New Laptop

[Farley]

I'm in the market for a new laptop. The main things I will be using it for is uploading and editing videos from my GoPro cam and some other cameras I have, also will use it for recording music. In the end I want to be able to put my original music on top of the video from the go pro and create 5-20 minute video's. I'd like to keep it definetly under a grand for the computer, but the more I save on the computer the more software\hardware I can pick up right away. My question is can I do this with the new i3/i5 processors or should I look more towards the i7's? Also should I be looking at a 7200RPM hard drive or will the 5400 work? And am I going to have to upgrade the video card right off the bat?

[Whoaru99]

Generally (but not always) with laptops what you order (aside from memory and HDD) is pretty much what you're stuck with. There are exceptions but you typically don't just walk into Best Buy or go to NewEgg to order up a replacement video card. Often they're specialized for that exact laptop and perhaps even heavily embedded in the whole package.

So, if you think you need a high powered video subsystem then I'd suggest bucking up from the get go.

[LMITOUT]

I have a older desktop/tower PC and when converting or rendering GoPro videos the processor is running almost wide open. Usually after it starts the job I'll just walk away and come back when it's done. I can still do some light duties on the computer while that process is running in the background but prefer just to leave it be so it doesn't hang if I push it too hard.

I don't recall what chipset my PC has but it does have a decent graphics card and adequate RAM, but I would look at a beefy processor if buying a new PC. I haven't kept up on what is what in regards of the three you mentioned, but I would find out which one has a little more horsepower and add enough RAM to complement it.

[masoct3]

Never can go wrong with Dell.

[Farley]

If the hard drive RPM doesnt matter too much then I can probably get a i5 processor with 8GB RAM for around $600, maybe a little less if I look hard enough. I would think that should work pretty good. But it's the stock graphics card makes me nervous.

[Moose]

I got an I7 Samsung NP700Z5B-W01UB with 6gb ram and 750gb hdd for my son to take to college. it was a refirb but it was around 700 on amazon. I believe it had a 512mb video card also. Here are the specs

http://www.samsung.com/us/computer/laptops/NP700Z5B-W01UB-specs