Thanks Ronin, those are handy links, just what I was looking for.
I need particular advice as to which processor to choose, as I haven't kept up with what the latest best performance/price point is for this sort of thing.
I'm also unclear on whether a graphics card is needed for video editing. I know CPU is important, but can on-board graphics handle the load?
The last few laptop purchases I've advised friends on have come pre-installed with Win7 or 8 but with no OS installation disks. As Goodson says, there's usually some sort of recovery partition, but that's not much use in a real emergency to my eyes. I like the security of holding a shiny disk in my hands. Not sure how to install a new HDD/SSD holding Windows without one.
Cat wrote:
Instead of wasting the money on an SSD that doesn't really make a difference since you're not going to be storing the files on there since it is too small.
I'll have to disagree with you here Cat, based on my personal experience. When I installed my first SSD, everything about the PC felt 100% faster and more responsive. Not just boot up time, but speed of opening programs, multiple windows, saving files, everything. I could never go back. Out of interest, do you have an SSD in your PC and if so, did it not make much difference?
I'll kill the Win 7 / Win 8 discussion dead here, although thanks for the input. It will be Win 8.1 with some sort of classic shell as this will suit the situation best.
Alexander, no problem, I probably mis-read too, sorry.