Music production: MBA vs cMBP vs rMBP?

[joelba]

Hi there, i've been a silent user for a long time, reading and learning without much to say... this time i need some advice.

My brother is into music production and wants a mac, i own a late mbp 2011 13'' (base model) and for djing (traktor, ableton) its more than ok. Instead he wants to record some instruments (already has a motu microbook), load some Vsts and work from there. For the pass year he's been using a 2 year old lenovo laptop: i5, 4gb ram, 500gb HD. Not needing more than that.

Also, he likes to plugin an external display and a led tv, so i dont know how this can affect the performance of the machine.


Models:

MBA 13'' i7 Dual Core 1.7ghz 4MB shared L3 cache 128gb pcie 8gb ram Intel HD Graphics 5000 // $1249

cMBP 13'' i7 Dual Core 2.9ghz 4MB shared L3 cache 500hdd 8gb ram Intel HD Graphics 4000 // $1349

rMBP 13'' i5 Dual Core 2.6ghz 3MB shared L3 cache 128gb pcie 8gb ram Iris Graphics // $1299


Weight is not a problem and retina display is not necessary. For storage he can later add and external hdd i think. Considering similar prices, which option is more future wise for him? 8gb of ram is ok?

Sorry if my english is not the best.

Thnx.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

rMBP best bang for the money

I would reccomend the rMBP, if you have refurbished apple products available to you you can get the late 2013 2.4/8gb/256gb for less and it will be just as good the only difference is the the CPU and the small bump will not notice in use.

The MBA is nearly as good apart from the screen and a little less connectivity if you are looking to use external screens and peripherals the better port choice on the rMBP is important.

The cMBP is getting long in the tooth tech wise is heavier and thicker and unless you need an optical drive just not worth the money, to be honest you'll want an ssd in it before long so bank on adding another $100-200 dollars for that.

8gb is fine for your stated use I would think head over to macnook pro thread for a detailed breakdown of what RAM you need. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1756865/

 

[keysofanxiety]

Definitely rMBP out of those three choices. Most bang-for-your-buck.

 

[joelba]

Never cross my mind to look at the refurb store, nice.