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i5 or i7 for Logic Pro

David,

You are right, I'm probably putting way to much thought into this:)

Just to make sure we're on the same page, what I plan to do is record (2) tracks at the same time (sometimes (4), but I will be putting some effects on some of the tracks (probably the vocals, because my Kronos and Addictive Drums already have built in effects on both of them).

I plan to have MainStage 2, but from what I'm told, it's more for live use.

When you say I won't be using any software libraries (some of which could be 100GB), you're probably right.

But that being said, I might find a library one day that I've just HAVE to have!

Does what I've just told you above change what you suggest I keep/get (the i5/8GB/250GB SSD)?
 
Didn't notice you were talking about the normal (c)MBP.

Of course, you can stick with the i5 8GB and upgrade the RAM if you got the need. That is user-upgradeable, and you should be able to get 2x8GB sticks for a decent price. So if you get the need in the future, you can just upgrade it.

I would then instead spend money on a good SSD. That would speed it up a lot.

With a few tracks, 8GB will be more than sufficient :) And if you get an SSD, then IF you should use up all the 8GB for a short time, it would be faster than with a normal HDD since the pagefile would be a lot faster.
 
my 2.5 i5 with 10gb and an ssd runs ableton fine. if i had the money at the time of purchase though id have gone for the i7, purely becuase it would still do it better.
 
jafingi said:
Didn't notice you were talking about the normal (c)MBP.

Of course, you can stick with the i5 8GB and upgrade the RAM if you got the need. That is user-upgradeable, and you should be able to get 2x8GB sticks for a decent price. So if you get the need in the future, you can just upgrade it.

I would then instead spend money on a good SSD. That would speed it up a lot.

With a few tracks, 8GB will be more than sufficient :) And if you get an SSD, then IF you should use up all the 8GB for a short time, it would be faster than with a normal HDD since the pagefile would be a lot faster.
Click to expand...


jafingi,

Let me give you a quick recap of how this all came about.

I have (2) 13" MacBook Pros:
1) i5/8GB/500GB/2 years Full Apple Care Warranty on it.
2) i7/16GB/750GB/only a few month left on the Apple Warranty/No Apple Care.

The way the numbers worked out is that by me spending $200.00 more, I could return the i5 to Best Buy, keep the i7 and buy a Two Year Full Apple Care Warranty.

At that point several people said to keep the i5 and use that $200.00 to put a SSD in it.

The one I seem to like is the Samsung MZ-7TD250BW 840, which is a 250GB SSD.

If I go that route, I'll have a i5/8GB/250GB SSD/(2) more years on a Full Apple Care Warranty.

If I go the i7 route, I'll have a faster processor, more RAM, a larger Hard Drive, but no warranty in a few month.

To throw a monkey wrench in this, while I'm replacing Hard Drives (if I go the i5 route), do you have any experience with a Hybrid SSD?

Regardless, do you like the i7 or proposed i5 route?

Thanks!

----------
LeeM said:
my 2.5 i5 with 10gb and an ssd runs ableton fine. if i had the money at the time of purchase though id have gone for the i7, purely becuase it would still do it better.
Click to expand...

Lee,

Does that mean you like my i7 route better than the proposed i5 route?

Just remember what my recording needs are.

I can keep spending more and more money, possibly go to a 15" Quad Core, but why?

I feel that is way overkill for what I want/need the MBP to do.
 
im forgetting how much apple care is worth, only costs me £40 so i hadnt considered that.
id prefer the i7 but for what it will cost to add an ssd and applecare, it seems financially preferable to stick to the i5. like i say, mine runs ableton so for logic i imagine the i5 will be fine, just bump up everything else

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also if youre adding an ssd, put your 500gb drive in an optibay. very easy to do and reverse if you ever have a warranty issue
 
LeeM said:
im forgetting how much apple care is worth, only costs me £40 so i hadnt considered that.
id prefer the i7 but for what it will cost to add an ssd and applecare, it seems financially preferable to stick to the i5. like i say, mine runs ableton so for logic i imagine the i5 will be fine, just bump up everything else

----------

also if youre adding an ssd, put your 500gb drive in an optibay. very easy to do and reverse if you ever have a warranty issue
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply Lee!

To clarify, the i7 in my two choices was never going to have a SSD put in it. If I put the SSD in it and purchased a two year Apple Care Warranty, I would then have $450.00 extra in the i7 (which I would never spend that much extra on it, btw).

Tell me more about the optibay, and if I go that route, will I miss not having the optical drive?

Also, what do you think about the Hybrid SSD's?

They seem to have a larger capacity and cost far less than a equal size SSD.
 
Last edited:
you can put the disk drive in a caddy so it looks like the one apple sells, or just a $2 cable to plug into the back of it. either way you have a disk drive but its external.
for me, ive used my disk drive twice in 6 months.id rather have that as an external drive than a 500gb external hdd which i use daily. i have the added bonus of being able to use the disk drive with my air as well though so i see no downsides.

----------

as far as the 8 or 16gb ram goes, i have 10 and its fine, but you can always increase that for not a lot of money so try 8, upgrade if you need to (just for logic i doubt you'll need to)
 
LeeM said:
you can put the disk drive in a caddy so it looks like the one apple sells, or just a $2 cable to plug into the back of it. either way you have a disk drive but its external.
for me, ive used my disk drive twice in 6 months.id rather have that as an external drive than a 500gb external hdd which i use daily. i have the added bonus of being able to use the disk drive with my air as well though so i see no downsides.

----------

as far as the 8 or 16gb ram goes, i have 10 and its fine, but you can always increase that for not a lot of money so try 8, upgrade if you need to (just for logic i doubt you'll need to)
Click to expand...

Lee,

When you told me about the optibay, my research found that you could take the Superdrive out of the MBP and replace it with the optibay and then put the 500GB Hard Drive in it.

That's why I asked if that is a good option, and if I'd miss the SuperDrive.
 
jerrydpi said:
Lee,

When you told me about the optibay, my research found that you could take the Superdrive out of the MBP and replace it with the optibay and then put the 500GB Hard Drive in it.

That's why I asked if that is a good option, and if I'd miss the SuperDrive.
Click to expand...

There are usb enclosures so you never really lose it, in fact you can usually buy the caddy and enclosure together for around $30. I recently picked up a used 13" i7 without a HDD for $790. My 1st mac !
 
jerrydpi said:
jafingi,

Let me give you a quick recap of how this all came about.

I have (2) 13" MacBook Pros:
1) i5/8GB/500GB/2 years Full Apple Care Warranty on it.
2) i7/16GB/750GB/only a few month left on the Apple Warranty/No Apple Care.

The way the numbers worked out is that by me spending $200.00 more, I could return the i5 to Best Buy, keep the i7 and buy a Two Year Full Apple Care Warranty.

At that point several people said to keep the i5 and use that $200.00 to put a SSD in it.

The one I seem to like is the Samsung MZ-7TD250BW 840, which is a 250GB SSD.

If I go that route, I'll have a i5/8GB/250GB SSD/(2) more years on a Full Apple Care Warranty.

If I go the i7 route, I'll have a faster processor, more RAM, a larger Hard Drive, but no warranty in a few month.

To throw a monkey wrench in this, while I'm replacing Hard Drives (if I go the i5 route), do you have any experience with a Hybrid SSD?

Regardless, do you like the i7 or proposed i5 route?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I'd definitely go for the i5 route and buy an SSD.

Wouldn't recommend the hybrids (like Seagate Maximus). The performance is nowhere near a real SSD.

Do you use the SuperDrive? If not, you could maybe replace that so you've got both the SSD and HDD.
 
jafingi said:
I'd definitely go for the i5 route and buy an SSD.

Wouldn't recommend the hybrids (like Seagate Maximus). The performance is nowhere near a real SSD.

Do you use the SuperDrive? If not, you could maybe replace that so you've got both the SSD and HDD.
Click to expand...

jafingi,

Hell, I haven't even decided which computer to keep yet (even though I'm leaning heavily towards the i5)!

So to answer your question, no, I haven't used the SuperDrive yet, but maybe you could tell me the pros of why I need to keep it, or why I don't.

From what I've been reading, I should use the SSD for routine everyday tasks such as opening applications and other common OS operations, and the 500GB Hard Drive for Audio.

Do you agree, and if so, if I'm not going to use the SSD for audio, will the 128GB SSD will be sufficient (unless you disagree with what I said above and you recommend that I record my audio (Logic/Addictive Drums/etc) to the larger 250GB SSD)?
 
jerrydpi said:
jafingi,

Hell, I haven't even decided which computer to keep yet (even though I'm leaning heavily towards the i5)!

So to answer your question, no, I haven't used the SuperDrive yet, but maybe you could tell me the pros of why I need to keep it, or why I don't.

From what I've been reading, I should use the SSD for routine everyday tasks such as opening applications and other common OS operations, and the 500GB Hard Drive for Audio.

Do you agree, and if so, if I'm not going to use the SSD for audio, will the 128GB SSD will be sufficient (unless you disagree with what I said above and you recommend that I record my audio (Logic/Addictive Drums/etc) to the larger 250GB SSD)?
Click to expand...

ive got a 128gb with traktor and ableton on there, then my audio files on the 500gb drive.works well for me
 
jerrydpi said:
Thanks for the reply Lee!

To clarify, the i7 in my two choices was never going to have a SSD put in it. If I put the SSD in it and purchased a two year Apple Care Warranty, I would then have $450.00 extra in the i7 (which I would never spend that much extra on it, btw).

Tell me more about the optibay, and if I go that route, will I miss not having the optical drive?

Also, what do you think about the Hybrid SSD's?

They seem to have a larger capacity and cost far less than a equal size SSD.
Click to expand...

Actually, I spoke with AppleCare earlier and it appears on new models, specifically 13" cMBP 2012 mid. They do not support hdd updates... It's stupid and feel free to investigate this further, I'd love to be proved wrong as I just bought this model myself.
 
RichGiles said:
Actually, I spoke with AppleCare earlier and it appears on new models, specifically 13" cMBP 2012 mid. They do not support hdd updates... It's stupid and feel free to investigate this further, I'd love to be proved wrong as I just bought this model myself.
Click to expand...

It is totally possible and relatively easy.

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Install...ibody+Mid+2012+Hard+Drive+Replacement/10761/1

If you need it to be serviced, just replace the new SSD with the old HDD.

For the 13" cMBP:

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Installing+MacBook+Pro+13-Inch+Unibody+Mid+2012+Hard+Drive/10378/1
 
I'm a bit worried about the swapping back and hoping they won't know, in the past i have had a jailbroken device and even though I restored it back to factory settings with original software, they still knew, how does anyone know it cannot be detected, that might sound noobie but I genuinely don't like to underestimate the smart stuff that goes into these machines these days and I don't want to get the sharp end of the stick with my warranty.
 
I used to record 8 tracks on my Core Duo 2.0ghz macbook, which is like 7 years old at this point into Logic 9. If you don't process the effects until after you've recorded, audio is not as system intensive as everyone thinks.

I wouldn't worry too much about cutting yourself off at the knees by not getting the fastest possible machine. I do a LOT of audio work with logic pro, and don't find it to be incredibly taxing. Granted, this all depends on the nature of your projects. You could have a three track project with effects loaded up on the channel strips that took more processing power than a 30 track project. It's all relative.
 
RichGiles said:
Actually, I spoke with AppleCare earlier and it appears on new models, specifically 13" cMBP 2012 mid. They do not support hdd updates... It's stupid and feel free to investigate this further, I'd love to be proved wrong as I just bought this model myself.
Click to expand...

Rich,

Just because they don't support it (like they don't support putting 16GB in a MBP), are you saying they don't give a Warranty on a MBP if it's been opened?

Best Buy's Geek Squad does memory upgrades (as well as changing Hard Drives), and they are a Authorized Apple Seller, and have never said/warned that the upgrades they perform void the Apple Warranty
 
No Jerry, authorised repairers still can perform this and is covered by warranty but individuals wishing to do it buy themeselves to save a few bucks are not covered, they did say that taking it to the apple store or authorised repairers is different.

----------

Also apple have no issues with users installing RAM, unless it damages the machine as a result of bad RAM or user error. I guess this also means if it fails further down the road that they won't help then otherwise.

Hdd needs to be changed with authorised repairer or apple to be covered apparently. Silly and Ridiculous in my opinion, their official line has something to do with not being able to verify 3rd party parts are safe for use...
 
jerrydpi said:
jafingi,

Hell, I haven't even decided which computer to keep yet (even though I'm leaning heavily towards the i5)!

So to answer your question, no, I haven't used the SuperDrive yet, but maybe you could tell me the pros of why I need to keep it, or why I don't.

From what I've been reading, I should use the SSD for routine everyday tasks such as opening applications and other common OS operations, and the 500GB Hard Drive for Audio.

Do you agree, and if so, if I'm not going to use the SSD for audio, will the 128GB SSD will be sufficient (unless you disagree with what I said above and you recommend that I record my audio (Logic/Addictive Drums/etc) to the larger 250GB SSD)?
Click to expand...

If you need to burn CD/DVD's or read something from a disc, you'll miss it. I have personally never used it. IF you remove the drive, you can find a cheap USB enclosure to put the drive in.

You're completely right. Use the SSD for OSX, applications etc. then the HDD for the audio tracks and so on.
 
I was under the impression that Apple says the MBPs max out at 8GB. I know people put 16GB into their MBPs. but Apple does not officially support it.
 
stchman said:
I was under the impression that Apple says the MBPs max out at 8GB. I know people put 16GB into their MBPs. but Apple does not officially support it.
Click to expand...

My 13" i7 MBP officially supports 16GB and it recognizes and uses it as well:)
 
Not to throw a wrench in here, but I'd suggest getting the cheapest option with Apple Care, then saving your money for a really good interface and mics. A good interface/preamp paired with a couple of good mics will have a lot more impact on your recordings and experiences then your ram, CPU, and hard drive specs. I'm running Logic Pro 9 on my 2007 Mac mini with 2gb ram. It definitely has some limits, but nothing I can't get around by simply freezing tracks. Getting a decent monitor to go along with the machine for dual monitor setup will also have a huge impact on your user experience (I'd hate to see the arrange window with either the hyper editor or mixer on just the 13" screen for too long).
 
Guys,

LAST question!!

I've decided that either computer I have will be adequate for my needs.

Now the business side of me is kicking in!

I have now purchased both computers and am going to sell one of them.

My question is, which one can I sell for the most money:
1) The i5 with 8GB/500GB/eleven months remaining on the one year Apple Warranty and two years after that with Apple Care.
2) The i7 with 16GB/750GB/three months left on the one year Apple Warranty, no Apple Care.

Thanks!
 
jerrydpi said:
Guys,

LAST question!!

I've decided that either computer I have will be adequate for my needs.

Now the business side of me is kicking in!

I have now purchased both computers and am going to sell one of them.

My question is, which one can I sell for the most money:
1) The i5 with 8GB/500GB/eleven months remaining on the one year Apple Warranty and two years after that with Apple Care.
2) The i7 with 16GB/750GB/three months left on the one year Apple Warranty, no Apple Care.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

i5 retail is around 1500 USD (1200 + 60 for 8 GB RAM + 250 for AppleCare)
i7 retail would be around: 1500 USD + about 60 more (for 8 more GB RAM). That would mean the i7 would theoretically do a little bit better in resale, but for some, AppleCare is a must and they want any used computer to come with AppleCare so they do not have to pay for it themselves. Also, the 16 GB feature is a spec the vast majority of buyers do not need and don't want to pay extra for.
 
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