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Mac newbie, video editor, 17 HD MBP - Sleeve, Memory, Harddrive, Website advice.

D

daisu

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 6, 2007
72
0
Flushing, Queens
Howdy,

I’m coming over from the PC world. I have just purchased the Mac Book Pro 17” HD Matte Screen laptop (still waiting for it) through the ADC website. I will be using it, mostly, for video editing work with Final Cut Pro 2 or version 5.x. editing mostly mini-dv footage in its native format.

I was wondering if you guys could help with some suggestions I’m going to use this as a thinking path. Hopefully, once compiled I can make my own little “newbie” sig with the information I’ve learned here.

I didn’t customize the harddrive as I hope that the current 250gb 5400 drops in price to, say, 200$ or that a faster spinning drive one day comes out. Then I’ll upgrade the 160gb HD in the machine.

Things I Need to Purchase:
17” Laptop Sleeve
Wired/Wireless Mouse
4GB Memory Upgrade

Things I’ve Already Purchased:
External Enclosure for a 250gb Hard Drive
(Newegg) - macally PHR-100ACB Aluminum 3.5" USB 2.0 & 1394b External Enclosure

The sleeve will be used in conjunction with a Dakine Explorer backpack that already has a laptop slot of some sort. I don’t want a hardshell. I want something that’ll provide good bump protection. If not a recommendation of product what is a good price to pay for a 17” laptop sleeve?

The 4GB Memory I’ll buy if any deals gets it to 200$ (Patriot / Ocz) or 250$ for Consair / Crucial. Though 200$ is preferred. I can wait awhile (the laptop won’t ship for a week :( The best deal I’ve seen so far is 198$ (/w rebate - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220229 ) on Patriot with NewEgg but I hate non-instant rebates :\

Just to make sure, the MBP memory requirement is:
2 x 2gb sticks for 4gbs of PC2-5400 DDR2-667 CL5 memory?

What is a good mouse to be used with the laptop in conjunction with Final Cut Pro.

So any video editors have any advice on places I can go to learn about tips and tweaks to be used with my system, Final Cut Pro, and dv hardware. Any advice would be helpful and I promise to pass on all knowledge learned.

Thank you.

Making this movie on the strength of Final Cut Pro and mac PCs made me want to purchase a MBP - http://youtube.com/watch?v=F4HPIGT-x04
 
It won't fit inside an existing laptop sleeve of a bag, but i love my laptop sleeve. I have the canvas sleeve from incase, which I like a lot better than the neoprene ones. And I can stick all the cables in the front pocket and not tangle them with my other stuff in my bag.

Kind of a unique look, but I like it a lot.
 
Make sure the memory says it is 100% compatible with the MBP...Apple laptops generally are more picky when it comes to memory. I've heard this countless times when people are asking for memory suggestions for their Macbook or Macbook Pro.
 
feelthefire said:
It won't fit inside an existing laptop sleeve of a bag, but i love my laptop sleeve. I have the canvas sleeve from incase, which I like a lot better than the neoprene ones. And I can stick all the cables in the front pocket and not tangle them with my other stuff in my bag.

Kind of a unique look, but I like it a lot.
Click to expand...

Is this what you're referring to:
http://www.goincase.com/products/detail/17-canvas-sleeve-cl57064

What's the difference between this and a neoprene bag?
 
looking for the right BAG

I've been looking for the right bag before I bought my lappy. They are so boring for my taste. What I want is not out there! Thinking about producing it.
HA
 
Did some searches on sleeves for 17" MBP. The selection seems to be better than just a couple of months ago. The requirements are a sleeve, not a bag or a satchel. A sleeve, with minimal attachments to it. One that could fit into a big bookbag and offer portection against bumps (scratches and nicks)

Incase - 17" Neoprene Sleeve.

Little loose (though might be snug on the MBP) and some issue about the zipper possibly scratching my MBP. Further notices indicate there may've been a change in the zipper issue where the new Incase sleeves don't have as mucha problem with their zipper. These are pretty popular and are "well enough" for most users, the advice seems to go.

Incase - 17" Canvas Sleeve.

It's a very nice style but looks a little big for me and my bag and the books I think I'll carry.

The above Incase sleeves are very popular. The Neoprene seems to be more so than the Canvas.

be.ez LArobe MacBook Pro 17" - 40.77$ (35+ shipping) - These are difficult to find in the states. I found it at Mac-Pro.com. This is a case that looks very nice and from the reviews should have a lot of padding. After searching through a bunch this seems like the sleeve I'm going to purchase. It's very minimal. There are several colour options at each size of laptop.

http://www.mac-pro.com/Mac-Pro-Online-Store/be-ez

Waterfield Designs laptop sleeve. I'm not very interested in it, a personal style choice, but people who have it seem to like it. - http://www.sfbags.com/products/sleevecases/sleevecases.htm

Here is a thread with good case information - https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/220572/

There is also a case poll out there.

Radtech's Glove looks like a nice sleeve that I would consider. It's 30$ for the 17" MBP virgin.

http://www.radtech.us/Products/SleevzNotebooks.aspx

The 17" Radtech's Rebound is supposedly discontinued. BS! The Rebound uses memory foam.

Here is a review of the Bitolithic sleeve by jsw - https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/196876/

Though I read a couple of reviews that didn't like the Bitolithic sleeve.

Slightly Padded Sleeves:

An interesting case is the Crumpler School Hymn 17" - "Laptop Case Features: PVC outer shell, Hard plastic central layer, Light foam inner padding and brushed nylon lining, Self healing medium size zipper Internal PVC zip guard. The School Hymn is made out of original 'Crumpler Synthesised Preskin Fabric' and has an internal hard shell plus a protective zip guard and super soft fluff free lining to wrap perfectly around your laptop giving it a warm fuzzy secure sort of feeling. For 12", 15", 17" laptops.Super soft 1.2mm"

Their website is arse but they're apparently rated highly (except for the loud velcro). These seem to be easily found US state-side .

Booq Vyper XL2 17" - these cases seem to be very good at protecting against scratches and nicks but not so much bumps and jolts.

That's what I got so far for sleeves. I will do a review later and decide on one. Any suggestions?
 
Shotgun OS said:
A neoprene bag is of synthetic rubber, pretty much plush...while that bag is made out of canvas, making it rougher instead of spongy(which the neoprene bag is).
Click to expand...

It's a padded laptop sleeve, not just a canvas bag. I like it better because the neoprene sleeves have no pockets, and this one has a plush lniing instead of just flat neoprene, which helps wipe the fingerprints off my black macbook.

The difference between this and a neoprene sleeve is this is larger overall, with a front pocket for cables, and with a zipper only across the top instead of all the way around, which I don't like.

The canvas outer is also tougher than neoprene, which can get stuck on things like velcro.
 
daisu said:
Howdy,

Just to make sure, the MBP memory requirement is:
2 x 2gb sticks for 4gbs of PC2-5400 DDR2-667 CL5 memory?

What is a good mouse to be used with the laptop in conjunction with Final Cut Pro.

So any video editors have any advice on places I can go to learn about tips and tweaks to be used with my system, Final Cut Pro, and dv hardware. Any advice would be helpful and I promise to pass on all knowledge learned.
Click to expand...

‘kay, well I think you’re pretty set for sleeve advice, so…

Re: mouse – a nice easy one this, whatever feels most comfortable for you. Although you can do just about everything you’ll need to using a mouse, keyboard shortcuts will become your best friend.

If you’ll be editing in one place a lot, getting a specialist Final Cut keyboard can be a good investment – no idea of the price it would cost in the States, but in the UK they tend cost the equivalent of $150-180 – but I suspect they would be a fair bit cheaper your side of the Atlantic.

Personally, I would use an external keyboard even if it was a regular USB one when editing as I find that more comfortable if I was using a laptop (most of my editing is done with a Power Mac) – but as I say, that’s me personally and I haven’t used the 17” MBP for editing.

Again, this is something you didn’t specifically mention, but if you will working in one place a lot, getting an external monitor is one of the best productivity tips I can offer.

Websites – right, I can’t offer to much help on this at the moment, as I’m don’t have access to my bookmarks, but I’m sure I could dig some up if you want. One thing I would say, is it really pays to spend a bit of time to searching and see what you think – what’s a tip to one person, is the blindingly obvious to another!

Have a look in the digital editing forum here (also I think the bit of your post I quoted would get a better response there), - I would check out other ones out there.

When you mentioned “tips and tweaks to be used with my system”, what sort of thing did you mean?
 
Memory prices in general have been creeping up in the last few weeks. You will just have to be on the lookout for deals. Buy.com was selling 4gb Crucial ram kit for $199, and I jumped on it.
 
Igantius said:
If you’ll be editing in one place a lot, getting a specialist Final Cut keyboard can be a good investment – no idea of the price it would cost in the States, but in the UK they tend cost the equivalent of $150-180 – but I suspect they would be a fair bit cheaper your side of the Atlantic.

Personally, I would use an external keyboard even if it was a regular USB one when editing as I find that more comfortable if I was using a laptop (most of my editing is done with a Power Mac) – but as I say, that’s me personally and I haven’t used the 17” MBP for editing.
Click to expand...


iSkin makes a product and a piece of software that allow you to turn a regular keyboard into a final cut keyboard with an overlay that relabels the keys. For $40 it lets you turn an apple keyboard into a final cut keyboard:

http://www.iskin.com/store/I2shop_PTFTC.tpl?cart=1185547980609684
 
DaftUnion said:
Make sure the memory says it is 100% compatible with the MBP...Apple laptops generally are more picky when it comes to memory. I've heard this countless times when people are asking for memory suggestions for their Macbook or Macbook Pro.
Click to expand...

This has not been true for a long time and certainly not since Apple went Intel. The insides of all of the computers are now pretty much generic PCs, with the same chipsets, GPUs and CPUs as Dell, Gateway and your random whitebox.

I am running my MBP on 4GB of Kingston ValueRam. As cheap as memory gets before you start looking into recycled hooky RAM.
 
feelthefire said:
It's a padded laptop sleeve, not just a canvas bag. I like it better because the neoprene sleeves have no pockets, and this one has a plush lniing instead of just flat neoprene, which helps wipe the fingerprints off my black macbook.

The difference between this and a neoprene sleeve is this is larger overall, with a front pocket for cables, and with a zipper only across the top instead of all the way around, which I don't like.

The canvas outer is also tougher than neoprene, which can get stuck on things like velcro.
Click to expand...

Very interesting critiques. They're very valid and I can imagine a lot of people agreeing with your problems with the neoprene sleeves and the advantage to the canvas one. I'd consider the canvas one except for me it seems too big, for my purposes.
 
weckart said:
This has not been true for a long time and certainly not since Apple went Intel. The insides of all of the computers are now pretty much generic PCs, with the same chipsets, GPUs and CPUs as Dell, Gateway and your random whitebox.

I am running my MBP on 4GB of Kingston ValueRam. As cheap as memory gets before you start looking into recycled hooky RAM.
Click to expand...

Do you know if memory rated at CAS4 would work reliably on a MBP? I understand that higher latency is generally a better thing but I don't know how the SR chipset handles lower latency chips (I imagine the price premium isn't worthwhile, especially as I am not a gamer).

Nothing wrong with Kingston. They've been doing memory and add in cards for centuries. Kingston is inexpensive, not neccessarily cheap.
 
Gandhi said:
Memory prices in general have been creeping up in the last few weeks. You will just have to be on the lookout for deals. Buy.com was selling 4gb Crucial ram kit for $199, and I jumped on it.
Click to expand...

I will keep an eye out. If you see anything would you let me know? Anyone, actually.

I heard about the ram kit deal and am sad I missed out on it, but such is life. Such is life.
 
Igantius said:
‘kay, well I think you’re pretty set for sleeve advice, so…

Re: mouse – a nice easy one this, whatever feels most comfortable for you. Although you can do just about everything you’ll need to using a mouse, keyboard shortcuts will become your best friend.
Click to expand...

It's true. I do imagine I'll be using keyboard shortcuts quite a bit. Still, I pretend a mouse would be good to have. I think I'm moving towards the idea of a bluetooth mouse or keyboard. I have never really used a bt item.

Igantius said:
If you’ll be editing in one place a lot, getting a specialist Final Cut keyboard can be a good investment – no idea of the price it would cost in the States, but in the UK they tend cost the equivalent of $150-180 – but I suspect they would be a fair bit cheaper your side of the Atlantic.

Personally, I would use an external keyboard even if it was a regular USB one when editing as I find that more comfortable if I was using a laptop (most of my editing is done with a Power Mac) – but as I say, that’s me personally and I haven’t used the 17” MBP for editing.
Click to expand...

Really. A final cut specific keyboard. I think I will repost some of this information over there and get more direct answers since I am gearing towards having this as my editing studio. They have powerful machines at school but I've come to realize that I can't be bound by the school's hours when it comes to a project.

Igantius said:
Again, this is something you didn’t specifically mention, but if you will working in one place a lot, getting an external monitor is one of the best productivity tips I can offer.

Websites – right, I can’t offer to much help on this at the moment, as I’m don’t have access to my bookmarks, but I’m sure I could dig some up if you want. One thing I would say, is it really pays to spend a bit of time to searching and see what you think – what’s a tip to one person, is the blindingly obvious to another!
Click to expand...

I'm actually planning on using my syncmaster as an external display, but I imagine you mean an actual monitor? I read in the Final Cut Pro visualsomething or another series of books mentioned being able to use an old tv set. I will re read up on it and research it. Thanks.

Igantius said:
Have a look in the digital editing forum here (also I think the bit of your post I quoted would get a better response there), - I would check out other ones out there.

When you mentioned “tips and tweaks to be used with my system”, what sort of thing did you mean?
Click to expand...

I will. Well, I meant on fine tuning the system. I plan on re installing the OS just because it's something I do and I want to get used to it (have rarely ever used OSX before) How can I get performance benefits. Especially when it comes to capturing video.
 
I ended up purchasing be.ez LArobe MacBook Pro 17". I'll write a report once I get it and the laptop. It beat out the sleevez.
 
daisu said:
Has anyone used the Logitech V270 Cordless Optical mouse? It's a bluetooth capable mouse.

How about the Mac Mighty Mouse?
Click to expand...
I just bought the silver V270. 2 of my other friends use it as well. Some people hvae had problems with it connection and such, but a lot of people haven't. It's the cheapest/best bluetooth mouse out there.

As far as memory, I would also check OWC - http://www.macsales.com/

They seem to be a little cheaper than Crucial.
 
Congrats on getting your laptop. I hope mine comes soon. I am rooting for tomorrow though most likely it'll get here on Monday.

I ended up ordering 2x2gb sticks of memory from Frys.com. Their memory is listed out of stock but I ordered it anyway and they delivered it the next day. 99$ per stick of Patriot memory with free shipping. A little less muss than having to deal with newegg (who had a rebate and shipping for a few bucks).
 
I am getting the logitech v270 coredless optical mouse - bright silver for my laptop. There is a 10$ rebate right now and I'm taking advantage of it. There are pretty good ratings for it.

Now to get a wired laptop. Suggestions?

Logitech V270 Cordless Optical Mouse for Bluetooth - Bright Silver

List Price: $49.99
Price: $39.99 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. Details
You Save: $10.00 (20%)
Rebate: $10.00
Price After Rebate: $29.99

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/reb...6210254&sr=1-1

Logitech V270 Cordless Optical Bluetooth Mouse- Charcoal

List Price: $49.99
Price: $39.95 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. Details
You Save: $10.04 (20%)
Rebate: $10.00
Price After Rebate: $29.95

http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Cordl...6210254&sr=1-2

Logitech Rebate
Rebate Offer: Receive $10 from Logitech with this mail-in rebate.
"Purchase must be made between 07/31/2007 and 08/06/2007. Request must be postmarked by 09/06/2007."

http://g-ec2.images-amazon.com/image...V31845736_.pdf
 
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