What do you guys use for editing your weddings? I bought a new 27" iMac that seems to being doing the job quite nicely. I am thinking of buying another to have my co-worker edit at the same time, double time! I have been reading a lot about editing from a fast thunderbolt drive instead of the internal hard drive of the iMac. Are there any major benefits to this? I havent noticed any problems editing from my internal drive? Also, if you edit from 2 different computers how do you share projects and raw footage?

I'm editing on a retina MBP with a second display (for FCPX clip library) and a number of external drives. My 2 main drives are a Lacie 256GB thunderbolt SSD for active projects (only keep 2 weddings active at a time) and a Lacie 3TB thunderbolt drive for all of the current year weddings (including active weddings from SSD). I also have a GRAID as an archive for all projects and a number of USB3 drives (one for Time Machine backups and rest for other data).

I found this nifty application called Sync Folders Pro which checks multiple folders and updates accordingly in order to keep projects on different drives synchronised.

With regards to performance when using the internal drive, you might not notice much of a difference if the project is quite small however as projects become larger with more footage and multiple layers, they tend to become heavier in terms of performance. Transcoding footage however can be helpful if you encounter performance issues and would like to remain using the internal drive.

As for sharing data between two machines, I think NAS (Network Attached Storage) would be your best bet if you want to have the same data accessible from both machines, although I've never worked with them so maybe someone else who uses such a workflow can expand better on this :)

As for sharing data between two machines, I think NAS (Network Attached Storage) would be your best bet if you want to have the same data accessible from both machines, although I've never worked with them so maybe someone else who uses such a workflow can expand better on this :)

Such as Danny O'Neill.

I currently edit from a GRAID Thunderbolt 4TB HDD and a La Cie 1TB Thunderbolt HDD. Then as my main back up, I have a Synology 20TB Server that I run in a RAID 5 configuration (as per Danny O'Neill's blog).

I'm not a professional yet, but I realised the need to have a sustainable back up solution. I'm not currently there yet, but I have amassed enough storage to work well and keep at least one back up.

For my current price point (free), I feel this is more than enough lol. But as times move on, I'll look into more storage solutions and having an off-site or third back up.

I'm currently editing on a modded 17" MacBook Pro with 16GB RAM and a 1TB SSD. The SSD is a massive improvement and everything cost me about £350 to upgrade - a great saving over buying a new Retina MBP.

To edit professionally, I'll be saving up for a Mac Pro solution in the long run.

I'm moved almost all my editing from my older MacPro with internal RAID0 to a 27" iMac (i7) using internal drive only. It just works.

If you're looking for expanded storage then by all means add a thunderbolt drive or a USB3 drive to the back and of the iMac and you're good to go. I haven't bothered though since the internal drive is working so well.

We also edit without problems on a MacBookPro 17" (the last of the nice big screens!) with a 27" external monitor connected. I would have no hesitation doing this with a Retina MacBookPro is that was what was available to me.

In terms of sharing projects I use some software called GoodSync that syncs files back and forth between Macs or between the Mac and my Synology NAS (currently have 16TB online in the NAS).

I still edit in Sony Vegas for my weddings and moved my commercial stuff to my iMac with FCPx. Yep, crazy as it sounds, that's where I am.

Using software such as Goodsync, would you just swap an external hard drive between machines to keep it up to date. It would be nice to have it done wirelessly but file sizes just wont jive with that, at least not using the router i'm currently using.

Using software such as Goodsync, would you just swap an external hard drive between machines to keep it up to date. It would be nice to have it done wirelessly but file sizes just wont jive with that, at least not using the router i'm currently using.

We have gigabit networking between our machines and it syncs in seconds. If you're having to move the HDD between locations then yes you could sync to / from an external HDD.

If you don't have gigabit networking and are relying on wireless then seriously, a gigabit switch is cheap so no reason not to use them.

Amazon.co.uk: gigabit switch 8-port (http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=gigabit+switch+8-port&tag=googhydr-21&index=aps&hvadid=38875675194&hvpos=1t2&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=2540692155110247232&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_23n7b0n84_b)

Add a couple of CAT5e or CAT6 cables and you're good to go. Cheaper than buying an external HDD to use as a swap drive (although that also provides a good backup device).

For most of my editing, which are sweet and simple weddings, I use a macpro tower ( 2006 ) early model with the minimum 2 dual core CPU's that came with it. I use the stock video card ( no need to upgrade) along with only 6GB of ram. Believe it or not, I use iMovie HD version 6 that handled HD content quite well. I just love using this setup. Chapter marker points are set within iMovie and all is put into Toast Titanium 10 where blue ray discs are burnt with a LG BE14 external USB writer. Works like a charm.
Sure, I could use my other macro 8 core 16 GB, SSD's with FCP-X, ATI 5870, but no need to, for now.
If I need to take my unfinished (rarely happens) work with me, I take my macro laptop 17" with the firewire drive that the iMovie project is on. My OS is Lion 7.5
My typical iMovie wedding projects are less than 100GB so 25 weddings can be stored on a 3TB with room to spare. All projects are backed up on other 3TB drives that are kept at a different location just in case.
Hot swappable drives, or SSD's are great if many want to work on same projects like editing bays.