[Ed Dooley]

We have the LaCie FW800 cardbus card because AJA recommends it. It works fine.
Ed

[Ed Dooley]

I edit occasionally on my 17″ 1.5 PB. Maxing out the RAM is a good idea, upgrading to the 128MB graphics card is also a good idea.
It works fine, until you move over to a G5 2.7 🙂
Ed

[Ed Dooley]

Yes, no problem. Two separate busses.
Ed

[Ed Dooley]

The only way to get a 2 channel raid is by using the internal buss and the external. Since all the ports on the FW card are on the same buss, and both the FW400 and 800 internal ports share the same buss, you will probably run into problems if you also have a deck or camera attached to one or the other (with a 2 channel raid). Some people have reported no problems with that setup, but I find it hard to believe, and it’s certainly an anomaly. Barefeats.com did a number of FW drive tests with single and 2 channel raids, with Powerbooks, G4s, and G5s. I use a FW raid with my PB with 2 drives in a case, striped and plugged into one FW800 port (my AJA IOLA goes to the other port).
Ed

[Ed Dooley]

LOL! Funny you should say that Bret, because starting next month, my street address will be 57 Big Dog Hill (with an indoor pool, no less!)
Ed

[Bret Williams] “At least you don’t live near bigdog.com!”

[Ed Dooley]

Must be only on certain computers, because, well…. here it is…… working.
Ed

[Mitch Ives] “Well, it was working when I left the country last week… now it appears you’re right, it isn’t working anymore…

Mitch Ives
Insight Productions Corp.
mitch@insightproductions.com
http://www.insightproductions.com“

[Ed Dooley]

It may be how slow the COW pages load (still annoying even after the new speedy server). If you hit Q before the whole page is loaded, it doesn’t work. I’m using Safari too. Wait for the blue loading bar to disappear.
Ed

[Chris Poisson] “Hey Don,

I’m missing something, it ain’t working in Safari.”

[Ed Dooley]

There’s more! Following up on Jeff’s advice on more RAM, getting the 128MB video ram instead of the standard 64MB is a good idea too. I finally got one of those expensive pieces of leather too 🙂 OWC has them too. Wiebetech has started carrying bus powered 7,200RPM 3.5″ external FW800 drives. I wouldn’t suggest using one for long plane rides unless there’s a power port at your seat, but it does help reduce clutter by eliminating one power brick in your case.
Ed

[Ed Dooley]

Forgot, I bought mine directly from Apple. I told them I saw a better price elsewhere and they matched the price! I live 2 minutes from smalldog.com, but the owners dog bit me years ago (really), and the owner didn’t care, so I don’t generally shop there. 🙂
Ed

[Ed Dooley]

I went with the 17″PB because I really like the screen real estate. The biggest complaint I’ve heard about it is its size and weight while traveling. It’s pretty big on a plane tray, and if the person in front of you puts their seat back, it may be impossible to use. But, even though I travel a lot with it, only once did the size/seat issue come up (I usually watch the Sopranos or 6 Feeet Under, or a film on a plane anyway, no serious work in flight for me).

For accesories I would get something like the Kensington wireless mouse. The USB connector stores right inside the mouse when not being used. I would also look at a one or two drive FW drive with FW800 cardbus (like the LaCie) if you’re going to edit on the road at all. I bought a 2 drive enclosure with the Oxford 912 chip and put 2 300 gig drives in it, striped them, and I edit DVCPro50 stuff easily. Kensington and others also make a multi-input charger for car home and plane, very handy.
Ed