Fastest budget MBP

[macaudiodj]

Okay I am in the market for a "knock around" work computer. I don't want to spend more then $2k on it. This will be used on trains, cars, and planes.

I do allot of work in DAW and other audio editing apps, so I would like the fastest machine I can afford in my budget. Graphics aren't a major roll.

I was looking at the 2.9GHz 13" MBP but I noticed in the bench marks its a good bit slower then the 2.6GHz 15" MBP. I assume that is due to the hard drive speed differences?

So my idea is to buy a 13" MBP bone stock. And order a 500gb m4 ssd drive from crucial, and while I am at it order 16Gb of ram for it also. I would order that as an option from apple but that would bring my cost $400 over my set budget.

This will bring my total cost just shy of $2k total.

Is this my best bet? Any other suggestions?

Thanks for your time.

~Robert

 

[Livewings]

Okay I am in the market for a "knock around" work computer. I don't want to spend more then $2k on it. This will be used on trains, cars, and planes.

I do allot of work in DAW and other audio editing apps, so I would like the fastest machine I can afford in my budget. Graphics aren't a major roll.

I was looking at the 2.9GHz 13" MBP but I noticed in the bench marks its a good bit slower then the 2.6GHz 15" MBP. I assume that is due to the hard drive speed differences?

So my idea is to buy a 13" MBP bone stock. And order a 500gb m4 ssd drive from crucial, and while I am at it order 16Gb of ram for it also. I would order that as an option from apple but that would bring my cost $400 over my set budget.

This will bring my total cost just shy of $2k total.

Is this my best bet? Any other suggestions?

Thanks for your time.

~Robert

It is not due to hard drive speed differences. 13 is Dual, 15 is Quad.
Get the 13" Ripoff Retina. Seems good for you.

 

[macaudiodj]

But the retina model are still only dual core?

Would I be better off doing the 15" with the quad? I'll bump my budget up to $2500 if it will get me that much better of a machine.

 

[Livewings]

But the retina model are still only dual core?

Would I be better off doing the 15" with the quad? I'll bump my budget up to $2500 if it will get me that much better of a machine.

Yes. Might as well go for 15" Retina. For that extra $200, it is entirely worth it.

 

[snaky69]

I was looking at the 2.9GHz 13" MBP but I noticed in the bench marks its a good bit slower then the 2.6GHz 15" MBP. I assume that is due to the hard drive speed differences?


~Robert

That would actually be because the 13" has a dual core, whereas the 15" has a quad-core processor. Hard drive speed has barely if any effect on benchmark scores.

The clock speed (AKA the GHz) don't mean nearly as much as they did back about 10 years ago, with hyperthreading, turboboost, multiple cores and all that, it is only part of the equation of what makes a processor fast.

Take my processor for example, a core i7 2.6GHz quad-core, and compare it to an older core 2 duo with 2.6GHz.

The main difference is that mine has two more cores. They have the same clock speed, so technically, you'd think my processor is only twice as fast as the Core 2 Duo, right? Wrong. It is roughly 4 times faster in all aspects.

See what I mean?

 

[tcphoto]

Go to the Apple website and check out the refurbished machines. You will find current and previous models at a lower price.

 

[2298754]

You can get a good deal on MBPs on Craiglist.

A good friend got a mid-2011 15inch MBP with a 512gb SSD, 16gb RAM, i7 for around $1,200.