Advice on connectivity issues with the latest macbook. Help!

[Purn1]

Hi everyone.
I'm starting a media production course in september (currently in full time employment, giving up work to do the course) and am wanting to buy a macbook pro 15" whilst i'm still employed and can afford it.
I was about to purchase one, when a friend of mine doing a ma in television production found out. She said do NOT by the new macbook pro due to the lack of the 600mbps and 400mbps fire ports (or whatever mbps they were) found on the previouse model. She tells me that the connectivity of the latest macbook pro is not sufficiant enough for editing at degree level and beyond. I thought that the single 800mbps one the new one would have been good enough. Do i wait untill they bring out the next macbook in the summer or is she talking s**t??

 

[Nethfel]

She's a bit off on this. The FW800 is a significantly faster port than the FW400 (which was the older standard). BUT you will need to get something to adapt from FW800 to FW400 if you're using a camera that is designed to connect via Firewire. Some people have reported trouble with some Firewire cameras with OSX Snow Leopard, but not everyone. I'd suggest you check out what cameras would be being used and do some searches to make sure you won't have any trouble.

Now, you are going to want/need an external drive to edit with - especially if you're going to be using Final Cut (there are lots of threads on the importance of using a drive other then your OS/boot drive as your editing/scratch drive) - of course, with the desire to do HighDef editing that you'll probably get to at some point in your class (if not from day one) you'll want a FW800 or esata drive to connect to the Mac - this means you'll have one of a few options:

1) With FW800 - unless you get the 17" Macbook Pro, if you're also needing to connect a FW camera to import footage, you'll need to daisy chain (or get a FW hub) - HD connected to the Mac, camera connected to the hard drive.

2) If you get a 17" Macbook Pro, it has a Expresscard slot - you can either get an eSata card (not sure which ones are compatible off hand, I don't have a 17" MBP so I've never had to research it) or a FW card with 1 or 2 FW ports. This way you can have the HD on a completely separate connection from the camera (assuming you're using a FW camera) and will improve overall performance. If you can find an eSata card that is compatible and get an external eSata hard drive (usually cheaper then a FW drive these days) you'll be the most happy for external storage because eSata is significantly faster then FW.

 

[Purn1]

She's a bit off on this. The FW800 is a significantly faster port than the FW400 (which was the older standard). BUT you will need to get something to adapt from FW800 to FW400 if you're using a camera that is designed to connect via Firewire. Some people have reported trouble with some Firewire cameras with OSX Snow Leopard, but not everyone. I'd suggest you check out what cameras would be being used and do some searches to make sure you won't have any trouble.

Now, you are going to want/need an external drive to edit with - especially if you're going to be using Final Cut (there are lots of threads on the importance of using a drive other then your OS/boot drive as your editing/scratch drive) - of course, with the desire to do HighDef editing that you'll probably get to at some point in your class (if not from day one) you'll want a FW800 or esata drive to connect to the Mac - this means you'll have one of a few options:

1) With FW800 - unless you get the 17" Macbook Pro, if you're also needing to connect a FW camera to import footage, you'll need to daisy chain (or get a FW hub) - HD connected to the Mac, camera connected to the hard drive.

2) If you get a 17" Macbook Pro, it has a Expresscard slot - you can either get an eSata card (not sure which ones are compatible off hand, I don't have a 17" MBP so I've never had to research it) or a FW card with 1 or 2 FW ports. This way you can have the HD on a completely separate connection from the camera (assuming you're using a FW camera) and will improve overall performance. If you can find an eSata card that is compatible and get an external eSata hard drive (usually cheaper then a FW drive these days) you'll be the most happy for external storage because eSata is significantly faster then FW.

Thank you very much for a concise answer!! The things other people have been telling me have been completly contradictory (to each other, not you!). I was begining to get the impression that the lack of two fw400 ports was the end of the world in respect of editing. I was being told to consider buying a recon old style mpb. Is it possible to buy them and is it worth it? Or would you just bite the bullet and by a new mpb?

Thankyou for your help!!