Please list the differences in performance between a Notebook computer and a Desktop computer when editing video. Any information is greatly NEEDED!!! PLZ give me all you guys got on this topic!
We need more info.
What kind of video editing do you plan on doing? What software do you plan on using? DO you plan on using an external drive to work off of, or are you doing smaller work that will be able to run off the internal drive? Will the files be off an AVCHD camcorder or anything else that will not run in native form and thus be very processor intensive?
iMovie 6 and iMovie 7 (aka iMovie '08) are very user friendly video editing programs that don't have a steep learning curve. 6 has more features, though will NOT edit AVCHD video. 7 is much more stripped down but it WILL edit AVCHD video.
Final Cut Express is now $199, and well worth it over iMovie, IMO, for any kind of video editing beyond very simple stuff. FCE 4.0 now edits AVCHD video, however no longer comes with soundtrack, and a few other features that some people liked in FCE 3.5. The learning curve is steeper than iMovie, but you can get the hang of it in a few hours and it's very powerful for what you pay.
Finally, the Final Cut Studio bundle is the most complete, most professional software option. It also should be, at $1299.
iMovie is less intensive for a computer to work with, but also less powerful. It will run smoothly on a less powerful computer. Programs like FCE and FCS require more processing power, more ram, and faster drives to run smoothly without bogging down, dropping frames, ect.
So...for simple video editing, you can get away with something like a low-level iMac, Macbook, or even Mac mini while using iMovie. But if you're going to be working with large projects and or AVCHD video and using an external drive....you'd be wise to pick up a machine with a FW800 port, a better video card (not integrated with minimal RAM like the Mini or MB line), and a faster processor.
Especially working with FCE or FCS renders can take eons with slower machines.
FWIW, i'm using a Macbook 2.0GHz, 2GB RAM to edit AVCHD video on FCE 4.0. I have an external 7200RPM FW400 drive as my main scratch disk. This is the
bare minimum setup i'd recommend for something like that. The computer ran *fine* using iMovie for simple editing. But the more software power you're using, the more hardware strength you need to back it up. My machine runs these tasks without drama. But i'm strongly considering upgrading to an iMac or MB Pro very soon. I didn't buy the MB with video editing in mind, and unless you're just using it with iMovie to do simple stuff, I wouldn't go that route either.
Hope that helps.
-Nick