Hey Mark.
You'll love the laptop, easy as pie to capture and all. As you know, I do it all the time with my Powerbook G4 1.67Ghz, never had problems. With you MCPro I assume it'd be even faster. Handy particularly when working with HDV content, where rendering as you know takes a lot longer than good ol' miniDV.
You can keep all the programs on the main HD, and then all those GB of Lyvetype, Sountrack, etc. on a separate disk (external), that way they won't clog up your internal.
You also can easily capture to an external HDD via Firewire, never fails, I do it all the time as you know (remember FnF?)
Heck, you can even capture to a video-iPod in case of an emergency, for that matter, via USB! Never drops a frame!
I'd suggest a Lacie with Fw 800, FW 400, USB2 and eSATA, you'll be set for all kinds of "plan B".
Maxtor is also pretty good, although reliability depends on the model (e.g., the 500Gb with Fw 800, FW 400, USB2 is pretty good, as are the older "Onetouch II" Maxtors; the 1Tb and 1.5Tb instead have had all kinds of problems, likely to the RAID configuration - which you can disable anyway).
Whatever you get, make sure your external HD has got a good "bridge" (i.e., the chip on the small board on the external enclosure that makes it "talk" to your Mac); Oxford brides are very reliable, and used typically in most major brands.
Any Mac laptop questions, you know where to catch me!
Oh, I've sent you a separate email. Enjoy Antibes!
Nick
