Need a MBP Storage Solution

[dirkdigg]

I'm a PC user converting to a MBP for a HD video creation in FCP, I'm going to be producing video from 5-30mins in duration (these files in final form could be up to 100MB each), the hard drive space has me worried about getting a MBP vs. a Mac Pro tower. I've been told to have a scratch space, and I'm guessing that the hard drive native to the MBP is best used for applications and the os, creating a gap on how to have a scratch space separate without getting latency or delay innate to an external drive......can someone recommend a solution to my problem that won't leave me wondering why didn't I get a Mac pro tower? I've seen posts that recommend a p2 drive but, I'm not sure how that works, is it an external drive that acts similar to a native drive to the machine? Is there latency with this option? Also it looks like p2 interfaces only hold 60-100GB, I was looking for an external option in the 1TB space, is this just not a good architecture that I'm looking for? I'm trying to find someone that can convince me that I don't need to storage drives on a mac pro, that I could be just as well off with a MBP with a reliable external drive that doesn't lose me a lot of time in latency in writing to the external

 

[bay2sacto]

1st off, a P2 card is a solid state drive used in the pro range DV/HD cameras by Panasonic. It replaces tape so instead of recording to tape you record to the P2 card and it is saved as files. You can then either plug in your camera and drag and drop specific clips over or plug the P2 card into a P2 card reader or notebook with a PC Card slot and do the same. If you don't have a pro Panasonic camera you shouldn't be looking at P2 cards.

You should be looking into a Firewire 800 external drive of which there's many. You can find capacities in excess of 1tb which will suit your needs. You may want to check out Creative COW for better advice particular to Final cut editing as that is a great resource for professional video advice, tutorials and many pros regularly write columns and post in their forums.