Laptop for encoding

[SatStorm]

Recently I got a laptop, based on a T7300 CPU. It's an acer travelmate, not a top nocht one, but not bad too (it's the 6292 model). It runs WinXP. I got it for occasional traveling, and I think it's a nice one, with a 12" LCD screen

I was thinking to use this laptop while not traveling for mpeg 2 video encoding and so. Also I'm thinking of use it exclusively for any dv capture I may have, using a Canopus A100 that I have some time now.

What is your experience regarding using a laptop for video encoding? Do I have to watch for something, etc?

Also I'm thinking to use extrernal USB HDD for those video related projects. Capture direct to a USB HDD that is, and encode from there. Will I have any problems? I do that with desktop PCs for years now, but I read on non related video forums, that laptops ain't for this tasks overall.

I'm new with laptops, so any advice would highly appreciate.

[Alex_ander]

I use my Asus laptop (2.4GHz, 512MB memory) for all encodings with CCE since my older machine has twice slower CPU and is only suitable for authoring. HDD performance on laptop is very slow, but it doesn't matter as much as CPU (HDD LED never shows intensive usage while encoding), everything is OK.

[SatStorm]

I did a test tonight: I captured using Canopus and my laptop a VHS tape. The capture stored on an external HDD.

Twice one strange thing happen: Around 1.40 min, my laptop's firewire device disconnected and I had to re-boot to make it work! Is this a strange bug or something, or it was a matter of luck?

Also, I discover that it is impossible to boot my laptop with Canopus and the HDD connected.

[SatStorm]

Something weird happens... The Canopus connects and disconnects.

A cable issue? Or a laptop issue? I keep hearing things about the acer laptops, maybe it's time to taste them myself...