Ive been offered a decent priced laptop with 17" monitor, 200gb hard drive at 7200rpm, 512mb grafix, 2.6ghz but I can get similar spec but with a 15" and 250gb 5400rpm for 30% less money.

I intend to use FCP to edit video and am a total newbie in all departments.

Any advice taken greatfully.

are you planning on shooting / editing HD? The faster hard drive and bigger screen would be helpful for HD editing, while the smaller laptop would save you money and would be sufficient for SD editing. Either way a laptop shouldn't be a primary editing computer and once you decide you like editing and are comfortable with the software you should start looking into a Mac Pro.

I have a canon AH-X1 so will be working with HD.

I have a canon AH-X1 so will be working with HD.Jayson,

You'll be working with HDV then, which has a fairly modest bitrate. Still, a faster hard drive will help - sometimes you need to load more than one clip from a harddrive (when working with multiple video tracks).

In general, though, you should have your media on a second hard drive anyway - that goes for laptops and desktops alike. In your case, a large and fast external Firewire drive would be a good addition to either laptop, and make you less dependent on the speed of the internal drive.

I agree that the larger monitor will make it easier to organize your workspace.

- Martin

Jayson,

You'll be working with HDV then, which has a fairly modest bitrate. Still, a faster hard drive will help - sometimes you need to load more than one clip from a harddrive (when working with multiple video tracks).

In general, though, you should have your media on a second hard drive anyway - that goes for laptops and desktops alike. In your case, a large and fast external Firewire drive would be a good addition to either laptop, and make you less dependent on the speed of the internal drive.

I agree that the larger monitor will make it easier to organize your workspace.

- Martin

Yes to all of the above and I would add that make that a FW 800 external drive.
7200 internal drives in a laptop can have heat issues which in turn can affect their life expectancy.

Either way a laptop shouldn't be a primary editing computer and once you decide you like editing and are comfortable with the software you should start looking into a Mac Pro.

Seconded, although I'm getting by admirably well until November (PLEASE NEW Mac Pro!) with an iMac with a second screen hooked up to expand my desktop.

Jayson: If you're going to use your laptop at home, use the DVI out option and power yourself another monitor, at least while at home. In video editing, desktop real estate makes ALL the difference. For the record, my next edit machine will have two video cards driving 3 24" 1920 x 1080 monitors PLUS an external IO device.

For the record, my next edit machine will have two video cards driving 3 24" 1920 x 1080 monitors PLUS an external IO device.

I can't imagine how you'd implement this in a Final Cut system. What are you assigning to each monitor? Or maybe one will be used with Matrox MXO.
-C

The difference is 1800 rpms

just a joke. I have found the 5400 rpm is more reliable for the long run but the 7200 is needed for the video workflow. I used to work with premiere pro and found the 5400 not fast enough, switched to a mac and have had no problems. When I had the pc i upgraded it to 7200 and that took care of the slow stuttering playback.

ken

I can't imagine how you'd implement this in a Final Cut system. What are you assigning to each monitor? Or maybe one will be used with Matrox MXO.
-C

Left most monitor will be Canvas, Viewer and Tools.
Middle will be Timeline and ONLY Timeline NICE AND BIG so I don't have to scroll thru 12 layers o audio and 10+ video layers.
Right most monitor will be bins... LOTS of bins. LOTS AND LOTS of bins. Can you tell I like bins?
If the setup will support it, I'll mirror the Timeline monitor to the yet-to-be-purchased client evaluation HD panel as an auxiliary input so clients can point at stuff without crowding MY workspace.

I will be buying an external I/O solution for the next edit bay and it may be the MXO2 but that WON'T come off my video cards...

Thanks for asking.

I've found a drive that's been an excellent portable for field work so far for me the
Lacie Rugged Drive: LaCie - Rugged Hard Disk - FireWire 800, FireWire 400 & Hi-Speed USB 2.0 (http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=11135)
Pricey for the size but one of the few available 7200rpm portables w/ Firewire 800. It's crunching HDV just fine so far (knocking on wood.)