Cheaper laptop for location work?

[Gary Ploj]

Hey,

I'm thinking of buying a new laptop for location work, it seems Mac is the best so far...like the Macbook Pro but the price is a bit steep for a laptop.

Has anyone out there built a Intel laptop running Mac O/S. I was thinking of a cheaper laptop and installing Bootcamp running Mac and Windows. Thus using FCP to edit in ProRess and logging on-set.

Just seems thier are cheaper solutions to log & edit .r3d files than MacBook Pro.

Any suggestions?

Cheers...

 

[Bert Claes]

a normal macbook?

 

[Bert Claes]

it is cheaper, ofcourse, but you can always try and find a decent pc-laptop and make an hackintosh out of it... ofcourse i can't post any links... but google is our friend! (or lifehacker.com and search for hackintosh)

 

[Gary Ploj]

Hackintosh..

Hackintosh..

Okay...thanks...

 

[Reinhart]

a normal macbook?

I don't think FCP will run on a MacBook -- requires decent video
to be found on the MacBookPro.

 

[BigLu]

Dont stray away from a MacBook Pro.
You want the graphics card power and speed.
Cant stress that enough.

 

[Gary Ploj]

Yes, I think I'll wait till Sept or Oct when Apple will be introducing new MacBook Pro's or at least a upgrade version...better Graphics card and CPU.

Thanks Luis...

Everything is soooo darn expensive for making this RED ONE camera work seemlessly. It's a money pit...!!! Ha Ha...

 

[Cory Schulthies]

I think this is what your getting at, you want to run osx on a pc, because you get a lot more bang for your buck with a pc laptop. If that is what your thinking, I recommend looking at hp and dell computers with intel chips and nvidia 8 series gpu.

google: osx86, easyBCD, and kalaway

 

[Steve Sherrick]

Yes, I think I'll wait till Sept or Oct when Apple will be introducing new MacBook Pro's or at least a upgrade version...better Graphics card and CPU.

Thanks Luis...

Everything is soooo darn expensive for making this RED ONE camera work seemlessly. It's a money pit...!!! Ha Ha...

Jim warned us :greedy:

 

[Charles Nader]

I think this is what your getting at, you want to run osx on a pc, because you get a lot more bang for your buck with a pc laptop. If that is what your thinking, I recommend looking at hp and dell computers with intel chips and nvidia 8 series gpu.

google: osx86, easyBCD, and kalaway

Hi Shutter,

Yes, bang for your buck. Okay...thanks. I'll google away...

 

[Charles Nader]

Jim warned us :greedy:

He did!?!...when...??? Ha Ha...

 

[Gary Ploj]

I think this is what your getting at, you want to run osx on a pc, because you get a lot more bang for your buck with a pc laptop. If that is what your thinking, I recommend looking at hp and dell computers with intel chips and nvidia 8 series gpu.

google: osx86, easyBCD, and kalaway

Thanks.

 

[Steve Sherrick]

He did!?!...when...??? Ha Ha...

When he said this is a professional digital cinema camera.

The camera may be relatively affordable for what it delivers, but a lot of the supporting accessories and gear needed to really get the most out of the camera and workflow do not always follow the same thought process in terms of pricing. Good cine gear will cost you a pretty penny. Good computer hardware will set you back a bit too, although not as bad as a set of S4s ($100K).

My Macbook Pro works fine on set, but I admit I always want to get more out of it, sometimes craving a desktop Mac Pro. So, even the best Macbook Pros are not going to get you into Paradise. They will do the job, but they are the bare minimum to have on set if you are a Data Manager/Playback/on-set colorist.

Also, just as important - drive speed. e-sata is really nice to have, as it will increase your copy times dramatically. So, if you can invest in an e-sata Express 34 card and a good e-sata Raid solution (Sonnet F2).

Cut corners where you can, but make sure to not leave yourself short where you really need it.

 

[Gary Ploj]

When he said this is a professional digital cinema camera.

The camera may be relatively affordable for what it delivers, but a lot of the supporting accessories and gear needed to really get the most out of the camera and workflow do not always follow the same thought process in terms of pricing. Good cine gear will cost you a pretty penny. Good computer hardware will set you back a bit too, although not as bad as a set of S4s ($100K).

My Macbook Pro works fine on set, but I admit I always want to get more out of it, sometimes craving a desktop Mac Pro. So, even the best Macbook Pros are not going to get you into Paradise. They will do the job, but they are the bare minimum to have on set if you are a Data Manager/Playback/on-set colorist.

Also, just as important - drive speed. e-sata is really nice to have, as it will increase your copy times dramatically. So, if you can invest in an e-sata Express 34 card and a good e-sata Raid solution (Sonnet F2).

Cut corners where you can, but make sure to not leave yourself short where you really need it.

Yes, it seems more RED users have a MacB Pro for location work and data management. The more I research it seems I will eventually invest in two computers. One for location/data stuff on set and one for digesting and CC and possilbly 4K output like a MacPro desktop.

Good thing, I already have probably the cheapest part of the system - ExpressCard 34 to e-Sata card with two 320Gb e-Sata II drives (16mb cashe -7200rpm) So, that will be used on location for data wrangling as everyone here is calling it.

Thanks for your input.

 

[conrad gaunt]

You`ll get more CPU for your money out of an iMac than a MacBook Pro, but if you need fast external disks, MacBook Pro is the way. I`ll be picking up my 24inch iMac when it arrives, with 3.06mhz dual core, 1060mhz etc FSB and 4gig ram, ati 256mb, 500gig internal disk, and chucking it in the car with me, its portable enough. I scored a student discount with Apple online store (i think about 15%, more on software though), paid £1400 (including UK VAT) and got a copy of Shake and the Quicktime Pro upgrade included for the price. The MacBook Pro was coming in at about £2000+, and I just don`t have the cash. I`ll use an existing windows laptop for more portable, CF card backup/shot checking scenarios

 

[Gary Ploj]

You`ll get more CPU for your money out of an iMac than a MacBook Pro, but if you need fast external disks, MacBook Pro is the way. I`ll be picking up my 24inch iMac when it arrives, with 3.06mhz dual core, 1060mhz etc FSB and 4gig ram, ati 256mb, 500gig internal disk, and chucking it in the car with me, its portable enough. I scored a student discount with Apple online store (i think about 15%, more on software though), paid £1400 (including UK VAT) and got a copy of Shake and the Quicktime Pro upgrade included for the price. The MacBook Pro was coming in at about £2000+, and I just don`t have the cash. I`ll use an existing windows laptop for more portable, CF card backup/shot checking scenarios

Hi Ronx,

Yes, I heard of people doing that taking their iMac on-location even editing right there.

I think with the MacB Pro its small enough to take everywhere with a 17'1080p display to do CC and CF data wrangling.

Thanks.

 

[Wil Klassen]

Hi Ronx,

Yes, I heard of people doing that taking their iMac on-location even editing right there.

I think with the MacB Pro its small enough to take everywhere with a 17'1080p display to do CC and CF data wrangling.

Thanks.

That's how we run it, a 17" MBP (2.7 ghz, 4 GB, 250GB, 512MB 8600M) and do most of our logging and transferring on set, all attached to a 3 TB backup RAID and 1 TB transfer drive.

 

[Gary Ploj]

That's how we run it, a 17" MBP (2.7 ghz, 4 GB, 250GB, 512MB 8600M) and do most of our logging and transferring on set, all attached to a 3 TB backup RAID and 1 TB transfer drive.

Thanks...CrossProcessed...can you do editing on MacB Pro? Probably not 4K but possilbly 2k proxy or 1K - ProRes on location?

Raid 0 or 1?

Thanks.