[Dave Gage]

[Jeff Kirkland] “Or because you’re not doing anything other than an up-res, you could export the 720p version from FCPX, add it to the resolve media pool, conform it and export at 1080p. No need for any messing around with XML, etc.”

Jeff,

Along those lines… if you took the 720p Pro Res export from FCPX and then brought it back into FCPX and put it in a 1080p project and then exported it, would it be much worse than doing basically the same thing in Resolve? Is Resolve that much better than FCPX for up-res?

I have zero experience with Resolve, but am considering downloading the Lite version, if for nothing else, this aspect.

Thanks,
Dave

[Dave Gage]

[Gary Huff] “Are you using a generic eSATA card”
Sort of. I’m using the OWC Slim eSATA ExpressCard/34 Adapter. I was prepared to buy a Sonnet card since I’d heard good things about them for a few years, but two of the phone support guys at MacSales.com said that this would be as good based on a couple of years of customer feedback, especially since I only needed one port.

[Gary Huff] “…with the Sonnet drivers?”
The first I had heard about the drivers was in the last couple of days via one of these threads. This appears to be it though-
https://www.sonnettech.com/support/kb/kb.php?cat=345&expand=&action=a3#a3

I’ll give the driver a try, but I’m thinking that all along the problem may have been with the eSATA port on my OWC 2-drive RAID enclosure. Didn’t you say earlier that you weren’t using the driver?

Thanks,
Dave

[Dave Gage]

[Gary Huff] ”
There might be a model that requires a driver, but the Tempo Pro requires no drivers, and supports multiple disks in a JBOD setup. Additionally, it’s SATA III, which may be overkill for ExpressCard, but should work in the Echo Pro via Thunderbolt just fine.”

Cool. I’ll live with the FW800 and the “crashy” eSATA card a while longer for backups, but later this year I’ll hopefully buy another 17″ MBP and do some of these other hardware options too.

Thanks,
Dave

[Dave Gage]

[Gary Huff] “Apparently the early 2011 models have an issue with putting a SATA III drive in the optical slot (at least from what I read at OWC). So I have my SATA III Crucial M4 in the primary bay, and then an HGST 750GB drive in the optical drive slot. I rarely edit off the Crucial as I haven’t been having any speed issues with the LaCie TB drive or the HGST.”

Okay, gotcha now. “Primary” is the boot drive slot. I think when I was originally putting this together on the phone with OWC, they kept calling it the boot drive slot which is indeed the faster slot.

[Gary Huff] “Do you have the 500GB Momentus or the 750GB version? I had the 500GB in a VAIO system I had before the MacBook (edited a Red One 4k feature on that beast!) and I can’t say I was very impressed with it over a 7,200 RPM drive for editing. I hear the 750GB is supposed to be better.”

Yep, I heard the same stuff you did about the older 500GB Momentus and bought the 750GB at BH Video which is evidently discontinued now, but I’ve had zero problems with it-
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/834410-REG/Seagate_ST750LX003_750GB_Momentus_XT_Solid_State.html

[Gary Huff] “Otherwise, the card itself should be “ejected” using the icon up in the bar before ejecting it, and if it happens to come out while working (one of the really poor flaws of ExpressCard, but it doesn’t happen that often), then you’re probably better off doing a power cycle of the laptop (shut down completely, re-insert card, boot up). The card only works if it is in the slot when you turn the laptop on, which is a downside, but no drivers is a plus to in my opinion, so I’ll live.”

I tried every permutation I could think of, but if I didn’t re-boot after using the eSATA card, it would ultimately hard crash within a day. Interesting, so you’re not using the Sonnet driver. I think Jeremy or someone else said or implied that that’s what is needed to make it actually “hot-swappable” like FireWire.

[Gary Huff] “Sonnet Echo Express”
There’s a bunch of different Sonnet Echo Express’s at BH. Is this the one you’re referring to:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/860811-REG/Sonnet_ECHOPRO_E34_Echo_Pro_ExpressCard_34_Thunderbolt.html

[Dave Gage]

[Gary Huff] “Mostly I’ve been moving things to my internal spinning drive from the Data Doubler (my primary drive is a Crucial M4 512GB SSD) and a LaCie Thunderbolt drive.”

Sorry, I didn’t quite follow. Are you using the Optical Drive slot for your edit drive? I ended up putting my boot drive there because my understanding was that the Optical Drive slot will give you 3 Gbps, whereas the boot drive slot can do 6 Gbps, so I put my edit drive there for faster reads and writes.

By “primary drive” do you mean edit drive? If so, how is the SSD doing as the edit drive? That would be my next upgrade for both internal drives. Although, I’m using a hybrid drive for editing at the moment and it is really designed more as a boot drive with 8GB SSD built-in, so I could just use it as a boot drive and put in a SSD for editing. I don’t think I’m getting much extra out of the SSD portion of the hybrid drive for editing. I mostly got it for the 750GB size and 7200rpm for a reasonable price.

[Gary Huff] “The only issue is that you can’t really get more than one USB3 powered device on there before OSX starts kicking off devices because the USB power adapter draws too much, so I’ll probably get a USB AC adapter to give it power instead.”

That’s good to know.

[Gary Huff] “so I switched to the Tempo Pro from Sonnet and it’s been nothing but smooth sailing.”

With that card and Sonnet driver, does it work as advertised, “hot-swappable”? Do you find you have to re-boot after disconnecting it? That’s where I was at, otherwise with 12-24 hours the computer would crash.
—

Thanks for your help with this stuff. Maybe we should start a separate 17″ MBP group. Other possible members could be Stephen Hill and Jason Jenkins. Maybe Tim can create a new forum, “Apple FCPX or Not: The Debate: 17″ MBP Users”. Okay, maybe not. But, it certainly is helpful discussing hardware options with similar MBP users.

Dave

[Dave Gage]

[Dave Gage] “I had not heard of a UHS-I reader before your post, but I just looked it up at BH Video”

Gary,

Your post inspired me to take a look at all the available Sonnet ExpressCards, you know to see what I might be missing, and I found this-
Sonnet 2-Port USB 3.0 ExpressCard / 34 Expansion Card
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/787213-REG/Sonnet_USB3_2PM_E34_2_Port_USB_3_0_ExpressCard.html

I know in a thread from last week you had posted a link to a $20 USB 3 card at eBay. Are you using one of these cards, and if so, how is it working and have you tried editing via USB 3 and the ExpressCard slot? I likely wouldn’t use it for editing, just backing up, but curious how well it would work and how close you get to the theoretical 5.0Gb/s per port speed.

At least for backing up, if I pick up a couple of OWC $40 USB 3 drive docks and this card, I’d be all set.

Thanks,
Dave

[Dave Gage]

Gary,

Thanks for the reply. The more I read what I wrote, the more I realized I already had the answer. For my needs, this 2-year old laptop is still the best Apple laptop out there for me. As soon as business picks up again, I’ll try to grab another one.

[Gary Huff] “With the Echo Pro from Sonnet, I can have USB3 and eSATA together.”
As I mentioned in a different thread, I’ve had horrible luck with the ExpressCard slot and eSATA and frankly, may not have much of a use for it anymore, but if I do, I will take your and Jeremy’s suggestion about the Sonnet Pro card. I do completely agree that the expandability of this laptop is great which was one of the big reasons I originally bought it.

[Gary Huff] “or a UHS-I reader (also from Sonnet) AND eSATA.”
I had not heard of a UHS-I reader before your post, but I just looked it up at BH Video, pretty cool. Quite a bit faster than a standard USB card reader.

Thanks again,
Dave

[Dave Gage]

[Gary Huff] “That’s why you can still boot Snow Leopard. I think the idea in question was installing Snow Leopard on a Mac that originally came installed with either Lion or Mountain Lion.”

Yes, that is indeed the question. In theory then, I may be able to boot from an external drive with Leopard on it (or not). I think I have one that I can try later. I doubt it, but I will try.

It would be nice to know though that if I picked up a Retina 15″ down the road that ships with ML (or a refurb that originally shipped with Lion) I could still occasionally boot into 10.6.8 if needed.
—

Gary, I think I’ll start another thread now so I don’t keep veering away from this subject, but as I mentioned in a post yesterday, I’m considering picking up a second 2011 17″ MBP while they are still available in the Apple Refurb store. I haven’t been as happy with a computer since my old G3 Pismo, which was rock solid. Until Apple comes out with a new line of MBPs with similar specs to the coming Mac Pro, I believe this 2011 17″ is plenty laptop computer for what I do for at least another couple of years.

Thanks,
Dave

[Dave Gage]

[Douglas K. Dempsey] ”
But I am very careful about any updates to anything, and try to avoid ANY Apple updates for any reason.”

I too have been burned numerous times doing upgrades that I didn’t really need for new functionality, but instead was just “trying to stay current”.

Back in the G5 days, I had a webcam and was running OS 10.4.8 which we used all the time with my toddlers to iChat with the grandparents. I foolishly upgraded to 10.4.9 (just to stay current), and lost the ability to use the webcam and have my kids iChat. I waited patiently for 10.4.10 to come out months later and “fix” it. Sadly, it didn’t. I had to wait until 10.4.11 more months later to finally be able to iChat again. I think it was at that point that I began always turning off all auto-updates from all manufacturers.

Some people never learn… A month ago, I again foolishly updated my install of MS Office that was working fine. Now, when I quit Word and Excel, I get an error that the app “quit unexpectedly”. It works, but still.

Dave
Snow Leopard, FCP X 10.0.4

[Dave Gage]

[Jeremy Garchow] ”
[Dave Gage] “Are you sure about that?”

I’m not 100% sure of everything, but every new Mac that I have worked with can boot older OSes.”

I think the reason I questioned the ability to run an older OS even via an external drive is that I believe one of the local Apple Store or 800 number Geniuses told me it wasn’t possible back when I bought my first MBP. You’d think I’d know by now not to listen to them. Except for under warranty repair work, I won’t even go into an Apple Store any more, at least not when I have a question or problem. I do buy from the online Apple Store though when there is a good deal on a refurb as I did with my last two MBPs.

Dave