Laptop chipsets?

[Ribbit]

A friend of mine wants to buy a laptop, and wants to be able to do some video editing with it. He's mainly an Adobe Premier Pro user.

I don't know what graphics chipset he should go for. As far as I see, his choice is:

Intel Xtreme family
Radeon IGP
Geforce4Go
Radeon Mobility 7xxx
Radeon Mobility 9xxx (R300)
FireGL T2

He's on a tight budget, so I think he's really limited to the first two, or perhaps the R7500. Is there another one I've missed? Are there likely to be issues with the Intel or the IGP chips?

[mmp121]

I'd tell ur friend to NOT get a laptop to do video editting. Especially if he's on a tight budget.

What's his reasoning for needing a laptop to do video editting? If he needs a small system, a SFF PC would foot the bill. Yes its not as portable as a laptop, but its more portable than a mid-tower case I'd wager, and possibly cheaper and more flexible.

[Ribbit]

Well I think his reasoning is he wants a laptop, and if he can he wants to do video editing with it when he's away from his main rig. Since that would be the most demanding thing he did with it (he's not a gamer at all) it makes sense to configure it with editing in mind.

I've just been chatting with him, and I think he's put the whole laptop idea on hold for now, but I'd still like to hear opinions on those chipsets for future reference.

[smitty]

In addition to a PC I use a laptop to edit all the time.It uses geforce video 1.6g, 512mb,2 40g drives no issue with intel chipset and xp pro.That's msp though.not premiere
advantages......... start edit on site to show client rough cut immediately!........ finish edit on site , have the edit prepared with graphics,audio,titling and just plug in the video and done
.......... capture firewire straight to laptop hard drive
.......... show an edit to client at his location for approval and any small change do it right there and get approval
.......... network to PC to move projects back and forth
.......... docking station gives full keyboard, monitor,printer ,etc.
if your using firewire the laptop and drives are plenty fast enough
IMHO laptop is a good way to go
smitty

[Brian Ellis]

I tend to agree that laptops are rather limitative. Capturing DV MAY be possible with some laptops. Forget about using MJPEG, HuffYUV etc.; they are simply not possible with many.

My laptop came with an IEEE-1394 port, but it is not reliable enough for captures. If I network in a DV AVI file (limited to 10 Mbit/s!, so takes ages), I can edit but I must add external mouse and monitor (the internal 1024 x 768 15" is really too small for reasonable editing with a cramped timeline). Sorry, but I really do advise against.

[smitty]

Brian as with most computer situations some combination just don't work as well as others( in the old days VIA chipset, Sound blaster live and ATI, etc) Too bad you can't rely on the firewire cap
as I have had great success. As far as networking I made a crossover cable to go to the PC and works very fast not sure why yours would be slow.
Editing on site with the laptop forced me to learn so of the keyboard shortcuts.... man am I glad they really help
When not on site just slid the laptop in the dock and boom full size monitor(s) ,keyboard and mouse.
Sorry for going on & on, it's just I really like using the laptop
To each his own
smitty