Hi everybody!!!

I'm about to invest in a laptop and couple accesories in the aim of having some kind of portable editing/postproduction suite, and I want to gather opinions and experience.

I need to accomplish two main objectives:
a) update and improve my editing equipment
b) to be able to use it "on set" and on the road...
c) good enough, yet professional HD/SD monitoring solution for color correction, motion graphics, etc.
d) on a tight budget...

I would like to have HD-SDI in the way, but I'm starting to accept is getting out of my grasp.

My current specs are:

- LAPTOP: Either a Vaio F full configuration (8gb RAM, BD-R, FullHD, etc), or a mid-level Dell Precision (I have ruled out switching to Mac as a MBP would give me less bang for more bucks, shame on you Apple). A ExpressCard/34 slot is mandatory as the next component is:

- Monitoring/Capture HDMI interface. I'm considering both MXO2 LE and MXO2 Mini.

- HD Monitor (17"). At first I thought I would go for a Marshall MD, but got out of budget. I'm thinking to buy an Ikan V17 (good bye HD-SDI!).

- 2TB External eSata RAID drive (backup would be done on USB2 drives)

As hard as it seems, I spect to spend 5-6k in this setup, as here in Argentina we have a 70-100% price increase after import, vendor and taxes.

In the future I would like to get a couple pelikans and the V17 field kit.

Well, this is it, thanks on advance for any advice you could share!!!