Laptop - Firewire or ExpressCard

I am kindof in the market for a new laptop. Been poking around with a Toshiba Qosmio x305-q705 that has served me will for over 4 years now. It is getting long in the tooth for some of the work I am doing ( HD video editing ) and really I could live with it for a while longer but 2 of the 4 usb ports are dead.

So typically I need a 17" screen (I would love a retnia display but a solid HD 1920x1080 would be fine ) decent Quadcore I7 and just stuff it with 16gb out of the box.

Video cards I am partial to the nVidia cards vs ATI but meh on that.

The thing that has been killing me is a lack of Firewire ports or even Express card slots to add FW or other inputs. I have 2 video cameras I use for streaming and they are firewire, and it seems kinda silly that nothing I have found on the high end laptops has FW or even Express Card slots.

So am I missing something ? Is there a nich laptop builder that still offers these features ?

-Robert

Firewire never really caught on outside high end equipment due to licensing fees. With the introduction of USB3.0 it has been largely superseded. You're probably going to be looking at workstation class portables.

A Dell Precision M6600 17" (or 15" M4600) would seem to fit your requirements. The Thinkpad W and T series I know both have 1394 (mini) ports, but only go up to 15".
Most of your Sager/Clevo's like the NP9170 17" (and 15" NP9150) have 1394 ports. Available from the usual suspects, xoticpc, mythlogic, malibal ect.

Depending on your budget, the MBP Retina is out there too.

express card is dead basically for PCie equivalents, and as said firewire never caught on, it was an Apple thing really.

Nice that Dell has both the firewire and express card.

Not too bad, they have some interesting options for it as well but oddly enough the online config is stupid limited options.

I'll have to poke around a bit and see what I can shake loose. I like the looks as well simple and aluminum vs plastic

-R

A lot of higher end business laptops still have both those ports.

+1 On the Dell m6600. I have one as my work laptop.

All decked out, i7-2920XM @2.5GHz
17" Screen 1920x1080
16 GB Ram
256 SSD
512 SSD (Second drive bay)
Not sure which video card...
Connectivity:
2 - USB 3.0 Ports
2 - USB 2.0 Port
1 - USB/eSata port
1 - 1394 Firewire
1 - Express Card Slot

It's a beast, and HUGE but you get used to it, and with a 17" screen you don't have much of a choice. The thing rocks, only downer is the laptop dock. It's a bit dated but still very functional as it adds additional usb 2.0 ports, an esata port and multiple DVI and VGA ports for monitors.

The dock is why I went with an EliteBook instead. The Core i generation of docks from Lenovo and Dell have been sub-part. Only HP has one that supports adding the optical drive, or in my case, a traditional spinning drive to go with my 2 SSDs.

Well I dropped the hammer and ordered the M6600, real bare bones system, I will be stuff 32gb into it ( way cheaper to do after the fact than through Dell ). I went with the i7-2860M Quad Core 2.50GHz 8MB, just couldn't justify the addition $700 on the 2.80 Extreme.

Wanted to do the BluRay but not for $350, so stuck with the DVD+DL and when I kill that I'll stuff in a BR slot loader.

Again stuck with the AMD FirePro M8900 Mobility Pro with 2GB GDDR5, should be fine for doing the video editing I have been doing. One thing I am going to look into is the Video Card Heat sink and see if the Quadro's use the same or different heat sinks, if its the same i'll pick up a 5010 down the road as a upgrade.

Should get 5-6 years out of this easy ( hope and pray )

I have a Toshiba Qosmio x305-q705 and its a monster that has served me well for 5 years. I am hoping the M6600 is just a smidge thinner so it fits in my bag. The Tosh won't, this thing hasn't been zipped up in 5 years lol

Thanks for teh pointers guys,

-Robert