13" MBP vs ...something else

[KAWS11]

I'm a longtime PC user thinking about making the switch...
I have a 5 year old Dell laptop that's on its last legs, and ideally my next purchase will last me another 4 years.

I was planning to get the i7 13" MBP with a SSD, but looking at some of the performance metrics made me reconsider. I'm not sure how much the SSD will improve it.

I'm going to use it for music production and everyday use in general, and I do a lot of heavy multitasking. The screen resolution isn't important to me.

Should the 13" with the SSD upgrade get me the speed and consistency I need, or am I missing something?

 

[boomboom2]

If you've got the chops it's a lot cheaper to add the SSD yourself instead of having Apple do it.

 

[fleawannabe]

Personally I don't think the 300 dollars is worth the upgrade for the bigger CPU, more RAM and bigger HD. You can upgrade the RAM for 50 bucks, buy a 252 SSD for 200 and still have you 500 HD to put it in an external enclosure.

 

[ZacT94]

If you're going to do some heavy multitasking, then you should consider getting the 15" Non-retina MBP with quad-core i7. The processor in the 13" is only dual-core i7 and can't handle as much multitasking as the quad-core i7 in the 15".

 

[elppa]

If you want to look at a PC, the Sony VAIO S and the Lenovo ThinkPad X230 are probably the closest competitors to the Pro in terms of size / performance and not looking like a turd.

Whatever you choose will be more powerful than your current machine is, no matter how good it was when you first brought it. That's just the way things are.