Notebook Advice: Grab Quad-Core or Wait for Mobile Core i7?

[LUCI5R]

Usage: Animation rendering; Video encoding; Video Authoring; Audio/Video Editing; Encoding & Converting 1080p / 6 Channels Audio/Video.

Budget: $2,000 ~ $2,500

I've been looking around at the HP HDX18t & the Alienware M17x Notebooks. I was pretty much set on buying one of the two; but yesterday I saw news regarding the Mobile Core i7 being released by the end of this month, which means soon we should have Mobile Core i7 notebooks in the market. There's already news of an HP Dv8 which is looking pretty promising.

My question is: Should I grab a Core 2 Quad notebook now or wait for a Core i7 notebook? Considering my primary usage of the notebook (Video Encoding, Rendering), will I gain any advantage waiting for a Core i7? Is it better then Core 2 Quad in the Video Editing/Encoding area?

nVidia GTX is a must for me as I'll be using CUDA as well.

Any suggestions or advice would be highly appreciated!

Thanks guys.

[larrabee]

There is a noticeable difference in the Nehalem architecture with video encoding. I think it's an impacted positively by hyper threading: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...px?i=3634&p=12

[Serra]

I'm very skeptical about a mobile i7 coming out anytime soon. Quads are still new to the laptop arena and have terrible heat/power consumption issues as it is. I wouldn't be surprised if someone basically modified a non-mobile mobo into a laptop form factor and packed it full of heatpipes and high-rpm fans and sold a "mobile" i7 laptop, but... yeah. Take my thoughts in that arena with a grain of salt though, I don't work for Intel. I just remember hearing something similar for quads last year and how long it was until a true mobile part was released (at an outrageous cost).

But I must ask - if your primary uses are video editing/encoding, why do you want a notebook? That kind of work is best left for desktops, which are significantly faster and cheaper. Quad core laptops with nvidia GPU's good enough to make CUDA worthwhile have next to no battery life and generate tremendous heat, even when idle. Is it not an option to buy a cheap PC to handle the work and then a down-scaled laptop for actual portability? If you search for deals you can get a Core 2 Quad downright cheap these days, and laptops for tooling around with are very affordable.