Best way to configure new macbook pro, mbox 2 pro, external firewire hard drive?

[Schragermeister]

So I just bought the new (late 2008) Macbook Pro. Got tired of Windows and running Protools on my super old (and heavy) Dell laptop. Had to upgrade to 7.4 of course because of Leopard but that's cool...I'll get the 8 upgrade when available.

I have an Mbox 2 Pro and will purchase a new hard drive any day now. I've been scouring the forums looking for anyone with a similar setup because I'm wondering what my best config option would be...

1) Macbook Pro ---> Hard drive via Firewire 400 cable w/ FW 800 adapter daisy-chained to the Mbox 2 Pro via FW 400 cable?

2) Same as above but put the Mbox 2 Pro in the middle of the chain with hard drive at the end?

3) Get a FW 400 express card to connect the Mbox 2 Pro and use a FW 400 hard drive with a FW 800 adapter to the laptop?

4) Get a FW 400 express card to connect the Mbox 2 Pro and use a FW 800 hard drive into the laptop with no adapter needed?

I'm sure there are other options... Anyone out there have the same setup and try anything that works???

[Schragermeister]

Okay...scratch option 4. FW 800 drives aren't supported for recording or playback by the Mbox 2 Pro.

[Schragermeister]

I've seen a few inquiries on this same setup since posting... The setup works well with the mbox 2 pro in the middle of the chain.
MBP ---> MB2P ---> FW400 external drive. I use a fw800 adapter on a fw400 cable to connect the mbox2pro to the macbaook pro.

ps- Thanks for all of your advice

[OddsAre]

take the cash and buy a PCI Express card with Firewire 400 ports. You've made the investment (and a great one, congrats and welcome to Mac land) and you have the PCI-Express slot so buy the card, well worth the purchase. Macsales.com has great cards and great FW400 drives.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/SIIG/NNEC2012S1/

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other.../ME2FW7160GBJ/

[byrnetr1ck]

Originally Posted by Schragermeister

I've seen a few inquiries on this same setup since posting... The setup works well with the mbox 2 pro in the middle of the chain.
MBP ---> MB2P ---> FW400 external drive. I use a fw800 adapter on a fw400 cable to connect the mbox2pro to the macbaook pro.

ps- Thanks for all of your advice

hi there, i am also a brand new MBOX2 Pro owner with same sort of set up question, thanks for posting.

question: is the fw800 adapter you mention something I should look into? is it requeired to complete the set up you mentioned?

also, just to confirm, i should be buying an external drive with FW400 capability? (not FW800?)

finally, any recommended hard drive brands? i don't need a ton of storage, just looking for something that will be a good fit with my MBP & MB2P. thanks!

[OddsAre]

as I just said, getting a PCI Express card with Firewire 400 ports is the ideal way to do it. The links in my post above are perfect for you. OWC Mercury drives are some of the best and most reliable on the market.

[byrnetr1ck]

Originally Posted by OddsAre

as I just said, getting a PCI Express card with Firewire 400 ports is the ideal way to do it. The links in my post above are perfect for you. OWC Mercury drives are some of the best and most reliable on the market.

great, thanks, just checked out the links.

any chance in a nutshell you could explain why the 2 port express card is recommended?

is this so that both the MBOX & external drive can go into the MBP at once? rather than the 'chain' connection or described above?

[OddsAre]

using the PCI Express slot give you a nice clean dedicated bus for running either the interface or the hard drive off of. If the interface and the hard drive are running off separate busses then they can each handle the max that those busses allow instead of sharing it and trying to get all the info through one bus.

In the case of the newest Uni-Body Mac Book Pro's it adds FW400 since it doesn't have it anymore, and you don't have to use a FW800-FW400 cable which is not ideal and not officially supported by Digi.

So in your case, if you have the newest Mac Book Pro model, you would run the FW drive and the Mbox2 PRO through the PCI express card. You should be fine doing so unless you start making sessions with like 40 tracks and a ton of Plugins. If you ever run into any problems with bandwidth as your sessions get bigger and you get errors then you could look into running one off the PCI express card and then trying the FW800-FW400 cable for the other device and that would get them on separate busses.

It's not recommended to chain devices unless it is the last option available.

[byrnetr1ck]

cool, just to confirm, i am actually running a late 2007 MacBook Pro (not one of the brand new 2008 versions) that does have Firewire.

let me know if this changes anything you just wrote above

thanks again for all the info.

[OddsAre]

the only thing it changes is that you are better off with that model as far as now you can guarantee yourself two dedicated Firewire busses and an optimum setup as far as bandwidth goes. Plug the Mbox into the MBP's Firewire and the hard drive into the PCI-express card and you will be smokin'!