Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

blazerunnerstl

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 1, 2011
5
0
Current setup:
-2.66ghz intel core i5 quad core imac
-16 gigs ram
-3 fw800 drives daisy chained (one used for sample libraries, one for work backups, one for personal backups)
-1 usb audio interface
-1 usb dongle for activating products
-1 external display via mini dvi
-1 usb keyboard controller (piano keyboard)

Is it possible to get one of the new non-retina macbook pros, max it out to 16gigs ram, connect up a thunderbolt drive, and also use an external display with the macbook pro and achieve reliable results?

I want to be able to work on the road, but the new MBPs are actually faster than my current imac so I would probably use it as my main computer until the new Mac Pros come out. My current imac is having major cpu problems since it is too slow for what I need and is also crashing because the sample library drive definitely needs to be connected via a faster way. Also, I will be upgrading to a FW800 audio interface soon so I will need my FW800 port to be empty, which will mean that I won't be able to use my imac at all anymore since it doesn't have enough fw800 ports.
 
Well you should be able to.
But the problem is that with the MacBook pro without Retina, you get only one thunderbolt port. I'm not sure if mini display port works on daisy chain environment, cuz I haven't personally tried it yet, but theoretically it should work. With a thunderbolt display at least.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.