Sold a Mac Pro for a Macbook Pro?

[Yurtal]

I have owned an early 08 2.8Ghz 8-Core Mac Pro for nearly 2 years now. I have upgraded it with a 3rd HDD and 8 gigs of ram and everything has been smooth as silk. I use it primarily for audio production. Pro Tools tracking and mixing often using lots of plug-ins.

The only real concern I have had with this machine is that it's not portable. I know that it is an absolute powerhouse desktop but I have at times really been put out by not being able to transport my sessions to another location for work.

My question is if anyone has replaced a desktop machine similar to mine with a top-of-the-line Macbook Pro? Would I get the same performance experience I had been getting with the desktop? I often think that I'm only using a small fraction of the Mac Pro's power when working with audio.

Anyway I'd love to hear some thoughts of current laptop users or desktop users. Cheers.

P.S I have posted this both in the Mac Pro section and the Macbook Pro section.

 

[airplaneman]

I have owned an early 08 2.8Ghz 8-Core Mac Pro for nearly 2 years now. I have upgraded it with a 3rd HDD and 8 gigs of ram and everything has been smooth as silk. I use it primarily for audio production. Pro Tools tracking and mixing often using lots of plug-ins.

The only real concern I have had with this machine is that it's not portable. I know that it is an absolute powerhouse desktop but I have at times really been put out by not being able to transport my sessions to another location for work.

My question is if anyone has replaced a desktop machine similar to mine with a top-of-the-line Macbook Pro? Would I get the same performance experience I had been getting with the desktop? I often think that I'm only using a small fraction of the Mac Pro's power when working with audio.

Anyway I'd love to hear some thoughts of current laptop users or desktop users. Cheers.

P.S I have posted this both in the Mac Pro section and the Macbook Pro section.

CONS:

*Speed: It might be just a tad slower than your Mac Pro.
*HD Capacity:I think, since you seem like a power user, you might be a bit limited by HD capacity (right now 1 TB tops).
*Screen Size: You will most likely be downgrading screen size.
*Heat: It can get pretty hot! Mine's gone past 80 degrees Celcius before with the fans at a mere 5000 rpm. Fan control will take care of that, though.

PROS:
*Quality:I can't compare my MBP (the baseline 15") to any desktop I've ever used (I upgraded from a 1.86 GHz Sempron HP *yuck*). It's great, and the higher end models will definitely be faster, more than enough for all of your intense tasks. The battery life is to die for and it's very portable and surprisingly light. Just be careful, it's a little slippery! The trackpad's awesome. Enough said- I could ramble on ALL DAY!

Well, whatever you do, I hope this will help you at least a little bit.

Airplaneman

 

[applebook]

A higher-end MBP would likely suit your needs. However, no laptop is anywhere near the speed of your MP. The differences will be staggering for intensive apps (and games).

 

[GoCubsGo]

I really couldn't agree with everything said by what airplaneman says.
Screen size, you dock at home on a larger screen. Speed compared to a oct-xeon MP? Yeah, I'm not buying that the current lineup will produce the same results BUT I believe the MBP lineup when you get to the faster models will handle CPU intensive apps.


If portability if what you need along side of power the 15" MBP is a nice desktop replacement. I used a PB 1.67ghz with heavy use of photoshop mostly for years and it was perfect. At home I was hooked up to a 20" then later a 30" external.

I believe many have done what you're thinking of doing and many have been quite pleased.

 

[airplaneman]

I really couldn't agree with everything said by what airplaneman says.
Screen size, you dock at home on a larger screen. Speed compared to a oct-xeon MP? Yeah, I'm not buying that the current lineup will produce the same results BUT I believe the MBP lineup when you get to the faster models will handle CPU intensive apps.


If portability if what you need along side of power the 15" MBP is a nice desktop replacement. I used a PB 1.67ghz with heavy use of photoshop mostly for years and it was perfect. At home I was hooked up to a 20" then later a 30" external.

I believe many have done what you're thinking of doing and many have been quite pleased.

I see. Yes, he can hook up to an external... and yes, the MBP will definitely be slower.

 

[Scottsdale]

I think for what you're coming from, you should definitely buy the best MacBook Pro... meaning with 8 GB RAM, 3.06 GHz CPU, and SSD. That would definitely be very worthy of what you're using it for, AND it wouldn't be that much slower for most of your work. Any application that doesn't take advantage of multi-cores, will run nearly at the same speed, and the SSD will be an improvement on all the non-CPU intensive tasks.

And if it were me, I would buy the 17" anti-glare. But maybe a 15" would be fine if you would keep the ACD from the Mac Pro to attach your MBP while at the desk.

That's my two cents... Good Luck.

 

[Sdancott]

I was in the exact position as you 3 weeks ago.

I had '08 2.8Ghz MacPro.

I sold it to get a 17" MacBook Pro (Check my sig)

I just wanted to reiterate what everyone else has said in here - there is a definite performance drop in some apps - but in 90% of tasks, there's no difference whatsoever.

The MacBook Pro is beautiful, I love it - I don't regret the switch at all.

I was ruled by necessity; I needed a portable for my post grad studies in September.

I've never owned an Apple laptop before, but boy - They don’t disappoint!

 

[drummerlondonw3]

Well I think that there is 2 parts to this. The first is that the current line-up of Apple laptops are the best ever, for reasons I don't have to go into here So you would be making the switch when the line has matured pretty well and secondly, the performance of the top models is now very impressive. coupled with 8gb ram and maybe an SSD if you're used to a 10k raptor or something will be great. The versatility *should* outweigh the performance hit, which there will be one. But importantly that hit has never been smaller

Personally, I love the versatility a laptop brings and couldn't go back to just a desktop (although one in conjunction with a lappy would be fine) I'm going to start my post-grad in Sept in Town Planning (think architecture type programs) and I will be going 17 MBP, anti-glare, 1TB WD Scorpio Blue internal and 4gb ram. It'll be smoking!

 

[erickufrin]

I sold my Mac Pro (2x2.8 Quad Core, 10g Ram, 1.5T) in mid july.

I replaced it with a Macbook Pro 13inch 2.53ghz, 4g Ram, 250g drive. (stock higher model in 13inch)

I love it! I needed/wanted to be portable, and now I am!


I was able to sell my Mac Pro for $2600 on eBay.

The MBP cost about $1600 with apple care, and Education discount (my wife works for the Medical College). And I got a free iPod touch. (which I also sold on ebay)


If portability is a concern, then get the 13inch.

Wait a couple of months, then swap out the memory for 8gig total, and a SSD drive - once the prices come down on these items. That will BOOST your performance considerably.


I have mine hooked up to a 23inch Samsung DVI, and full size mac keyboard and wireless mouse.

As far as functionality, I have lost NOTHING.

Speed is only fractionally slower. I guess if you were doing video rendering, you would see a more significant reduction in performance.

I am only doing music recording & production and basic stuff (web, IM, streaming, etc).