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Speed of FireWire
Hey guys. I am currently looking to purchase a MacBook Pro for work and I\’m torn between 17\” or 15\”. The only thing that\’s pushing me towards the 17\” is the express card slot. My thinking is I can connect an eSata drive up using an adapter. We mainly edit ProRes 1920×1080 material. I though that I\’d need the speed of eSata to cope with multiple streams of video.
However I spoke with an Apple business rep and they seem to think FireWire would be fast enough. I told him we\’d be doing FCP and After Effects work with ProRes footage.
Would like to gain your opinions to see if you think FireWire 800 drives would be fast enough for our needs
Thanks in advance
James
How
When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?
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6 Replies
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It is fast enough, but eventually you’ll probably regret not going for the esata hook up as FW2 is 800mb/s and esata is 3gb/s it is a noticeable difference even if you’re just going to be using the macbook in the field for dumping footage.
Bite the bullet and go for the 17.5
aka Newbie Wan Kenewbie. “The young Newbie, is now a Padawon.”
System
Mac Pro 2.8Gb quad core
8Gb RAM
1x 320Gb 7200 hardrive
1x 1Tb 7200 hardrive
Nvidia Geforce 8800 512mb Graphics card
1x 1Tb external WD ‘My Book’ eSataEquipment
Panasonic AG-HVX 200
Firestore FS-100 -
I never hear any 17-inch owners say “I wish I had bought the 15-inch.” 😉
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Another vote for the 17″ with Express Card slot. It is at least expandable and your computer will last longer and be more of a viable production tool than a doorstop.
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And the bigger screen means you will be working at 1:1 for work in 1080 if you so choose.
I have never regretted the 17″.jPo
You mean “Old Ben”? Ben Kenobi?
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Hi All.
Thanks for your responses. What you’re dating makes sense. If I go for 17″ at least I’ll have the option of expanding.
I’ll try FireWire drives out and check speeds, if I need to I’ll use eSata.
Cheers guys! Helpful as always
James
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another thing to think of:-
with the expresscard slot, you can also use an extra firewire card, which would allow you to have a firewire video connection to something like an AJA video box hooked up to the laptops firewire socket and have your hard drives on a different firewire bus through the expresscard.(or Esata bus)
you wont regret the extra screen real estate a 17″ machine will give you – especially when editing using tiny little viewer windows!
adam
Adam Taylor
Video Editor/Audio Mixer/ Compositor/Motion GFX/Barista
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UKhttp://www.sculptedbliss.co.uk
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