Mac Pro or Macbook Pro for freshman film major....

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I'm a freshman at Drexel University majoring in film/video production and i'm stuck on whether to get a Mac Pro or Macbook Pro. I know that the MP has the quad core xeon and smokes the MBP, but the MBP is mobile so I can take it to class. The one major reason why the MP looks attractive is that i can get two 24" monitors hooked up and it will scream with 500 gigs hard drive space, but the MBP is mobile. I'm just stuck and need advice. Is the extreme processing power in the MP really worth losing mobility (and the hefty price tag over the 2.4 GHZ MBP) thanks
 
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Depends on how mobile you want to be. If you don't mind carrying a big tower and a huge screen back and forth between dorm and home (during holidays), then go for the Mac Pro. Otherwise, the 17" MBP will do you justice with portability and adequate processing power. I dunno
 
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With the MacBook Pro, you can actually hook up the 30" display... it's not quite as good as 2 24", but it's pretty darn sweet!

The biggest advantage would be being able to edit on location (or anywhere), which is pretty cool, and a real time saver.

With the money you save you could get a DV deck, that 30" display, some external HDD space, or put it into software... or anything else you'll need.

The only drawbacks are you're limited by HDD space (shouldn't be too much of a problem if you're only working on short projects, and you only capture what you know you're going to use), it won't render projects as quickly (although it will still be pretty darn quick... remember it's faster than what even the professionals where using 18 months ago), and I imagine battery life will suck doing Final Cut Studio work (but how far away are you from a power supply at any one point? You'll have them at home, at class and on location most probably).

Time for you to way up the pros/cons methinks.
 
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the probelm if HDD space could be solved with a 1TB firewire 800 drive.

i myself have one and it works great. i dont do film editing tho might try it at some point.
 
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im going to be going to school for film/video production as well. i went with the MBP because the school were i will be going has Mac Pro's so i got the MBP to do parts of work werever and then bring them back too the school. also, i wouldnt think the MBP alone as being bad for video editing either, im also into photography and it has no problem processing large amounts of photos. however i havent invested in Final Cut yet, not sure if ill need it or if it will work to use iMovie on my MBP and final cut on the school computers together.
 
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im going to be going to school for film/video production as well. i went with the MBP because the school were i will be going has Mac Pro's so i got the MBP to do parts of work werever and then bring them back too the school. also, i wouldnt think the MBP alone as being bad for video editing either, im also into photography and it has no problem processing large amounts of photos. however i havent invested in Final Cut yet, not sure if ill need it or if it will work to use iMovie on my MBP and final cut on the school computers together.

I can't quite remember, but I believe iMovie, Final Cut Express and Final Cut Pro are only compatible upwards. In other words you can edit iMovie projects in FCE (but not FCP), and FCE projects in FCP, but you can't work with FCP projects in FCE or iMovie.

In order to make sure all your work is saved and compatible on all your systems, I'd recommend Final Cut Pro from the start.
 
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MacBook Pro 2.2GHz 2GB 120GB hard drive NVIDIA graphics with 128MB SDRAM
ok, thanks, i didnt know that, guess i better start saving
 
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If u dont want portability then go for the MacPro. I do work with my macbook pro but i wanted portability.
 
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If u dont want portability then go for the MacPro. I do work with my macbook pro but i wanted portability.

looks like we have the same MBP, how well does it work for video editing,
i havent had time to get any real footage to process yet, but it sure works good for my photography
 

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