laptops Vegas and DV Rack

memoir wrote on 11/19/2004, 9:31 PM

I'm buying a laptop to run Vegas 5+ and DV Rack. I'm leaning towards buying an Inspirion, probably the 9100 or XPS from the Dell Outlet. Most systems available seem to come with a 4200 or 5400 rpm drive. I figured I'd stay with 5400 or even 7200 (if I can find a system with that) but those are usually 60 GB. For what I'm doing I'll probably eat through that drive space daily so I obviously should also get an external drive. My question: would there be any problem (especially using DV Rack) recording straight to the external drive? I'm looking at the 7200 rpm types. Camera goes firewire to laptop, out laptop USB 2.0 to external drive. Make sense?

Thanks
-memoir

Comments

snicholshms wrote on 11/19/2004, 9:50 PM

I'd be concerned about USB2.0's ability to transfer videodata fast enough. You've got three gateways (Firewire, 5400RPM HD, USB 2.0) with three different Data transfer rates in this configuration.
I've only used USB 2.0 to transfer completed AVI files from one HD to another...never for a live camera shoot.

memoir wrote on 11/19/2004, 10:00 PM

Yeah, probably too risky. It would be nice if I could add a second internal drive but not sure if it can be done on these machines (also, my first laptop). Guess I'll have a reason to take a break while I transfer files.

-memoir

PeterWright wrote on 11/19/2004, 10:04 PM

I capture to external HDs via USB 2 regularly without problems, in fact I started using this a year or more back, when there were a few stutters with firewire playback, and according to the HD box, USB2 is faster than firewire.

memoir wrote on 11/19/2004, 10:23 PM

Thanks for the info. I'll definitely give it a try and see how it works.

Sab wrote on 11/19/2004, 10:28 PM

I agree with Peter. We record straight to USB2 external drives every day. Never a problem. Hundreds and hundreds of hours. We've used the DV Rack on three projects now going to USB2 Maxtor drives. Life is good.

Mike