Need help with buying new macbook pro

[Garyjones42]

Hey! Looking to buy the new quad core 13 inch mbp. I have a few questions though. I was debating on just getting the standard $1699 version , i5 quad core proccesor, 8gb ram, 256 ssd. Ssd isnt a huge concern as i will be converting my old ssd to an external. The questions lie between if i should upgrade anything on the base model. So i do music production with ableton live, but mainly on an imac. The laptop wont see to much use of production, except for when i travel and such. So just speaking in terms of the computers longevity, should i upgrade the proccesor or ram? Also another question that is probably incredibly dumb to you tech wizards, my old 2010 macbook pro had the quad core i7. If i get the new quad core i5, is it technically better than the 2010 i7 just because of age? Because i deffinitly dont want to down grade from my current macbook. I also have 16gb in my old mac bok pro. Thing is its not going to be getting used heavily, so i dont want to waste money on it if i dont need it. I do have enough for one upgrade though, so im trying to decide if maybe the base specs are good enough, maybe i will just get the 500gb sd unstead of the 256. Someone help me end my misery of this decision!

 

[Glmnet1]

Which iMac do you have?

The 2018 i5 is going to be a lot faster than the 2010 i7, no doubt about it! And I don't think it's a quad core, all 2010 MBP were dual core. Based on benchmarks it will be approximately twice as fast on single core and 4 times as fast on multi core.

Since you won't be using it that much I'd say get the base model and see if it works well for your needs. If you need more SSD or RAM return it and buy another one. If you planned to make it your main machine then I'd say get both upgrades right away since you seem to keep your devices for a long time and it will probably help for its longevity.

 

[Garyjones42]

Oh sorry! I just checked so its an eary 2011 and it says 2ghz intel core i7. My imac is the 2010 i5, but i maxed out 3rd party ram and an ssd drive so its still kickin! I actually plan on upgrading the imac once they release the 2018 ones, which is why im trying to stick around base model for my laptop. The laptop is gonna get used all the time but for silly stuff like safari and youtube, microsoft word. But i deffinitly want it to be able to run my music programs when needed like when i travel. That being said i do have left over money to buy one extra upgrade, so maybe il just double the ssd drive if you dont think i need the ram or proccesor boost.

 

[Glmnet1]

Oh sorry! I just checked so its an eary 2011 and it says 2ghz intel core i7. My imac is the 2010 i5, but i maxed out 3rd party ram and an ssd drive so its still kickin! I actually plan on upgrading the imac once they release the 2018 ones, which is why im trying to stick around base model for my laptop. The laptop is gonna get used all the time but for silly stuff like safari and youtube, microsoft word. But i deffinitly want it to be able to run my music programs when needed like when i travel. That being said i do have left over money to buy one extra upgrade, so maybe il just double the ssd drive if you dont think i need the ram or proccesor boost.

If you plan to upgrade the iMac too and use it as your main machine then you really won't need much performance in the laptop. I think you should consider waiting for a rumoured cheaper MacBook/MBA replacement. It will most likely come at the same time as the 2018 iMac. That would probably bring down to cost and have everything you need for a secondary computer.

Else you can consider making the 13" your main machine by buying a good external monitor and peripherals.

 

[d0nK]

I use my mbp for music production and the 256GB hard drive would have me loading and offloading audio files constantly. Major pita.
I'm not a fan of carting around and using external hard drives all the time.
The fact that Apple still use the tiny 256GB hard drive for the mbp blows my mind. It should have been phased-out years ago already.
SSD speed means nothing to me. I want a bigger SSD as standard, not a faster one!

 

[Garyjones42]

True about the ssd and yea i thought about the new cheaper mac books rumored to come out. I deffinitley want the quad core mac book pro just for when i do need to make music on it, although not all that much, i will deffinitley be using it for music production. So i guess its the base model plus the bigger ssd!