Laptop Editors... Gear/Accessories for easier movement/Internal or External hardrive

C

cbezeike

Member
I'm considering buying a laptop for editing on the road as I've had a few travels lately and might be doing more soon. I'm just thinking through every angle just to make sure I'm making the right decision.

In this case I'm thinking about portability and ease of movement.
For those that have 17inch laptops do you have a bag that fits your laptop and external harddrive or you have a separate case for your external harddrive.

Would it make better sense to spend more money and buy a laptop with dual internal hard drives (say SSD for boot drive + HDD) that way you can edit off the 2nd HDD internal drive and not have to carry around an external harddrive.

From your experience what setup/accessories has made your life easier when editing on the road in light of all the equipment you have to carry.
thanks.
 
A 17" laptop is HUGE, and with all that internal hardware you're proposing, it's going to be HEAVY.

I used a similar machine at one point. I got very tired of lugging it around. I'd go as small as you're comfortable working with.
 
Thanks, that's why I was asking. Sometimes you get into something that seems like a good idea for a while but later not so.

What was a comfortable size for you - 15inch? Did edit off an external drive or internal?
 
I just bought an Asus ZenBook 13.3" and it has been an incredible tool. The 1920x1080 display is amazing for showing samples to clients. It just looks that good, even at that small size. Soft Canon DSLR footage looks so much better on the smaller size HD screens! I was surprised that it works as well as it does for showing people your work.

It also has two USB3.0 ports and an SD card slot. Smallish SSD, but I can work off external hard drives very nicely. Swap external drives any time and not have to play as much of a shuffle game. If you really need the speed you can transfer a project to the SSD then move it all back over the external when you're done.

I now have something like 14 - 1T drives with all my archived footage. It's just too difficult to work from internal drives with that much stuff laying around. I keep one external with me at all times for backing up cards and such. Then I double up a backup when I get home to the shop. That way I always have all my footage on at least two drives.

Needless to say, I'd also suggest going light and working out an external drive solution for your needs.

Cheers,
Pete
 
So you can edit comfortably off a 13inch? I edit with AVID Media Composer & Premiere Pro sometimes that real estate of a bigger screen makes moving around the interface easier.
I guess not having a esata port is not an issue for you as well when editing off the external.
I can see how your setup works out. It's definitely light. I want to be light and efficient but power is definitely important as well especially for AVID.
 
At 1920x1080, that's a lot of "real estate" in terms of being able to have a lot onscreen at once. It'll just be small.
 
Thanks for all those that helped me out with this topic.
UPDATE: After testing out the 15" & 17" I decidided to go with the 17". Yes it might seem big for some folks but I'm well above average height so this fits me perfectly.
I went with the AVID approved HP Elitebook 8770w. I've edited a major project on it and it's smooth as butter and solid as a rock. It has a SSD for the OS and a seperate HDD for editing. I'm now learning I can also swap out the DVD drive for another HDD/SDD. It has some weight to it but I'm ok with that. I'm happy with my purchase...
 
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