I need a new win11 notebook computer for Resolve video editing and DXO PL 6 photo editing.

I currently have a Dell 9570 Win10 notebook, which has been fine until I started shooting h.265 10 bit video codecs and using the latest noise reduction tools in both video and photo editors. The video editing has become choppy and rendering very slow, and the export of processed photos takes forever now. But the reliability has been excellent over the last four years and I don't have any other computers. I'm thinking of another Dell flagship Win 11 machine rather than an Apple M2 but don't have any experience with either.

Can anyone recommend a current model Dell 17 inch model to take a look at, and with what options to include, just as a starting point for me. I will invest some money in a computer that will be useful for at least a few years, like I did with the 9570. Thanks.

I have a basic XPS 15 9570 too. Nice travel machine, even if graphically weak. I mostly use a desktop for heavy processing.

The previous 12th gen XPS 17 looks mighty nice to me. I'm not a video guy, so please keep that in mind; I may be under-specifying some features like memory and storage and over-specifying the display, but the XPS 17 allows pretty easy memory and storage expansion with less-expensive third-party components.

Being cheap, I'd want the i7-12700H CPU, Windows 11 Pro, 32GB, RTX 3050 GPU, 512GB, UHD+ display, no vPro.

www.dell.com/en-us/shop/laptops/12th-gen-intel/spd/xps-17-9720-laptop/ctox17w11p1c4003

Now, if you've got the big money, they have a loaded 13th gen version now.

www.dell.com/en-us/shop/laptops/13th-gen-intel/spd/xps-17-9730-laptop/usexcpcto9730rpl03_ads

I'm enjoying looking at these machines, even if I already have the older, cheaper laptops I actually need. Thanks for the excuse, hope this is some help.

Oh, and check out the Dell service manual for a view of the internals and detailed upgrade info.

dl.dell.com/content/manual33838001-xps-17-9720-service-manual.pdf?language=en-us

Thank you so much for the reply! I am in Liberty Hill, so lots of Dell stuff available here locally. I appreciate the links and will do some looking today and this week.
Joe

Please note that DxO PL6 benefits tremendously from dedicated GPU accelerations. These are literally many times faster than using a CPU or integrated GPU. So for your new laptop, you may want to look those with Nvidia RTX graphics rather than Intel Iris or Xe.

I have a Dell XPS 15 9510, bought new just over a year ago. 3.5K OLED display (gorgeous), maxed out with 64GB of RAM, 2TB C drive and 2TB D drive, both m.2.

All was well for months, though with light usage, until I took my first dive trip vacation last September. I was staying at a Caribbean resort (with sketchy internet) when the laptop suddenly started having a display problem when Windows booted. The screen would show the Dell logo, and the Win11 'loading circle', but as soon as the Windows drivers kicked in, the display would go black and nothing I did would make it come back on. Naturally I tried rebooting, but that can be problematic when you can't see what is happening in Windows as you hold the power button down to reboot, or continually hit Alt-F4/Enter.

Eventually something glitched and Windows broke and wouldn't start. In desperation in a hotel room at 1am I ended up reinstalling Windows to bring the Dell back to its starting point. Of course I lost all my apps, including Lightroom, which I then had to slowly download and reinstall. Eventually I got going again to the point I was using Lightroom on my images.

I researched this as much as I could with my cell phone, and it seems this issue is widespread and goes back about 4 years. Dell never acknowledges it. Appears to be an issue with the Intel UHD driver. This happens with laptops with the RTX3050 GPU installed.

I took the laptop on another diving vacation trip to Truk last month, another diving resort in a remote location with sketchy internet. And the problem happened again. This time I tried - after many other things - going into the BIOS and setting 'factory defaults'. Result? Windows would not start, and I had to reinstall Windows again! Once again losing all my apps (including my Lightroom ratings on the images taken on the trip so far.)

Once home again I tried a few things to see if I could fix this issue, or if I had to simply junk the Dell and go by an HP. I think in part the issue could be related to heat, so I tried settings to make the laptop run cooler, including setting Cooling priority over Balanced, and turning off a screen refresh feature in an Intel utility. Fingers crossed this will help. The problem was always intermittent, until it happened. I may yet pull the CPU to reapply some new thermal grease.

I figure the Dell is not really set up to have 64GB RAM and two big M.2 SSD drive, and as such it runs too hot. For sure setting the fan to Cooling priority had the fan running initially for a couple of minutes, but after that it seemed as quiet as always.

At any rate, the next time I take this laptop on vacation, I'm bringing a copy of my critical programs on a thumb drive. Beware the Dell XPS.

Look to DxOs recommended hardware to guide you in what to buy.

I just picked up a laptop (previous gen gamer) with a gen 12 12 core i5 and an RTX 3060, well above their recommended specs. It does not have a high end screen, though its not bad.

I suspect that would be good enough for you. Companies are clearing out these units because gen 13 cpu laptops are now hitting the market.

Aha, you could walk to Round Rock, only 7 hours.

Do you have the $284 DaVinci Resolve Studio license? It is required for discrete GPU support (maybe only for H.264 and H.265?) I believe.
www.richardlackey.com/davinci-resolve-system-requirements/

For other models to consider, you might navigate to notebookcheck.net, find their list of Best Multimedia Notebooks, and sort by screen size.

I appreciate all the replies above. Here is an update. I bought the XPS 17 Model 9730, fully optioned out. Then I used Zinstall to move all my programs and data from my older Win 10 Dell 9570 to the new machine. That worked perfectly! I did have to move the licenses for DaVinci Resolve and Cyberlink to the new machine so the old machine isn't really a backup unless I buy additional licenses, but the fact that EVERYTHING worked just as if I had upgraded the old computer to Win 11 was quite a surprise. I was thinking it may take a couple of days to get the new computer to full speed, and it didn't.

I've been using the computer for a week and a half and I am very happy with it. I can easily edit 10 bit and 8k files now and the DXO PL6 exports take about 1/4 the time of the older computer. I even like Win 11. So, a happy Dell customer yet once again at a premium price, of course.

Next task, after a few more weeks of shakedown on the new computer, is to migrate all of my wife's stuff to my old Dell 9570, upgrade it to Win 11, and find a home for her old computer. I may upgrade my old computer to Win 11 first, then do the migration, since that worked so well on my new computer.

So far, I've had good luck buying basic Dell laptops and upgrading them with less expensive aftermarket parts if needed. IMO, desktops are more fun to build myself; it's not difficult, and that way I can get exactly what I want, no more, no less. :-) Also, reusing some parts from previous builds can save significant $ for the builder.

Austinian--Your approach is a good one and much less expensive than my approach. My background is that I started using notebooks for work 20 years ago and got away from desktops entirely, mainly because I traveled a lot and had to have everything available on my notebook anyway. Now, I shuttle between two locations plus the grandkids' locations and STILL need the mobile work station, so I've stuck with the notebook, with a second monitor and docking station at both home locations. With this latest and greatest Dell notebook, I am still happy with this compromise. I do make a lot of backups, however, just in case something happens to my one and only notebook. I've been very lucky so far, no Dell computer failures, no stolen or damaged computers. I did upgrade the SSD drive and add memory myself to the 9570 a few years ago, no problem.

I'm not at all sure that my approach is less expensive; I have several Dell laptops, the more recent two bought on impulse as I found them technically interesting (far from the first time I've bought computers on that basis!). The XPS 15 is the oldest, but I still prefer it for traveling.

I think you've done the right thing with that XPS 17; if I had only one PC that's what I'd want--I'm envious! I've leered at the one they have on display at Best Buy, but I can't justify another laptop, especially since I've just finished a major upgrade on my desktop PC.

And backups are good--I do it frequently, as a PC crash in the late 1980's wiped my work drive and the floppy disk backup failed to restore. :-(