Help Needed - New to Mac world

Flash drives are a bit faster but at 512 GB it's half the size if the 1 TB drive. For me personally, I couldn't see purchasing a computer without a flash storage. You probably don't need it but I really like them.

Either computer will work just fine for your needs.

LennDel said:

Hey guys... I am new to the Mac world and I'm in the market for a MacBook Pro. I will be using it solely for digital music and running my digital DJ software on it.

Quick question, which of these 2 models will be better suited for my needs?

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Both will do fine, you might not even need the maxed out CPU and can happily live with base CPU (2.3GHz or so).

Main thing I want to know is the difference between the flash and Serial ATA.

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Serial ATA is an interface for internal storage drives like an SSD or HDD or optical disk drive (ODD).
HDDs and SSDs and ODDs nowadays use Serial ATA as interface to be connected to a computer internally.
The cMBP (non Retina MBP - classic MBP) uses a standard platter based HDD, which is slower than a a flash memory based SSD, be it reading or writing to it or seeking for files.

Will one be faster than the other?

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The MacBook Pro with Retina Display with its flash memory based storage, but you can upgrade any cMBP with an SSD for much less money nowadays than what Apple wants for 256 GB or 512 GB of SSD.

Will one hold more songs than the other? How much more?

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Seeing that the MacBook Pro with Retina Display has 512 GB of storage and the cMBP has 1 TB of storage, the cMBP will hold double the number of songs, as 1 TB is roughly twice as much as 512 GB.
See link under "What is a Hard Disk Drive" to learn more about that.

I'd go for the retina MBP with SSD. Ever since getting a MBP with an SSD I've been spoiled. I also much prefer the greater screen real estate I can get out of the retina display.

For your needs, both are more than grand. Obviously 1TB holds more music than 512GB.

What DJ software are you going to use?

I've got a 2011 i7 13" and it runs everything I need without even maxing my CPU out.

The MBP SATA drives are 5400rpm and it can be frustratingly slow to reboot or open applications.

If you can get away with the 512 flash drive (obviously, plugins, samples, DAW's etc allowing) then I'd definitely go with the rMBP. And the lesser weight/form factor will definitely benefit you if you're playing gigs and out on the road cos that 15" MBP is quite a sizeable computer.

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Just to add to your decision - search 'Nifty Drive' and buy one of those for the rMBP cos you can then whack 64gb of SD storage on the side for other files.

LennDel said:

Thanks a lot for everybody's quick responses...

Chrisrosemusic1, I will be using Seraton Itch. I like the 1tb of space compared to the 512gb but based on what you guys are saying, the rMBP will be the better choice.

Roughly, do you guys know how many songs 512gb could hold?

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If you use 320kbps MP3's then that's about 1 per 10mb (based on roughly 6min tracks) then you'll hold 51000 approx. If you're using raw WAV files then closer to 10000. All depends on what you use and what codec they are.

Remember you could always store less frequently used tracks on an external drive for very little extra money - especially as the new Macs are USB 3.0

LennDel said:

Roughly, do you guys know how many songs 512gb could hold?

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That depends on the format they are in. If the are compressed and 1 minute of song takes roughly 2 MB (if compressed with a high data rate) and one song is about 4 minutes ling in average, 512 GB can hold 65,536 songs, minus 15,000 songs for having some storage for the OS and applications and other user data.
If you have uncompressed songs (WAV or AIFF), then one four minute song should take a bit less than 70 MB, thus almost 7,500 songs will fit on 512 GB of storage, again, minus 500 songs to have some capacity for OS and applications and other user data.

Also know, that uncompressed and compressed music do not have that a big of a data rate (throughput of bytes per second), that even an external USB 2.0 HDD would suffice to hold many, many songs.

LennDel said:

Roughly, do you guys know how many songs 512gb could hold?

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Using my very nonscientific method, I looked at 10 of my songs. They varied from 4 MB to 12 MB. Using 10 MB as an average (which is probably larger than average). Let's say 30 GB for programs and OS. That leaves you with enough space for 25,977 songs.

Really you need to look at your own songs and make this determination.

grapes911 said:

Using my very nonscientific method, I looked at 10 of my songs. They varied from 4 MB to 12 MB. Using 10 MB as an average (which is probably larger than average). Let's say 30 GB for programs and OS. That leaves you with enough space for 25,977 songs.

Really you need to look at your own songs and make this determination.

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Good point, but that's only the *finished* soundfile/song. When making (re)mixes, or your own songs, those files eat up TONS of space.

LennDel said:

1) rMBP 8gb vs 16gb...

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As far as I know, DJ software doesn't take up a ton of memory. Audio editing programs should take up a bit more. I haven't done much sound editing so I would defer to any audio pros, but usually the huge amounts of RAM are associated with image and video editing, not sound editing. I'd be willing to bet that 8 GB would be sufficient. Of course, if you can afford it, more is always better.

LennDel said:

2) 2.7GHz vs 2.6GHz - same reasoning.

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I can guarantee that you will not notice a difference with these speeds. If you were doing processor-intensive work day in and day out (video editing, 3D rendering), then you might notice a difference between the two. For audio and normal usage, though, that doesn't apply.

Definitely get 16GB of RAM.

You don't even need the 2.6--upgrade the 2.3's storage instead


We use Serato Scratch and Traktor Pro. Both flat fly on these rMBPs. The memory upgrade though ensures future viability for OS and application updates. As well, with the rMBP, you can't 'add' the RAM after you buy.

J

8 GB of RAM will be more than enough. While I'd recommend 8 GB for future proofing, 4 would be plenty for your purposes. I can't imagine you'll see a difference in the processor speeds either.