Recommendations for netbook with USB3 for travel ?

[Les Dittert]

I need to find the lightest solution possible for Redmag to USB3 drive backups.
Is there a netbook that has good throughput on USB3 ?
Having Esata would be amazing as well, but I can survive on USB3 I think.
Thanks.

 

[Ruff]

I use the 11" Macbook Air. Latest Spec.

It's great for travel. USB3 Hub 2 drives and the Redstation Mini.

Only downside is that Resolve does not run on it for a quick test grade. But thats the pay off for a 1kg laptop.

USB3 is a real winner for me. Much cheaper drives than Thunderbolt and very fast.

 

[Bill Sepaniak]

What we used on our recent gig in Italy was a Dell N5110 Inspiron laptop. It is a Core i3 machine ... BUT it has an esata port. We went from Redmag via esata through the laptop and then out via USB2 to an OWC 1.5TB portable raid. Bingo bango ... worked like a charm. I think the laptop cost us like $350.00 at Microcenter.

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[Ruff]

USB3 to Esata adaptors are a good option.

But just be wary of the OWC ones. I have two. One arrived DOA and they have a poor international returns policy....

 

[Subhadip Sen]

Just a thought - if you are truly looking for the "lightest solution", how about a tablet? There are a fair amount of Ivy Bridge Windows 8 tablets coming to the market that feature USB 3.0 ports with the same internals as ultrabooks in a tablet form factor. Most have docks of some kind or the other expanding the number of usable ports as well and turning them into laptops, mini-all-in-ones and even desktops connecting out to an external monitor. The idea of a tablet editing 4K R3Ds natively in Premiere Pro is oddly appealing to me.

But of course if you want a machine solely for drive backups, there are 11.6 inch laptops $500 or under out there with USB 3.0 ports. I am not really aware of any particular models though, sorry, but shouldn't be too hard to find.

 

[Les Dittert]

Thanks for the information on the tablets, for some reason I thought they were Atom processors not running real windows.
On the USB 3 to Esata converters: how fast are these really? Is there a brand that really works at high-speed?

 

[Subhadip Sen]

There are Atom Windows 8 tablets too, but I think they are restricted to run 32-bit OS and USB 2.0. And there's the ARM based Windows RT which won't run third-party desktop applications. Of course the advantage to these Atom and ARM tablets are they are extremely thin and light, usually in the 500g-600g range with 10 hours battery life, while the Ivy Bridge tablets are more in the 800g-900g range and some are actively cooled. There's potential for a happy middle ground in AMD based tablets but I haven't heard of any just yet.

 

[Noel R.]

I use the Dell Inspiron N4110. One USB 2 port, Two USB 3 ports, and eSATA. Takes me about 12 min to offload a 64Gb mag to an external 7200 rpm drive. I use the second USB 3 port for a backup drive, and the USB 2 to power the RED station since using eSATA alone can't power the RED Station. The laptop cost a little over $300.

 

[Subhadip Sen]

Thanks Noel. That sounds perfect for an affordable backup machine.

 

[Les Dittert]

I use the Dell Inspiron N4110. One USB 2 port, Two USB 3 ports, and eSATA. Takes me about 12 min to offload a 64Gb mag to an external 7200 rpm drive. I use the second USB 3 port for a backup drive, and the USB 2 to power the RED station since using eSATA alone can't power the RED Station. The laptop cost a little over $300.

Thanks that looks good,
Is that laptop powerful enough to open up a file and see if the footage is okay?

 

[Noel R.]

Thanks that looks good,
Is that laptop powerful enough to open up a file and see if the footage is okay?

Don't expect much but it will playback at 1/8 res with REDCINE-X. The screen contrast is complete crap but you can at least view your files to make sure they transferred correctly. I also keep camera firmware copies on there just in case things get ugly.

 

[AndreasOberg]

I know it's not a Notebook but I got the new Apple Retina for this purpose. 2kg is very lightweight for a laptop and will fit snuggely in my bag. And then you can actually edit. Also it can absorbe a whole 512GB card since it has 756GB internal SSD.
The tablets sounds like an interesting option if you have no need to edit at all.
Good luck
/Andreas