Macbook pro for audio production, some advice needed

[shivshiv]

Hi guys,

I'm torn between two options for purchasing a macbook pro. I can buy the non retina 13" and upgrade it to 16 gigs of ram and a 250gb ssd for a total of 1350 euros or I can buy the new retina 13" with 8 gigs and 250gb ssd for 1437 euros.
I don't really care for the 4gb ram edition, because I feel like it will be outdated really soon.

The things this needs to do is run programs like maschine, ableton and traktor (sometimes all together) and offcourse some vst's. if it could play world of warcraft, that would be a plus but that's not really needed nor do I think it's a problem for either machine.

I'm not into photography or anything graphic, so I don't know if i need or would want the retina model, plus coming from a pc background and not being able to upgrade my machine when it gets a little older also puts me off. on the other hand, 1100 euros is a lot of cash to put down for a two year old laptop at the end of his life cycle.

I've been doubting myself about this for weeks wich has led to not buying a macbook, so any advice is much welcome.

 

[skyhawkmatthew]

The non-retina 13" is restricted to 1280x800 which is not that much real estate. Especially if you have a lot of tracks running, I think you might find the ability to scale the retina display to higher effective resolutions quite handy –*I normally run mine at 1440x900 equivalent.

 

[shivshiv]

The non-retina 13" is restricted to 1280x800 which is not that much real estate. Especially if you have a lot of tracks running, I think you might find the ability to scale the retina display to higher effective resolutions quite handy –*I normally run mine at 1440x900 equivalent.

yes understandable, although at home I use a second screen with 1080p at my desk for production, and am allready playing out with traktor on a 1300x700 res pc laptop without too much worries. maybe should have added that.

 

[darko2301]

i'd say go with the retina model..

the screen is way better and it will be a bigger pleasure to work on it.
8gb ram should be more than enough to drive evertything you need, 16gb might be a bit overkill.

for that insignificant price difference I'd definitely choose the new model.

 

[Crugga]

I would go with the retina 8gb. From personal experience I max the cpu before the ram and the ssd in the retina is faster than the off the shelf ssd.
Is there no way you could push for the base model 15"?, even if it means saving a bit or going for a refurb etc. That extra cpu power would make a larger difference than the ram imo.
Definately run Logic over any third party app, I went from Cubase to Logic and the difference in performance was massive.


https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1661646/