[Eelseyes]

Hello everyone,

First post to MacNN--pleased to be here.

So here's the question: I'm about to purchase a kickin', 1.5 Ghz PB with 1 Gig of ram. I want to install Final Cut Pro on it. Until now, I have used Final Cut on a desktop, and always used either a separate firewire drive or a RAID array for my work/scratch space--separated from my OS drive and my FCP application itself. But on a Powerbook... you see where I'm going? Should I partition my drive before I install FCP, or should I just load the thing, work on projects on the same drive, (make backups regularly, natch...) and then off-load the work as necessary? And also: does regular video editing on the Powerbook cause problematic disc fragmentation? I've read again and again that OSX is not prone to significant fragmentation problems, but I do want to inquire specifically with regard to video editing.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Eelseyes

[Keiretsu]

Be sure to get max VRAM the fast disk (5400) and maybe even more that 1GB of RAM (I kknow it's terribly expensive).

[Mallrat]

Originally posted by Eelseyes:
Hello everyone,

First post to MacNN--pleased to be here.

So here's the question: I'm about to purchase a kickin', 1.5 Ghz PB with 1 Gig of ram. I want to install Final Cut Pro on it. Until now, I have used Final Cut on a desktop, and always used either a separate firewire drive or a RAID array for my work/scratch space--separated from my OS drive and my FCP application itself. But on a Powerbook... you see where I'm going? Should I partition my drive before I install FCP, or should I just load the thing, work on projects on the same drive, (make backups regularly, natch...) and then off-load the work as necessary? And also: does regular video editing on the Powerbook cause problematic disc fragmentation? I've read again and again that OSX is not prone to significant fragmentation problems, but I do want to inquire specifically with regard to video editing.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Eelseyes

I edit on my ibook. I have only edited at home, but use an external 120 cobra firewire drive.

If you edit at home, for sure get an external drive.

On the road, you might want to get a pocket firewire drive. I still thinks it's the best way to go for system flow.

But I know people that just load up projects to the desktop and it works fine for the most part.

When you can, use an external drive.

[buddhabelly]

Originally posted by Mallrat:
I edit on my ibook. I have only edited at home, but use an external 120 cobra firewire drive.

If you edit at home, for sure get an external drive.

On the road, you might want to get a pocket firewire drive. I still thinks it's the best way to go for system flow.

But I know people that just load up projects to the desktop and it works fine for the most part.

When you can, use an external drive.

Agreed. I have a lowly 4200RPM 40gb designed by FA Porsche Lacie portable bus powered firewire drive. The most video streams i've pulled off of it was 3 I think. I haven't had occasion to try any more. 5400 is better as is 7200rpm. I also do PS and audio work off the drive. When I start a new heavy video project, I usually backup the drive and reformat it to avoid fragmentation.

Whenever I've tried partitioning, its always just made a mess for me. It's just easier to have a second drive. The only advantage you'll see for partitioning is file management ie, wipe the partition do to fragmentation. Won't help with speed though.

Video does lead to significant fragmentation. OS X as a system drive with docs and such isn't so bad. But because video files are so large, FCP wants big blocks of drive to write too.

Any HDD will fragment. It's just less noticeable with larger drives because you generally have larger blocks free. But as with all things, the more space you have the more you use.