Laptop for Adobe CC

[noedar]

Anyone keen to help me configure a laptop for video editing? I use Adobe CC, and flick between Premiere, Photoshop, and After Effects, all running at the same time. After effects usually has quite a few layers stacked up, with effects, dynamic links back to Premiere, and I am soon to be moving towards a RAW DNG workflow within Premiere. I have a budget of around £2000, maybe a little more. This will be my primary workstation. I have configured a few different laptops, but I'm not an overly technical person, so I don't know what is integral to performance with Adobe, and what is wasted money.
Thanks in advance for any pointers.
Noel

 

[Oussebon]

Photoshop apparently benefits more from strong single-threaded performance over having lots of cores. We see certain i5s perform similarly to i7s: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/skylake-intel-core-i7-6700k-core-i5-6600k,review-33276-5.html and why we see quad core i7s like the 6700k outperform 10-core monsters: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/intel-core-i7-broadwell-e-6950x-6900k-6850k-6800k,review-33569-5.html Not that you really get 6+ core intel extreme / Xeon CPUs in consumer laptops, maybe in some workstation ones...

Video editing is something that can make use of multiple cores and threads, and is one of the areas where an i7 can shine over an i5 (see multithreaded Cinebench scores here for example: http://tinyurl.com/jedfsr9 )

Of the choices at PCS the Octane laptops have the most powerful CPUs, as they are able to have full desktop CPUs like the i7 6700k rather than the i7 6700HQ which is the regular high end laptop CPU. As you can see from the Notebookcheck benches, the 6700k is 20-30% more powerful.

Premiere Pro makes use of the GPU for video editing, and depending on what you do, the stronger the GPU, the faster the work is done.
View attachment 8946
https://youtu.be/g7cQK8jFPzo?t=319
In gaming terms, the GTX 1060 is around the GTX 980, while the GTX 1070 is a bit above the 980 ti (I know you're not gaming, that's just to help loosely interpret the chart). The laptop versions of those GPUs are actually a bit slower than their desktop counterparts (that's the nature of laptops), but the laptop GTX 1070 appears to be less nerfed relative to its desktop counterpart than the 1060. So a laptop 1070 is a proportionately bigger step up over the laptop 1060 than it would be in desktop GPUs: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Nvidia...-1080-SLI-GTX-1070-and-GTX-1060.171566.0.html

Photoshop and video editing can benefit a lot from an SSD
https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/optimize-photoshop-cc-performance.html
The Samsung NVMes seem quite tasty with their 4 figure read and write speeds, while not costing very much more than regular Sata SSDs.

Therefore perhaps something like this:

Chassis & Display
Octane Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD IPS LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-6700k (4.0GHz) 8MB Cache
Memory (RAM)
16GB HyperX IMPACT 2133MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1070 - 8.0GB GDDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1, G-SYNC
FREE GEARS OF WAR 4 with select GTX 10 Series GPUs!
Memory - Hard Disk
1TB WD BLACK 2.5" WD10JPLX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
M.2 SSD Drive
512GB SAMSUNG PM961 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 2800MB/R, 1600MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
AC Adaptor
1 x 230W AC Adaptor
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-8260 M.2 (867Mbps, 802.11AC) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options
3 x USB 3.0 PORTS, 2 x USB 3.1 PORTS, 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Battery
Octane Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (82WH)
Keyboard Language
OCTANE SERIES BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MP FULL HD WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,931.00 including VAT and delivery.

Unique URL to re-configure: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/octaneIII-15/NVPhXGBzgJ/

If you need 32gb RAM, the 2x16gb sticks will take the cost up to £2040, £7 less than the 4x8gb option, and could potentially perform better due to the motherboard being dual channel rather than quad channel (though whether you'd be able to measure that in real use idk - but it's cheaper and potentially better so that would be the way to do it I guess...)