Need help with which mac to buy

[jaysz]

Ok so I am a music major and would like to run Pro Tools on a mac system as most if not all of the teachers at school prefer it on that system and seem to think it does better overall on the mac.

I have been a pc guy all of my life, build my own stuff and can always do better on my own than buying a dell or whatever, so now I am being exposed to an 8gb memory upgrade costing $180, I mean apple's products aren't cheap do they really have to gouge their loyal fan base to shake a few more coins in to the coffers, on that point alone I would like to pass on macs but I need to buy one.


So I am going to be doing multiple tracks, yada yada, writing, browsing, using finale, sibelius, etc, etc, so I need a computer that will be able to handle this type of stuff without any problem. Come down to really 3 choices,

i7 mac mini $779 student pricing
will of course upgrade myself
have an asus artist series 24" monitor
13" cmbp $999
same deal
13" rmbp 16gb 128gb $1479

Now I am not thrilled with the financial prospects of any of these, because I feel I could build a better machine for the money of course in a desktop configuration, however it is what it is, c'est la vie.


So what do you recommend, currently I am leaning towards the 13"cmbp which I will outfit with 16gb memory and a 256gb ssd within hours of purchase, but I could do the same with the mac mini. I would really like to buy the retina for the iris pro, but $479 is a lot imho. Thanks in advance for any and all help, have a great weekend.

 

[Nabans]

build a hackintosh

Ok so I am a music major and would like to run Pro Tools on a mac system as most if not all of the teachers at school prefer it on that system and seem to think it does better overall on the mac.

I have been a pc guy all of my life, build my own stuff and can always do better on my own than buying a dell or whatever, so now I am being exposed to an 8gb memory upgrade costing $180, I mean apple's products aren't cheap do they really have to gouge their loyal fan base to shake a few more coins in to the coffers, on that point alone I would like to pass on macs but I need to buy one.


So I am going to be doing multiple tracks, yada yada, writing, browsing, using finale, sibelius, etc, etc, so I need a computer that will be able to handle this type of stuff without any problem. Come down to really 3 choices,

i7 mac mini $779 student pricing
will of course upgrade myself
have an asus artist series 24" monitor
13" cmbp $999
same deal
13" rmbp 16gb 128gb $1479

Now I am not thrilled with the financial prospects of any of these, because I feel I could build a better machine for the money of course in a desktop configuration, however it is what it is, c'est la vie.


So what do you recommend, currently I am leaning towards the 13"cmbp which I will outfit with 16gb memory and a 256gb ssd within hours of purchase, but I could do the same with the mac mini. I would really like to buy the retina for the iris pro, but $479 is a lot imho. Thanks in advance for any and all help, have a great weekend.

If portability isn't an issue for you, go ahead and build a Hackistosh with your desirable specs and install the OS X on it. If you don't have access to on an apple computer (from which you could get it for free), you can purchase it from Apple for about $20 bucks.

 

[squeeks]

The problem with hackintosh, is there are always bugs you have to sort out to get the OS running 100%

I can't seem to get final cut to run stable on mine. Even though I have all if the recommended hardware.

 

[BigRed1]

I'm currently considering the same thing - but I'm between the cmbp and the low-end mini. I'll have to buy a new monitor (my old adc display won't work with the mini).

I'm leaning toward the cmbp for portability, but also ease if replacing the ram and hard drive. I've had too many hard drives fail on me and this machine will have to last me many, many years. I'll be running logic with a minimal number of vi's and plugins.

 

[GSPice]

I am not thrilled with the financial prospects of any of these, because I feel I could build a better machine for the money of course in a desktop configuration

As a windows DIY guy, former starving student, and a bit of a musician/video guy myself, I can respectfully say that it'd be great to get over this feeling. Been there. The hackintosh/jailbreak community has its rewards, but seeing as time is money, if you're gonna rely on a hackintosh for your critical work w/ pro tools et al., kiss the money savings goodbye when you're dealing with unsupported bugs and quirks.

I would recommend a macbook (I'd say retina, but you might prefer the upgradablity of classic) for portability alone.

Look at the number of music professionals using PCs, Macs, or Hacks. I'd be willing to join only 2 of those communities. Choose wisely.