New to FCP-x, what Drive to use for scratch.

WOuld it be a stupid idea to ditch the MAC and go pc laptop ? I can get a nice Dell XPS 15" hi res screen ( 3,200x1,800) with 32gigs ram 1tb hdd & 512gig ssd with the Nvidia GeForce 750M for graphics..

Just be hard to purchase a expensive copy of software for video editing, wouldn't even know what to run..

Face palm this is going to be super expensive just to edit videos LOL

I don't think anyone here is going to recommend you move to a PC.

I used to edit on a PC using, at various times, Premiere, Edius and Vegas, but the way FCPX worked made me move to Mac I find it so much faster to use that the above mentioned Applications.

Do you need the retina screen? when I was choosing my MBP I went for the Hi-Res option on a 15" MBP and this comes with upgradeable RAM and drives. Mine now has a 240GB SSD for the OS and Apps and an internal 750GB spinning disk for storage. I know the Hi-res screen has been dropped but is there anything available in the refurb shop?

I'll echo the advice on the SSD upgrade, you should be editing using external drives for best performance

What Bobbyco says:

A lot of the answer depends on what your source video and end product requirement are.

I'm editing my weekly sport-reports (4-7 Multicam, 30min) and e.g. my latest wedding <sigh> video (10h raws, 40min project) on a MacMini = maxed with 16GB Ram + a software 1TB Raid0 = budget <700€ ... so, if $$$ is the main stopper (=me hobbyist, I don't get paid for that), why laptop at all?

A word about hackintoshes:
a) those 'benchmarks tests' test benchmark tests only.- Although some numbers of the nMP are not impressive, FCPX is incredible 'optimized' to hardware; we all have seen those videos, 30 effects to a 4k timeline, running smooth like silk. Does a 'cheaper' and 'faster' PC + Premiere do better? Not seen in the wild ...

b) due to this 'entanglement' of hard- and software, FCPX often does NOT run on 'similiar, but cheaper' PC-parts. Or, you need a very similiar hardware = not cheaper. I'm following some endless discussions on other boards about FCPX+hackintoshes ... the 3 steps of grief:
step#1 "we can do better and much cheaper!"
step#2 "benchmarks are superior, ha, Apple!"
step#3 "FCPX doesn't run... " ... 'ha' on my side of the screen

and a last word about 'speed':
a news-room needs speed.
but you ...? does it matter, 25min export or 20 = 20% 'faster'? Plus, you can keep editing while exporting (in FCPX) ...
You can let your Mac overnight do 'optimizing/proxy' and even the cheapest hardware will perform FCPX very well. Ram is a must, usb3 does do well here; for Multicam I suggest "one platter per stream" which can be accomplished with super-cheap software-raids and usb3-drives (if 'safety' is not a NoGo criteria, see 'news-room').

For professional set-up, costs of hardware shouldn't be no criteria - pro = you get paid for it, and hopefully so well you can finance your toys.
For non-paid-use/hobby: 'wallet' beats 'image', 'cheap' beats 'speed'.

If you need a portable system: 16GB Ram, two tiny TB-drives, done.
Rest (as SSDs) is nice2have.

my 5 cents ...

I want the Hi res screen, i can't work on a low resolution screen, hate it

Karsten Schlüter, Im running a asus 120$ board first gen i5 quad core with 4 gigs ram and a Nvidea card and FCP-x 10.0 ( yes cracked version ) just to play with it till i get my mb pro then ill be buying a copy.

FCP runs fine on this machine and i have been learning lots, nothing special for the output but learning how things work and how to use effects.

My movies arn't going to be more than 45 min long if that. They arn't complicated HOWEVER that doesn't mean i wont want to learn more complicated and neat things I learn fast Used to use FCP on m old dual G5 with 8 gigs ram..

My wants are screen resolution & ram i guess.. Storage can be changed out later.

What unit are people recommending for video editing, haven't really seen anyone post a link to something. Do i buy a thunderbolt encolosure and stuff drives in it ? 2.5" or 3.5" or do i buy a Lacie ?