Solved Needing a new laptop

Derek,
I want to purchase a new laptop powerful enough for me to process 4K videos with Vegas Pro while I'm traveling. I found this ALIENWARE 17R4 , by Dell that starts at $17oo but after I add all the upgrades they are at $2,260.
www.dell.com/en-us/shop/cty/pdp/spd/alienware-17-laptop/dkcwkblg0711mp?cid=309562&st=&gclid=Cj0KCQiAlpDQBRDmARIsAAW6-DOdJDbe5YAmg3UbsVYjJ1BNYxbQSoCia1xf_SdwprqMK3RPD8h0Cb8aArTIEALw_wcB&lid=5848363&VEN1=se1ZqpVG6,183426486698,901pdb6671,c,,DKCWKBLG0711MP&VEN2=,&dgc=st&dgseg=dhs&acd=12309238309501410&VEN3=813804098594089295&selectionState=eyJGUHJpY2UiOjIyNTkuOTksIk9DIjoiZGtjd2tibGcwNzExbXAiLCJRdHkiOjEsIk1vZHMiOlt7IklkIjoxNDYsIk9wdHMiOlt7IklkIjoiN1JWVlJSIiwiUHJpY2UiOjI1MC4wfV19LHsiSWQiOjExLCJPcHRzIjpbeyJJZCI6IjEwUDY0RSIsIlByaWNlIjoxODAuMH1dfSx7IklkIjozLCJPcHRzIjpbeyJJZCI6IjMyRzI0MDAiLCJQcmljZSI6NDAwLjB9XX0seyJJZCI6OCwiT3B0cyI6W3siSWQiOiI1MTIxVEIiLCJQcmljZSI6NDAwLjB9XX0seyJJZCI6MTAxNSwiT3B0cyI6W3siSWQiOiIyNDBXM1AifV19LHsiSWQiOjIwLCJPcHRzIjpbeyJJZCI6IjI0MFdQQyJ9XX1dfQ%253D%253D
I have a question about the graphics card it has. They are offering a NIVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 with 8GB GDDR5 Overclocked video card. Is have a video card that is 'Overclocked' something I should avoid? Does that mean if may be running hotter. This is advertised as a gaming laptop. I have no interest in gaming but this appears to be the only way I can find a laptop with enough video card memory for adequately processing 4K video.

Anybody know of any better options?

Hey there MrGrunthunter,

Just looked at the specs on Dell's/Alienware site. Good specs overall.

As for the video card, the GTX 1070 would be a good choice, as I am currently using it (full-size computer) in my computer that I have Vegas Pro 15 installed, and works great. As for Movie Studio 14 (I have the suite in my "profiled" computer), which incorporates a GTX 1080, and we already know that for the time being, MSP 14 does not utilize the graphics card for rendering (hurry up Version 15!). I still have no issues on it doing pretty much any type of project, and am currently rendering an original DVD from 720p upscale to 4K for my brother. Working fine, just taking a bit for all those "extra" pixels to find a home.

The "Overclocked" or "OC" that you mentioned, is done by the particular card manufacturer (MSI, Asus, Gigabyte, PNY, etc.), which is usually just a "small" bump in the core clock speed of the GPU chip itself. The one thing with these newer Nvidia cards with the "Pascal" architecture like the one you refer to, is that they only clock so high; sort of like the new AMD processors have a problem with Over Clocking higher than 4 GHz (unless you win that "Silicon Lottery" - never me though :S ). I would not worry about it too much, since you will probably be purchasing an extended warranty (?) as well, so if there are any problems, just return to Dell/Alienware. If you decide you don't need that much "oomph", I would say the listed GTX 1060 or RX 570 are acceptable substitutes, and either would be able to handle 4K rendering/editing.

Good Luck!

Mike "The Chief" O'Sullivan

Thanks for the feed back Mike. I was hoping you'd see my posting and respond. I did just fine another one advertised by Best Buy and theirs had memory card slots and I didn't see any in the one I posted a link to. With us now into November I'm kind of wondering if I should wait and see if there are any great 'Black Friday' deals on the horizon. My old Fijitsu Lifebook 5200 pen based running XP is getting pretty tired to say the least LOL. I'll miss not having the pen based option though.
Mike in Fla.

Hey Mike in Fla.,

Remember, you have a good base to start from when you look around. The specs you got and linked to should be fine, just use them as a good base/starting point. Again, with computer technology, you do get what you pay for. Like you, my laptop is on its way out, being close to 8 years old, though don't use mine for video/photo editing. Pretty much from my old business, doing bills, and keeping my NASCAR excel spreadsheet up for our "Drivers Pool" (August Pocono Race with about 24 people: two brothers and their sons, cousin from Michigan and some of his friends, Uncle and Cousins from Iowa). Hoping it lasts through next years' race, then upgrade, as I want to upgrade my other rig (not profile one) to X299 platform. Why not Ryzen or Threadripper? Personal choice really, though if I did go "Team Red", it would be the Threadripper 1920X.

From what I saw today on Newegg and even BandH Photo/Video sites, they are already ramping up for the Holiday dash. One recommendation is to make sure you don't get "carried away" on how "small" the laptop should be. If you plan to use it for 4K editing, it will get hot, and will need some "breathing room". Amazing how many reviews I see on YouTube touting how great these little guys are, but you never see the reviewer using it for editing; and most of the time if they game on it, they mention how hot it gets, or how much battery life it really Doesn't Have!

Good Luck!

Mike "The Chief" O'Sullivan

Ha, sounds familiar. I bought mine just as I was retiring from the Space Center 7 years ago. I loved it because I could take progress photos and annotate on them with the pen for status presentations. Now I'm managing a 50+ member fishing camp and just use it for the MS Office (Excel & Word) and two of my email accounts. I just figured as long as I was getting a new one I might as well get one that I could take out to me fishing camp and on vacations and be able to work on any little video projects in my spare time. I use my desktop here at home really for all of my video work and watching YouTube .