Will I be able to attach fast drives to MacBook Pro / Imac

Hi,
I noticed the new iMac uses SATA (internally). I want to edit DVCPro HD from time to time, so I plan on ordering the 500GB internal and partitioning it.
But, obviously I will need more space. Does anyone have any current suggestions for plugging faster HDs or a RAID into the iMac or MacBook Pro.
I assume FW400 may be the only option, and I assume that ain't fast enough for DVCPro HD.
Anyone have any comments or suggestions? I am just a casual user, and don't really need a tower (I don't think).
Appreciate any input?

Brian Broz

iMacs are NOT intended as high end editing machines. They are consumer computers, and can handle DV just fine. If you are at all serious about editing, get a G5 tower or Powerbook. With the new MacBook, you might need to get a FW800 card as the lowest type of drive recommended for DVCPRO HD is firewire 800.

Never..and I repeat NEVER...use an internal drive that has the operating system to capture media. Partitioned or not, it is still the system drive and will still drop frames. The same read/write head is used for both partitions...so that is a bad plan.

Both the iMac and Powerbook/MacBooks cannot use external SATA Raids, Fibrechannel Raids or any high end drive arrays. Since the new models don't even come with FW800...I don't think either machine is for you.

At least not for DVCPRO HD.

The new macbooks should be able to hook into external raids as soon as the new firewire 800, sata and possibly sata 2 ExpressCards start appearing. This is the next generation cardbus.

Actually, after digging around, I found a sata 2 card already made. How about that. No mac support on this card, but it wont be long.
[www.sunix.com.tw]

Here is the expresscard official homepage.
[www.expresscard.org]

And here is some reading on just how fast this bus is.
[www.pcmag.com]

Hope you enjoy!

Do you guys think the fastest new MacBook will be faster than my stupid single chip 1.8 G5 tower?

Damn, I want to kick that thing jsut thinking of it

Re this Express bus card

[www.sunix.com.tw]


Sorry, but it ain't going to fit.

There are two physical form factors for ExpressBus - 54 and 34.

The new Mac Book Pro has the smaller one (34 doh!) and this card is the bigger one (54).

...I am sure someone will bring out an ExpressBus to FW800 card, but with a relatively small market it might be pricey.

The scarey thing is that it seems this ExpressBus standard (which seems like generally a good idea) has been around since 2003!!
I guess it takes a while for these standards to come through.
Apple has a strong track record for dragging the industry into new standards (think Firewire, USB, no floppy) which is always a two-edged sword.

Remember how many people were pissed off when SCSI got dumped!!

Dave