New laptop advice needed

Lisaberry

Hi

I need a new laptop ASAP as mine is now getting so hard to use for even basic tasks. I use it to remotely log in to my work PC so I'm seeing this as a necessary need rather than a want!

Although I love gadgets I do not have a clue about laptops and I am just not getting answers I trust from the people in PC World. I was really hoping to get some advice on what I need.

My requirements are...

1. No more really than £500 (much more than that and the voice in me that keeps telling me to buy a MacBook kicks in and asks why not just pay the extra)

2. Ability to stitch together my home movies at a speed that doesn't mean I need to spend all day saving a 20 minute hd clip

3. Screen really of no more than 14 inches. Not 100% necessary but I do love the size of the 13.3 machines. I can't see me watching movies on my laptop .

4. And this I think is why I'm struggling to find something....I'd prefer it to look nice. I love the slim, silver look. Don't mind white but just don't want a big, heavy black brick on my desk anymore.

I've seen a beautiful Asus (U38N) in my budget but I'm not sure if the AMD A8 processor is up to the editing?
It's not like I'll even be doing that much editing, just want to have the option.

Also, Is it possible to edit .mov files on a windows laptop without mucking about converting them first? A lot of my vids are done on my iphone (I have a he camcorder though for Christmas, hols etc)
I've pretty much resigned myself to having to transfer the .mov files to my ipad to edit on iMovie. It would be nice to be able to do them on the laptop though. I just don't want to have to use anything too complicated or convert an lose quality.


Editing to add: I was hoping, once I've saved my movies onto my external hard drive to use my laptop to stream them through my xbox onto my tv. I've had probs doing this on my old laptop with buffering taking an age...is that due to the cruddiness of my laptop? I'm expecting the vids to be about 20 mins max in length.
Thanks for your help!

NiftyDigits

What do you have now? Full model number?

Lisaberry

NiftyDigits wrote: »

What do you have now? Full model number?

Its a 4 year old heap. I'm not near it to tell you but it's an Advent Roma 2000.

NiftyDigits

Lisaberry wrote: »

Its a 4 year old heap. I'm not near it to tell you but it's an Advent Roma 2000.

Ok, I understand everything. Hopefully Cisco will scour the Internet and come back with some sensible suggestions for you.

Lisaberry

Ok thanks

DCodd

Hi All. Cisco and Prowla have already advised on another part of the forum. I (rightly or wrongly) advised Lisaberry to ask for advice here specifically for the specs required for movie editing and the ability to potentially edit their iPhone movies.

Apologies to all if that was wrong.

martinbsp

Lisaberry wrote: »

1. No more really than £500 (much more than that and the voice in me that keeps telling me to buy a MacBook kicks in and asks why not just pay the extra)

I've owned several laptops (and current owner of a MacBook Air). I definitely wouldn't spend money on a MacBook. Yes they're extremely well built but that's about it. They are fundamentally not massively different from a Windows based machine, especially not at the level you are looking to use it at. The only reason I have a MacBook Air is because it came with a one-off 3 year warranty from John Lewis and need something very light and portable. I also didn't foot the bill. Other than that I wouldn't have bothered.

You can buy an i5 with a reasonable spec for circa £500 that will be more than adequate. Arguably you could even do video and audio editing on an i3 (that's what I do at work) which means you can get under the £500 mark.

Ignore the lure of the Mac. A lot of it is hype.

Lisaberry

Thanks all.

So, can I edit .mov on a PC? I was told in PC world I couldn't without converting the files? I know WWM can't do it (unless that's changed now) but I really only want to do simple cut and stitch style editing, nothing too crazy.

Lisaberry

martinbsp wrote: »

I've owned several laptops (and current owner of a MacBook Air). I definitely wouldn't spend money on a MacBook. Yes they're extremely well built but that's about it. They are fundamentally not massively different from a Windows based machine, especially not at the level you are looking to use it at. The only reason I have a MacBook Air is because it came with a one-off 3 year warranty from John Lewis and need something very light and portable. I also didn't foot the bill. Other than that I wouldn't have bothered.

You can buy an i5 with a reasonable spec for circa £500 that will be more than adequate. Arguably you could even do video and audio editing on an i3 (that's what I do at work) which means you can get under the £500 mark.
Ignore the lure of the Mac. A lot of it is hype.

So, if i3 is enough that would really open things up.
I read reviews of everything I like the look of and there is always things saying it's too slow etc.

How would an AMD A8 perform? I liked the look of this:

http://www.ebuyer.com/579805-asus-u38n-touch-laptop-u38n-c4010h

Is i3 better than this?

Cisco001

A8-4555m is slower than i3

I would say go for either Lenovo U410 @ saveonlaptops or Asus U38N

Reviews here
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Update-Asus-VivoBook-U38N-C4004H-Notebook.93329.0.html

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Lenovo-IdeaPad-U410-MAH6MGE-Notebook.79644.0.html

How often do you edit video? If you edit once a month, but using laptop 7 days a week. I would go for Asus, due to its look & screen

If you getting Asus, I suggest you get a 4GB DDR3 1600 laptop RAM. More RAM would help on editing.

Lisaberry

Thanks Cisco. Someone else has said to me that going for anything less than i7 is a waste of time...would you disagree?

http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/LENOVO-Z500-59399413_1492687.html
I like the look of this but it's got a bigger screen than I wanted

One of your suggestions...
http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/LENOVO-U410-59399422_1507572.html
Better size but less RAM?

I don't want to end up with another heap like I have now for the sake of £100.
Sorry to ask so much, but this is a major investment for me and I'm not use to being so clueless when it comes to technology.
I'm also still hesitant about buying something I've never seen in the flesh. YouTube can only show me so much but limiting myself to PC World is a bit poor.