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Upgrading MacBook Pro to 1 TB HD
I love some of the thoughtful ideas that come from this forum. I posted this at Apple, but thought I might get other thoughts here . . .
If anyone has a thought, I’m sure most readers could benefit from this . . .Hi,
I have a 17″ MacBook Pro, about 1 and a half years old. It has a 500 gig HD in it now and I’d like to up it to the WD 1TB HD. Although we have a year old Mac Pro in the lab, I find more and more I seem to enjoy editing with FCPro in my little 17 MacBook Pro! I go out on our deck in the woods, at the pool . . . in the kitchen – I almost don’t like being ‘stuck’ in the lab!The MacBook Pro seems speedy, perky, etc – some projects I’m editing have over 100 gig of video files – and I don’t seem to experience dropped frames or other ‘issues’ I read about all the time – although I am violating the ‘rule’ about NOT storing data files on the same drive as the OS! We have the latest versions of everything. Oh, we shoot on an HVX200 P2 and log and transfer the video files directly into the MacBook Pro. We export the finished movie to a SC QT movie, then copy to another Hard drive to send to clients – or compress them in compressor, etc.
Should I be concerned that we always use the same internal drive for our data, even though we’re not supposed to? It sure seems to work well. Works so well I’m about to up it to the 1TB drive so I can edit MORE in the MacBook Pro. Anyone see anything ‘wrong’ in what I’m doing?
We also have several external 250 & 500 gig 2.5 inch drives which we’ve put into the OWC little “On the Go” plastic cases using firewire 800. Sometimes we keep data files on the external little portable drives because we don’t have enough space on the internal. All seems to work well! Good, it’s supposed to!!
So here’s the closing question. When I up the internal to the 1TB drive, I was going to take the currently installed 500 gig drive and put it into a OWC case like we’ve done so many times. BUT . . . for $80 bucks – I can but an external e-sata case, and for about 30 more buy a 3/4 express adapter – so my “transfers” and editing would now be going via e-sata – NOT firewire 800! (Supposedly it’s 2 to 3 times faster????) Faster than . . . what? What it does now is mostly real time?
Is it, (much or noticeably faster) in a real world practical application like we’re doing? Or let’s just say we’re moving 30 gig from our external to our internal. I find firewire 800 moves about 2 gig / min. Will the esata do it much faster?
Oh, did you know if I hook the external e-sata drive to my MacBook Pro – it WON’T draw power thru the e-sata cable! I either must plug it into AC . . . or . . . OWC says if I simultaneously plug a firewire 800 cable into the external enclosure (in addition to the e-sata cable) it WILL draw its power from the MacBook Pro! So I can do it all out in the field!
(And the computer automatically “knows” to move the data on the e-sata port, ’cause it’s faster!)
But is it worth the extra few purchases and protocol for any speed increases I’m supposed to be seeing?Sorry to rant on and on. Thanks you.
Larry -
6 Replies
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If you edit with media on your internal HD you edit at your own risk. If it works for you that is fine. If you are doing simple editorial editing with DVCProHD footage you are probably okay, start doing effects, multicam, and other heavy stuff and it will suffer.
Transfer speed is only as fast as your slowest drive. Two eSata drives will transfer faster then a FW800 to a Sata drive. But since you are using two buses it would transfer faster then two FW800 drives on the same bus.
eSata cable/ports do not have power going through them so there is no way for the drives to be bus powered you will always for to power it another way.
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Thank you, Michael. Good point – things work well for us, but we don’t do really “heavy” extensive complex types of editing. Dissolves, minor graphics, slow motion – a few small effects – nothing major. Probably why things work so well. But thanks for your thoughts.
Larry -
I would just buy the 1TB drive and put it in a case, then transfer everything to that off of your laptop.
2 birds, one stone, no opening up the laptop.
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Yes, but it really IS NICE to just have a MacBook Pro with no peripherals or cables dangling . . . or hanging around!
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Then do what you wanna. You now know the consequences.
Jeremy
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Or this
https://www.mcetech.com/optibay/
Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/
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