MacBook Pro acting like a tower

[James Mulryan]

Maybe using the MacBook Pro as a combo backup device for the P2 system and an edit system is not a great idea?
Maybe get an inexpensive laptop for field backups and going with a Tower for editing would provide
better economy and safety?

[Sean Oneil]

[JeremyG] “Granted, this is a PCMCIA slot, but my experience and knowledge tell me the an express34 card might get you a little better performance, but not much.”

Not sure where you get your info, but it’s not a little better performence. It’s a lot. PCMCIA is 132 MBps both directions, 66 MBps each way. Expresscard is 500 MBps total, 250 each way. Again, that’s not “a little” – it’s nearly a four times faster read speed.

Whether or not port multipliers come out anytime soon is anyone’s guess. But if you want, you could easily attach two 10k RPM drives and do a RAID0. That’s plenty for multiple streams of uncompressed SD or compressed HD.

Sean

[Jeremy Garchow]

Like I said Sean, I hoped to be proven wrong.

Jeremy

[Debe]

If it were my choice, that’s the way I’d go. Two different computers for two different functions.

Too many things can go wrong in the field, especially with something as relatively fragile as a laptop. Then what do you do? Not only is your P2 ingest station out of commission, so is your edit suite.

I work on both a laptop and a tower. Although I love the benefits of the laptop, I’d go nuts if I had to edit on it every day. The ergonomics are bad. Adding all the peripherals to make it more comfortable help, but it’s not the same as a dedicated tower in the edit suite.

debe