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2.4 ghz i5 or 2.66 ghz core 2 with 8gb ram?

S

Sigz

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 1, 2010
2
0
Hello, im looking to buy a macbook pro. However im really confused which one to get.

I i will be using the laptop for music production in Ableton Suite.

Do you think it would be ok to get the 2.66 ghz core 2 and upgrade to 8gb ram taking the price to about £1500 or would a 15 inch 2.4 ghz with 4gb be a better choice?

Any advice is much appreciated as it is alot of money and i want to get the best i can with my budget of around £1500.

Thanks in advance.
 
get the i5. the processing power is significantly stronger. and you can always get 8gb ram later but you can't get another CPU later. plus you get a stronger graphic card too.
 
i5 has hyperthreading and turbo boost. hyperthreading gives it 2 additional virtual cores while turbo boost is added power when you need it.

i should add the c2d cannot do neither of those features.
 
Sigz said:
Hello, im looking to buy a macbook pro. However im really confused which one to get.

I i will be using the laptop for music production in Ableton Suite.

Do you think it would be ok to get the 2.66 ghz core 2 and upgrade to 8gb ram taking the price to about £1500 or would a 15 inch 2.4 ghz with 4gb be a better choice?

Any advice is much appreciated as it is alot of money and i want to get the best i can with my budget of around £1500.

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

Depending on the size of the music you are producing you may want the 8GB. For instance if you are working with Lossless files that range from an hour to two hours of audio I would go on the safe side with 8GB.
If you are working with a smaller file size then 4GB is enough.

Processor wise Ableton Suite has a preference for multi-core support and it would benefit from the i5's 4 threads of processing if it is a very optimized program in that sense. Ableton has a bunch of posts on their forum regarding multi-core/thread support and its benefits.

My opinion:
Go with i5, and get some Corsair 8GB for like 110 bucks. Search deal sites like slickdeals.net
 
Thanks alot guys. I will def go for the i5 now. Prob just get more RAM when i have more money.
Thanks again.
 
Sigz said:
Thanks alot guys. I will def go for the i5 now. Prob just get more RAM when i have more money.
Thanks again.
Click to expand...

I know you've already decided, but I also wanted to cast my vote for the i5. I have a C2D, and I love it. But I'd be thrilled to be able to swap it for an i5.
 
Interesting thread. My iMac has a 2.66 c2d and my Mbp has the i5 2.4.

When I first got my apple tv I encoded a bunch of my DVDs to iTunes format. I was using both computers side by side and the Mbp was whipping the iMacs butt. I'd encoded 15-20 frames per second faster consistently which is huge.
 
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