Workflow for video editing – the hardware

This is the third entry in my series on my workflow for video editing. Last time, I discussed the software I use; this time I’ll talk about hardware:

I have two hardware setups, one for travel and one at home. The main difference between the two, is that I have a 24″ monitor at home, as well as an external mouse and keyboard, allowing me to do bigger edits. When at home, I use the external monitor as my editing window, viewing files and folders on the laptop screen. When travelling, the laptop screen becomes my editing window, and files and folders are moved to an iPad set up as a second display. I currently use:

• 13″ MacBook Pro (Early 2015 model, 3.1 GHz i7 CPU, 16 GB RAM)
• 500 GB Samsung T3 external hard drive
• iPad
• 24″ external monitor
• Bose Quiet Comfort 35 headphones

I store all my files on the external hard drive, and render directly to it. I have yet to see any appreciable difference in rendering locally and rendering to the hard drive, so to the hard drive it is. I back it up on a regular basis, both to another external hard drive, and to a NAS with redundant drives.