. You could buy the hardware and build a computer, but after buying software, you’ll be over budget. If you don’t mind waiting a while, or are only doing small videos, then you can probably find something that works for you.
It’s probably your best bet at that price point. A plus is that it comes with the iLife suite of apps which are surprisingly good. For quick little family home movies I skip Final Cut and DVD Studio Pro and just use iMovie & iDVD, they are simple and quick.
A minus is lack of keyboard, mouse, and monitor, but maybe you have that lying around or find it on ebay for cheap.
Yeah, I have that stuff. Does it have to be a mac mouse and keyboard though? I know those are a little bit different on mac but are they compatable with my mouse and keyboard from my old PC?
As long as the mac has the ports as your old mouse and keyboard, they should work. Most new computers use usb for the mouse and keyboard, but many old ones used other things, which are not going to be compatible with today’s new computers.
Try wine again, apparently Disney or some company poured a s**t-ton of money into WINE to get Photoshop 7.0 working, as well as most of the Adobe line, excluding Premiere…