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Windows alternatives to a rMBP for video editing?

B

booyah2014

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 18, 2014
36
2
Mods, feel free to put this in a more appropriate forum (hopefully not the deleted bin!)

The time has come for me to buy my next laptop. I have been running a 2012 rMBP, but times have changed, 4k video is firmly on the horizon for me and most others if not already, and editing in FCPX on my current machine is just too slow a process.

I have a budget of around £1600/$2400 approx including the sale of my rMBP. I love the workflow and streamlined nature of OSX/FCPX and it feels very stable to me..

However..

I want the best bang for my buck. I need a machine capable of editing and rendering 1080p with ease, but also with consideration to rendering 4k.

Are there any decent Windows based alternatives to the rMBP? What kind of specs should I be looking at ideally? I'm thinking something along the lines of..

-16GB+ Ram
-i7 Quad Core 3ghz+
-Decent nVidia card with at least 2gb ddr5
-15" minimum screen size with a resolution of 2.5k or above
-Thunderbolt port

Advice?
 
What program(s) are you planning on using to replace FCPX?

The reality is, you're looking at spending probably the same amount of money for a WinDoze laptop with those spec's as you would for a new rMBP. Add into that, the additional cost for a replacement program to FCPX. And then there's that mess called Windows 8.1.
 
booyah2014 said:
Mods, feel free to put this in a more appropriate forum (hopefully not the deleted bin!)

The time has come for me to buy my next laptop. I have been running a 2012 rMBP, but times have changed, 4k video is firmly on the horizon for me and most others if not already, and editing in FCPX on my current machine is just too slow a process.

I have a budget of around £1600/$2400 approx including the sale of my rMBP. I love the workflow and streamlined nature of OSX/FCPX and it feels very stable to me..

However..

I want the best bang for my buck. I need a machine capable of editing and rendering 1080p with ease, but also with consideration to rendering 4k.

Are there any decent Windows based alternatives to the rMBP? What kind of specs should I be looking at ideally? I'm thinking something along the lines of..

-16GB+ Ram
-i7 Quad Core 3ghz+
-Decent nVidia card with at least 2gb ddr5
-15" minimum screen size with a resolution of 2.5k or above
-Thunderbolt port

Advice?
Click to expand...

Just buy the maxed out imac 5k and enjoy superfast video editing and that gorgeous screen!
 
Bending Pixels said:
What program(s) are you planning on using to replace FCPX?

The reality is, you're looking at spending probably the same amount of money for a WinDoze laptop with those spec's as you would for a new rMBP. Add into that, the additional cost for a replacement program to FCPX. And then there's that mess called Windows 8.1.
Click to expand...

Windoze laptops will get a i7-4790K at 4.4GHz with 16GB RAM, NVidia GTx 970M with 2 x 512 GB SSDs on raid 0 + 1 tb HDD and finally 4K 3840x2160 sharp izgo display for the 100 dollars more than the base rmbp with NVIDIA 750M.

Even if those specs outperform the rmbp, it still runs windoze and has crappy materials and build quality.
 
Last edited:
If you're looking into doing serious video editing, the type of things you can make a career of, then you'll want to consider purchasing a workstation notebook such as the ThinkPad W-Series, HP Elitebook, or Dell Precision.

The build quality of these machines trumps just about every consumer-grade notebook out there, and they are all available with warranties superior to what Apple offers.
 
saturnotaku said:
If you're looking into doing serious video editing, the type of things you can make a career of, then you'll want to consider purchasing a workstation notebook such as the ThinkPad W-Series, HP Elitebook, or Dell Precision.

The build quality of these machines trumps just about every consumer-grade notebook out there, and they are all available with warranties superior to what Apple offers.
Click to expand...

They will still run slower than any rmbp though CPU and disk performance wise. Better buy a rmbp than those. Only laptop that can beat it must be equipped with either i7-4940mx or i7-4790K as well as 2 SSDs in raid 0
 
booyah2014 said:
Mods, feel free to put this in a more appropriate forum (hopefully not the deleted bin!)

The time has come for me to buy my next laptop. I have been running a 2012 rMBP, but times have changed, 4k video is firmly on the horizon for me and most others if not already, and editing in FCPX on my current machine is just too slow a process.

I have a budget of around £1600/$2400 approx including the sale of my rMBP. I love the workflow and streamlined nature of OSX/FCPX and it feels very stable to me..

However..

I want the best bang for my buck. I need a machine capable of editing and rendering 1080p with ease, but also with consideration to rendering 4k.

Are there any decent Windows based alternatives to the rMBP? What kind of specs should I be looking at ideally? I'm thinking something along the lines of..

-16GB+ Ram
-i7 Quad Core 3ghz+
-Decent nVidia card with at least 2gb ddr5
-15" minimum screen size with a resolution of 2.5k or above
-Thunderbolt port

Advice?
Click to expand...

My best option would be build a hackingtosh and gtx 970 would run 4k video editing smooth.
 
booyah2014 said:
Mods, feel free to put this in a more appropriate forum (hopefully not the deleted bin!)

The time has come for me to buy my next laptop. I have been running a 2012 rMBP, but times have changed, 4k video is firmly on the horizon for me and most others if not already, and editing in FCPX on my current machine is just too slow a process.

I have a budget of around £1600/$2400 approx including the sale of my rMBP. I love the workflow and streamlined nature of OSX/FCPX and it feels very stable to me..

However..

I want the best bang for my buck. I need a machine capable of editing and rendering 1080p with ease, but also with consideration to rendering 4k.

Are there any decent Windows based alternatives to the rMBP? What kind of specs should I be looking at ideally? I'm thinking something along the lines of..

-16GB+ Ram
-i7 Quad Core 3ghz+
-Decent nVidia card with at least 2gb ddr5
-15" minimum screen size with a resolution of 2.5k or above
-Thunderbolt port

Advice?
Click to expand...

Dude just build a hackintosh.
 
Most gaming laptops will do the trick. But you'll have to forget about portability and battery life.
 
Desktop all the way

Cloudsurfer said:
Dude just build a hackintosh.
Click to expand...

If you are serious about 4K video then, to be honest you should be thinking about a Desktop. Better cooling and far superior graphics to anything in a laptop is the way to go.

I would reccomend you go with a windows box and a 4K screen with the best graphics you can afford.

Or if you can push the boat out a bit then the 5K imac is even better with the extra pixels allowing one to one pixel rendering with room for your application controls still available on screen. Not nearly so fast though with mobile class graphics and a plethora of other problems and restrictions.

Keep the macbook for mobile use and offload all the rendering etc to the desktop at home.
 
cbautis2 said:
Windoze laptops will get a i7-4790K at 4.4GHz with 16GB RAM, NVidia GTx 970M with 2 x 512 GB SSDs on raid 0 + 1 tb HDD and finally 4K 3840x2160 sharp izgo display for the 100 dollars more than the base rmbp with NVIDIA 750M.

Even if those specs outperform the rmbp, it still runs windoze and has crappy materials and build quality.
Click to expand...

i7-4790k is a desktop 84W CPU. Any laptop you fitted that in would be very thick and heavy, and have an abysmal battery life.

For the fastest mobile i7 quad you'd need a current rMBP with the £150 2.8GHz CPU upgrade. It turbo boosts to 4GHz. Nearest Windows equivalent would be one of the MSI Gaming laptops, but they're nearly as expensive.
 
I would look into a desktop. The 5k iMac might be a nice option. Even the non-5k should do well. A self-configured desktop will have a better performance/cost ratio however...

If it really has to be a laptop, I think you will have a hard time finding something that is clearly superior to the retina MBP. Maybe one from this list will do:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Top-10-Workstation-Laptops.65537.0.html

Gaming laptops will satisfy the GPU requirement, but most of them have 1080p screens.
 
I priced this out recently as well and to get the specs of a retina macbook pro, you are looking at similar price -- and without OS X or the build quality of the Mac. But for 4K especially, editing on a laptop isn't the way to go. A retina iMac with i7 and 295X is. You can run Adobe Premiere as well.
 
"bang for the buck"

A very subjective statement. For thinness, performance, and build quality, the 15" retina is the best out there.

Any windows alternative similar to the rMBP cost just as much.

Dell XPS 15 high end - $2400 for the same specs as the high end 15" - and the rMBP still comes with a faster processor and PCIe-based SSDs.
http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-15-9530/pd?oc=dncwx1603h&model_id=xps-15-9530

The Razor Blade 14 - $2200 starting for a worse processor, noticeably faster graphics card, and 128 SSD.
http://www.razerzone.com/store/razer-blade


MSI WS60 - $2200, No retina display. Although, this one comes with an actual pro GPU, a quadro.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/con...M3ZxbjcjsMCFY2TfgodmBoAig&Q=&is=REG&A=details

Any windows alternative for the same price, performance, and build quality costs as much as a rMBP. So, unless you looking a 2" thick laptop that weighs 10 pounds, I don't really see much point in switching.

The specs you listed that you wanted in your next laptop pretty much describes exactly the current Mid-2014 high end 15" rMBP anyway, and the top end processor boosts to 4GHz.
 
First of all, 4K editing on any laptop will be slow. Desktops are much better and cheaper; if you need mobility, consider a cheaper, smaller computer in addition to the desktop. Though buying a high-performance desktop AND a laptop may seem expensive, keep in mind that the desktop can be upgraded and will last a long time.

Secondly, whoever was rambling about a 4790K CPU is crazy - yes, it is 4GHz (turbo clock to 4.4) but it is a DESKTOP CPU. 2 x 512GB SSD in RAID 0 would be quite expensive, and a 4K Sharp display (also a desktop display) costs around 3000 dollars.

Thirdly, he stated his budget is 1600€. Due to online stores and US stores showing prices as they are without taxes, and the fact that the EU has high tax rates, that usually means that if you're shopping in Europe a 1600 dollar computer will cost 1600 euros. A base model rMBP is 2000 euros in most euro countries.
 
TechZeke said:
"bang for the buck"

A very subjective statement. For thinness, performance, and build quality, the 15" retina is the best out there.

Any windows alternative similar to the rMBP cost just as much.

Dell XPS 15 high end - $2400 for the same specs as the high end 15" - and the rMBP still comes with a faster processor and PCIe-based SSDs.
http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-15-9530/pd?oc=dncwx1603h&model_id=xps-15-9530

The Razor Blade 14 - $2200 starting for a worse processor, noticeably faster graphics card, and 128 SSD.
http://www.razerzone.com/store/razer-blade


MSI WS60 - $2200, No retina display. Although, this one comes with an actual pro GPU, a quadro.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/con...M3ZxbjcjsMCFY2TfgodmBoAig&Q=&is=REG&A=details

Any windows alternative for the same price, performance, and build quality costs as much as a rMBP. So, unless you looking a 2" thick laptop that weighs 10 pounds, I don't really see much point in switching.

The specs you listed that you wanted in your next laptop pretty much describes exactly the current Mid-2014 high end 15" rMBP anyway, and the top end processor boosts to 4GHz.
Click to expand...

All of those are overpriced for a Windoze laptop. Like what I wrote in my first post, I found a Clevo 17" laptop with i7 4790K desktop @ 4.4 GHz Turbo, 16 GB RAM, 4K Sharp IZGO display (3840x2160), TWO 512 GB SSDs (RAID 0 which is faster than a single PCIE drive) + 1 TB HDD (total of 2 TB storage), GTX 970M, 802.11ac WiFi and so on for $2598 which is $100 more than the base rmbp 750M (i7 2.5 GHz/16/256GB) at $2499.

Anyways you can spend 1/2 of that for a custom built desktop and it'll perform just as fast as the Clevo laptop!
 
cbautis2 said:
All of those are overpriced for a Windoze laptop. Like what I wrote in my first post, I found a Clevo 17" laptop with i7 4790K desktop @ 4.4 GHz Turbo, 16 GB RAM, 4K Sharp IZGO display (3840x2160), TWO 512 GB SSDs (RAID 0 which is faster than a single PCIE drive) + 1 TB HDD (total of 2 TB storage), GTX 970M, 802.11ac WiFi and so on for $2598 which is $100 more than the base rmbp 750M (i7 2.5 GHz/16/256GB) at $2499.

Anyways you can spend 1/2 of that for a custom built desktop and it'll perform just as fast as the Clevo laptop!
Click to expand...

If you are looking for raw specs and that is the only thing that matters to you, by all means get the 2-3" thick Clevo.

For laptops like the rMBP, you are getting a very powerful machine in the form factor that you are able to carry anywhere with excellent build quality.

Anyone can put 3 drives and a 4790K in a 2-3" brick with a display attached to it. Under your logic, why not get a $500-$700 HP that will fall apart in a year?
 
cbautis2 said:
All of those are overpriced for a Windoze laptop. Like what I wrote in my first post, I found a Clevo 17" laptop with i7 4790K desktop @ 4.4 GHz Turbo, 16 GB RAM, 4K Sharp IZGO display (3840x2160), TWO 512 GB SSDs (RAID 0 which is faster than a single PCIE drive) + 1 TB HDD (total of 2 TB storage), GTX 970M, 802.11ac WiFi and so on for $2598 which is $100 more than the base rmbp 750M (i7 2.5 GHz/16/256GB) at $2499.

Anyways you can spend 1/2 of that for a custom built desktop and it'll perform just as fast as the Clevo laptop!
Click to expand...

Link for the Clevo, please?
 
Last edited:
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cbautis2 said:
http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np9752-clevo-p750zm-eta-jan23-p-7850.html?wconfigure=yes

Just came back from work. Configure it as i wrote with the IC diamond thermal paste upgrade, 2 512 GB SSD msata in raid 0 and you should get 2598.63 dollars after instant discount.

My bad it's 15.6" not 17.3".

I'm amazed they can cool an 84 watt CPU on a 15.6" laptop.
Click to expand...

Its not impossible to do this and I think it has been done before to cool such a CPU in a laptop. But most manufacturers wont bother to build such a crazy machine because their customers may think the thing is more a jet engine than a laptop.

And why then bother to buy such a machine if used for editing when it is screaming like hell? Putting it aside and using it with a external monitor and keyboard? Then just buy a desktop.
 
I agree, the same spec custom desktop would cost at least 1500, including the 4K monitor but it'll overclock way more than the laptop. I would guess it's for people who go to LAN parties or just want the highest CPU spec in a laptop. I bet some manufacturers even managed to put the 8-core haswell-e on a laptop.
 
bennibeef said:
Its not impossible to do this and I think it has been done before to cool such a CPU in a laptop. But most manufacturers wont bother to build such a crazy machine because their customers may think the thing is more a jet engine than a laptop.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it has. Mate of mine had an HP Pavilion 17" beast about 10 years ago with a Pentium 4 3GHz desktop chip in it. Those CPUs are typically about 85W. Thing weighed over 4Kg without the enormous power adaptor and ran for about an hour tops on the battery with the fans screaming the entire time.

Looking at the heatsinks in that Clevo, they must be structural!
 
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