New 17-inch Macbook pro for editing on EX1 footy(?)

G

gmoe

Well-known member
Hey guys,

Okay, just heard that the new 17-inch MacBook Pro's are at the Apple Store's and I'm thinking of picking one up before I go to my shoot and screening in Hawaii.

Here's my dilemma, the stores say that they only carry the basic model 2.66 GHZ with a 320 gig harddrive (5400 rpm). They say the (7200 rpm) harddrive versions only can be had on the website. And they say also say that the (7200 rpm) drives heat up more and drawn down on the the battery faster.

I definitely need battery life for working on the road and on airplanes. But I also know for us editors (7200rpm) drives is a must.

However, since I will be editing mainly off an external drive and doing some editing on hard drive's laptop on the road. Can I get away with editing EX1 footy using a (5400 rpm) drive. Just wondering if folks are doing that on their current macbook pro's.

Thanks in advance,

Gmoe
 
Hi GMOE, the stock 250gb/5400 drive on the MBP's works just fine for FCP editing of EX1 footage, but the best news is to upgrade to one of the bigger and faster 7200 drives is very simple now with the new unibody machines. You can do it with a small phillips screwdriver in about 5 minutes. Hope that helps.
 
awesome jvfante,

That's what I needed to hear!! Do you know if you are able to put a larger capacity harddrive into the unibody machines that would be great than 320g? I know you probably void your warranty doing this but I'm just curious.

Thanks!

Gary
 
Gary,

There are several recently released 500gb notebook drives (9.5mm for the MBP) that go for around $120.

As for any warranty issues, you can call Apple support and ask them. They're very good about warranty service in my experience. Also, you could keep the old drive to put back in the machine if you did have a warranty issue, but I doubt you'll have to do this.

Good luck with your new machine, you'll enjoy carrying your edit suite around under your arm. Pretty cool.

John
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top