editing laptop upgrade – taking the Macbook Pro plunge?

[Nick Meyers]

1st: buying n USA vs buying in NZ..

the prices may LOOK cheaper, but there are state sales taxes that are NOT included.
i believe there are 2 states that DONT have sales tax.
New Hampshire is one.
i’d love to go there on a vacation, but if you;re not planning to, it could be an expensive detour.
Cant remember what the other one is.

it’s possible to buy via mail order from these states,
and the great deals you’ll find on-line probably do it this way.
but you’ll need a US credit card to do so.

and if you get a friend to buy it for you,
you could have problems getting your warrantee to work back in NZ.

2nd: The Laptop

i’m an advocate of the 15″
i find the 17″ just too big to lug around.
i work at home with a laptop and a 23″ Cinema Display,
and CONTRARY to what i just said,
in the past i’ve hit the road with my laptop, and a20″ Cinema Display.
those jobs were not “in the field”, but in someone else’s office.

but i guess you wouldn’t want to lug one of those all the way to the ‘states.

just recently there was a quiet upgrade to the Laptops:
https://db.tidbits.com/article/9284

the January rumours seem to be about a 13″ model,
but what do i know… rumours are just rumours

maxing out the hard drive wont hurt, i suppose
but mainly to store all the FCS media, and your ever-growing library of music and videos!
to tell then truth, i’m a little wary of the 7200rpm drive running hot,
but i’d also put this in the “What do i know” basket, and get some advice on that.
5400rpm has been fine for capturing and running DV for me, when i’ve resorted to the internal.

plan on getting an eSata interface as well

Max you your RAM, too, but don’t buy the Apple RAM – too expensive!
find some Kensington or Crucial RAM on line and install it yourself.

have fun!
nick

[Doug Dillaman]

i believe there are 2 states that DONT have sales tax.
New Hampshire is one.

The other is Oregon. I’ll be spending a week there. It’s where I bought my last Mac – I’m actually a US citizen who’s become an NZ resident recently.

Cheers for the other advice – I’ll give a good think to the 15 vs. 17 inch issue.

[Bill Bilowit]

I acquired a MacBook Pro in July and edited a 90-minute feature in DVCPRO HD 1080 format using two 1TB FW 800 external drives (G-Tech, RAID 0) with an extra FW bus via express card slot. Excellent performance, but even so I suggest eSATA if you can afford it.

Also have done much P2 work in both 720 and 1080; the only issue is of course the MBP cardbus slot is not P2-sized, which is why I keep my G4 PowerBook in working order. But if the shoot used a Firestore, no card issues or importing to worry about.

You may find the 15″ more manageable for travelling, it allows room for an external monitor and other peripherals in tight working spaces where even an inch or two really matters.

Absolutely max out the RAM, from Apple, and get Applecare. Order either the largest or fastest internal drive as per your needs. My approach is, if you’re getting a new system do not pull punches on performance specs, you’ll regret it during late nights on the road if you do.

Search this forum for more detail on what you can and can’t do in the MBP regarding HD formats and advanced post-production; it’s been discussed.

And if you’re not in certain need of this Mac right now, there is always a better one just around the corner. That’s why I wait until my work situation clearly justifies the purchase, then I never look back.

[Nick Meyers]

“The other is Oregon. I’ll be spending a week there. It’s where I bought my last Mac – I’m actually a US citizen who’s become an NZ resident recently.”

so that’s why you;re a psuedo kiwi! 🙂
do you love it?
im an aussie, and i look wistfully over the Tasman from time to time.

i’ll second the Apple Care suggestion.
and third it.
ESPECIALLY if you are on the road.

“there is always a better one just around the corner. That’s why I wait until my work situation clearly justifies the purchase, then I never look back.”

excellent advice.
you cant do better than that.

nick

[Aaron Zander]

I love my 12″ powerbook too, soo good for what it is. And don’t let any one ever tell you D5 won’t play on it. I’ve run d5 10 bit uncompressed footage through it with 30k particles in AE..

If you can wait for the new cores, than do it, but if you back here for only the holidays, might be a bad Idea. the new 13″ mbp is slated to NOT have a disk drive to conserve space not sure how this will work but hey, could be awesome, or could be the new newton/cube…

a good investment for p2 transferring is their portable p2 hard drive, a little slow but very nice, it’s like 80 gigs, and has a usb and fw out and allows you to dump off p2 data either straight to it, or to your computer. Done this a lot. and it works great.

they are good little computers, and the ability to duel boot doesn’t hurt for those nights in the hotel when team fortress 2 sounds better than dailies…

-Zander

[Nate]

I have a friend who is interested in buying my old G4 Power Book so I can upgrade and buy a new one. But you say the new ones do not accept the P2 cards?? So you kept the old G4 just for P2 download? Is there an inexpensive option “b” for downloading P2 with the new Mac Book Pros?? I plan on buying the P2 cameras this spring.

[Bill Bilowit]

You can get P2 card data into your MBP edit system inexpensively:

–via ExpressCard 34 Duel Adapter
–via Firewire while cards are mounted in the camera (a bit slower)

Or, expensively:
–via Panasonic P2 Store hard drive unit
–buy a Firestore for direct-to-edit and use P2 only for the most portable occasions

Also, post some questions in the Cow’s P2 forum for more info.

[Doug Dillaman]

hey Nick, loving this side of the Tasman … haven’t made it to your side yet, shamefully enough. Hoping to visit in 2008!

Thanks for the advice, everybody.

[Paul Huppe]

I’ve got the 17″ and I love it. Yes, it’s a bit bulkier than the 15″, but it’s not the end of the world. I’ve traveled with it extensively the last 6 months and I wouldn’t trade it for a smaller one.

I highly recommend maxing out the RAM; I’ve got 4Gb (third party), and I’ve no performance issues. Also running eSata to G-Drive Qs, and life is good!

Paul