Extra Disk Space For Video Editing On A Laptop

[astral]

I am just about to upgrade to a new laptop with the 2.13GHz Intel processor and 1Gb of memory.

I want to start playing around with some of the home movies I have, but I fear that the internal

80Gb disk will not be big enough. My thoughts are to buy a large external disk, say 250Gb, or whatever looks reasonable and plug it into the laptop.

I have USB2 and Firewire 2 sockets. Which will be the best way to go.

Should I go for 2Gb of memory as well?

I know a big desktop machine would be better, but that is not an option at the moment.

Thanks

[Tywais]

I am just about to upgrade to a new laptop with the 2.13GHz Intel processor and 1Gb of memory.

I want to start playing around with some of the home movies I have, but I fear that the internal

80Gb disk will not be big enough. My thoughts are to buy a large external disk, say 250Gb, or whatever looks reasonable and plug it into the laptop.

I have USB2 and Firewire 2 sockets. Which will be the best way to go.

Should I go for 2Gb of memory as well?

I know a big desktop machine would be better, but that is not an option at the moment.

Thanks

I'm speaking relative to a desktop machine. I have two 250GB USB2 boxes externally and 1 160GB Firewire external box and really can't see much performance difference. The USB2 box will probably be cheaper and easier to find. The performance is fine also with an external drive for video play and editing, do it regularly. The jump from 1G to 2G you will not see a big jump in performance except for games and somewhat with video editing (depending on the editor you use).

[rcm]

Hi ,

USB 2 will do fine . 2 GB ram is not really essential but a graphic Card of 128 mb or more is an advantage . Also get a Laptop Cooler -its that thing with 1 or more ventilators you place underneath the Laptop for extra cooling.

rcm

[Khutan]

Firewire can transfer much more data than USB, therefore your picture quality will be better. If you have an extra big TV, then you will certainly notice the difference.

The main thing I gave to be careful of is the temporary file that the video buffers to. If you go more than the swap file then you can have trouble.

I was told to get a dedicated disk for the swap file and allow it to do its thing.

[Tywais]

Firewire can transfer much more data than USB, therefore your picture quality will be better. If you have an extra big TV, then you will certainly notice the difference.

Not entirely true now Khutan. USB 2.0 now known as High Speed USB runs at 480Mbps while standard IEEE1394 runs at 400Mbps, a new standard of IEEE1394b will support 800Mbps but doubt his laptop has that. And a lot will depend on the drivers, both firmware (BIOS) and soft. Tests run show the same external drive setup on different computers can show significant speed differences. Also, the external USB/Firewire box will determine rates in-part based on the USB/Firewire chipsets being used.

I have a miniDV camcorder with both USB and Firewire outputs and saw no difference in video data transfer rates. Again, maybe due to the firmware/chipset of the camera or the inherently slow mechanical drive action of the camera.

Edited April 20, 2006 by tywais