Thinkpad W510 for video editing?

Hi,

does anyone have any experience in using the W510 for video editing? I will be using SD and HD and also editing photography and sound mixing.

I like the spec with a quadcore and I like its collection of ports and upgrade possibilities. Screen seems to get mixed reviews. It has to last me as this is a big spend for me but it has to do a pro level job using Adobe software.

What do you think? Should I wait a few weeks until the CES announcements are out? Will the CES even have any influence on Lenovo? But most importantly is this the right machine for me to buy?

Thanks

 

If you're going to push the CPU frequently as video editing can do, a quad core is the way to go. Keep in mind though a quad core will produce more heat and offer less battery life. I don't know that anyone here has a crystal ball, but a ThinkPad will offer you good quality and support. CES will offer some new CPUs that should offer a bit better performance, though I don't foresee any better machines screens coming with them if that's what you want. If it is the HP 8540w or 8740w with the DreamColor2 LCDs might be worth a look, though they are quite expensive.

 

Thanks for suggesting the HP -I had a look - it is prettier than the Lenovo for sure but WOW it is really expensive! In the UK it is over 2 grand! Wish I could afford it!

I hear lots about the W510 for CAD and other technical stuff but how does it handle HD video tracks in Adobe Premier for instance? Or SD and layers of FX? And if I get a quad core i7 do I need more than 8Gigs of RAM? (In which case I could go for a cute Clevo/Kobalt 860 (Sagar in the US I think).

I was only thinking about CES in the hope of a price fall on the i7 720QM processors - I can't afford a posher chip than that so Sandy wotsits are out of the question for me. In the USA there seems to be all kinds of Lenovo deals but in the UK there is nada on the Thinkpads - so a price drop would help.

 

I frequently use my W510 for HD video editing and encoding using a variety of tools. Vegas, Expression Encoder, Etc. It easily handles many chores with the quad core 720 I have in mine. I also have 16GB RAM, Intel SSD primary drive, and a variety of other drives via the Ultrabay hard drive adaptor or external enclosures. I specifically bought the W510 for two purposes. Portable HD video editing workstation, and virtualization.

I find the FHD screen to be stellar especially after calibration.

I have not compared it side-by-side with the HP that has the DreamColor screen.

 

Halobox thank you - I wanted to hear from someone who is actually using it to edit HD video! And good to hear about the screen too. I wondered about their inbuilt calibration tool. I have always used a Spyder to calibrate my monitors - but I like the idea of the Lenovo calibration. So full HD is the way to go I guess.

The HP screen looks fab and the whole rig sounds pretty good but as even a Lenovo W510 is going to break the bank - the HP is not up for consideration unless Euromillions smiles on me!

May I ask how you split your drives? And what you put in the Ultrabay?

I wish more companies used MoBo's that could handle more than 8Gigs RAM. I still really like the Clevo/Sagar/Kobalt 860 but the 8Gig Ram limit is a pain........

 

Generally speaking, you would want your applications and Windows installation on an SSD - that would give the best application launch and boot times, and make general Windows tasks very snappy. Your applications' caches should also be located on the SSD. Larger file storage (ie, video projects) should be located on conventional hard drives in the UltraBay, as it's not going to bottleneck performance.

 

I use the Spyder3 Elite from Datacolor for calibration of all of my screens. If I only needed to do the W510, the Xrite sensor and HueyPRO software is sufficient.

As for the drives, it depends on the scenario. Like MidnightSun indicated, a SSD in the primary bay is ideal for OS and application speed. A nice 500GB drive in the Ultrabay is typically present in my machine for storage of video, virtual machines, etc. I usually carry another 500GB 2.5" drive in a SIIG USB 3.0 external enclosure.

On occasion I am using another SSD drive in the Ultrabay if the virtual machine I am using is I/O bound and needs the performance.