In addition to a fast CPU get the best looking screen you can afford. Graphics card would be a secondary consideration imo.

For $550 i got an Acer Aspire E1-771 laptop with a 17.3" screen and dual i5 processors. The graphics are minimal, but more than sufficient. Vegas doesn't recognize the GPU at all so it's not used. It renders HD at least 4 times faster than my 5 year old desktop renders SD, so for that price it's a pretty sweet deal.

I wouldn't worry about the graphics card either.

Thanks for this and the other replies. I didn't find this Acer Aspire E1-771 with i5 for $550 today. The cheapest so far was $603 which is still ok. How do you think it compares with:. Acer Aspire V3-572G-54S6 Notebook Intel Core i5 4210U (1.70GHz) 8GB DDR3L Memory 1TB HDD NVIDIA GeForce GT 840M 15.6" Windows 8.1? In reading reviews on these levels of Acers some pretty strong complaints (also along with plenty of positive reviews). One said there was something in the bios that didn't allow him to actually use the separate graphics card. I actually don't even know how to tell. Can you tell if yours uses it?
By the way I generally use an external monitor when connected to AC so a 15.6 screen should be big enough.
One other subject that puzzles me is if I gain much from a touch screen? Unless I'm traveling somewhere I use a mouse and external keyboard. There is also the question of whether I should get a laptop with a bigger hard drive or a an SSD? Thanks for the advice so far.

I don't have an external video card, so i can't test, sorry. This laptop is 2.6GHz. The 1.7GHz model would be correspondingly slower.

Touch screens ... i'm of a mixed mind. I certainly wouldn't avoid one as it has it's uses. However, for prolonged editing stations i would think it would tire your arms out terribly to be constantly reaching up to touch the screen. So much more comfortable to use the keyboard and mouse.

Re touchscreens - it depends what yr doing, surely? However, getting marks on the screen is Bad and for Editing I's suspect the screen is too small for stubby fingers.

In reality you need a big screen for prolonged work ( to be easy on the eye ) and a keyboard + Mouse is probably as good as it gets.

Pity no-one makes budget keyboards with "Transport controls" to make many actions so much easier.
Keys that perform several actions would be useful too, but getting agreement on "What" might be difficult.

Re original Q -
I guess the more you pay the better the performance. But consider also the Battery+ Power options if you plan taking it away from the Mains.
A small screen may be OK in the shop, but will become tiring if it's a half-day session.
+ Plenty of USB3 ports will be good for the Future, too.

Good point you made. I'm a bit basic in hardware knowledge so all I was focusing on was i3,15,i7 etc but wasn't paying attention to how many ghz. So I hadn't even noticed the 2.6ghz vs 1.7ghz. Also I may have put it wrong when I said external video card. I think most people are talking about "dedicated or separate video card" like nvidia or amd rather than the one built into Intel.
I checked out (not expecting to keep it) a Dell 3000 with an i3 at 1.90ghz,4mb ram with Windows 8.1. It was definitely better than my core 2 duo 2.0ghz running XP. Vegas locked up a few times but basically ran pretty smooth. The previews were much better but still somewhat blurry.
Before writing to the forum I had noted this laptop as being mentioned as good for editing but mostly for games:


ASUS ROG GL551JM-EH74 15.6" Gaming Laptop w/ NVIDIA GeForce GTX860M 2GB GDDR5 and Optimus Technology, 256GB SSD & 16GB RAM i7-4710HQ 2.5GHz (Turbo to 3.5 GHz

It's $1,029. I sure wouldn't mind getting one for $600 and using the $400 elsewhere but the extra performance might be worth it? Do you and the others who've commented here think this is overkill and more suited for gaming which I won't be doing? The negatives among the mostly positives are that it runs quite hot with not so good ventilation and a max 2 hour battery life.
Also this and another I saw
MSI GE60 Apache -033 15.6-Inch Laptop

Main difference is MSI has 1tb 5400 rpm hd and for $29 more the Asus has a 1tb 7200 rpm or a 225gb SSD. Any recommendations in the Hard drive area. The MSI has a 2 year warrenty the Asus like most others has a 1 year warrenty. Sorry for so many questions but have to decide soon as projects await.

I highly recommend SSD drive. I have a 5 yr old HP DV7 Pavilion that has two hard drive slots. I replaced the boot drive with 240GB SSD. Even though the laptop only supports SATA2, Windows 8.1 boots in less than 10 sec and any app installed loads much faster.

Here are some suggestions that could be considered:

• Microsoft surface pro
• hp spectre x2 
• Dell XPS 13
• asus zenbook ux330ua
• HP Spectre x360
• Lenovo Yoga 710

Best travel laptop and Vlogging Cameras