Time for an upgrade?

[TMothy]

Here's what I've got:

Mid 2010 17" MBP
Processor: 2.66 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory: 8 GB 1067 MHz DDR3 (Upgraded from 4GB's right after I bought it)
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M 512 MB
Storage: 500GB HDD 7200RPM


I'm a freelance filmmaker and editor and I'm slowly transitioning over from FCP7 to X and after using X on several projects, I'm actually starting to like it. The only thing is that it runs so rough at times it makes me want to send my 7 iron through it.

By rough I mean literally ever 5 seconds I've getting the spinning wheel of death and it'll stop responding even when I'm doing the simplest of tasks. If I just let it sit for a few minutes it'll usually come back, or it'll just crash. When I try to skim through footage, it'll start out realtime, but soon the frame rate beings to drop to the point where I have to stop and let it sit for a second, then try and skim again. I never had these issues with FCP7 nor did I experience anything like this when trying out my friends newish MBP, which leads me to believe that X doesn't like older MBPs.

I was using a Sonnet Tempo Express34 to eSata card but after I upgraded to Mavericks, it no longer supports the card so I had to resort to daisy-chaining my main array and my backup array via Firewire 800 which I'm sure isn't helping the situation either. I really need USB 3.0 and/orThunderBolt.

I've been contemplating throwing an SSD in there to give it a little jump start but I feel like it would be better for me just to put that money towards a new MBP.

I mean 4 years is pretty good for a laptop isn't it?

I would just get a Mac Pro and be done with it but I do a fair bit of traveling and I hope I'll be doing even more so portability is key.

So here's what I was looking at getting:
15" MacBook Pro w/ Retina
2.6GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.8GHz
16GB 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
512GB PCIe-based Flash Storage
NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M w/ 2GB GDDR5

Obviously its not a good time to buy one right now, so I'll definitely be waiting for the update later this year.
Hopefully the update is significant because I just can't wait for the next big update, I needed a new mac yesterday.

 

[Marty62]

Tim, sounds to me that you need the update now, so go for it.

The best computer is always the one you need NOW

No one is sure when / what will come and I doubt it will be anywhere near as
significant as the change from a 2010 model to the one you have posted.

That's my 2 c's .... up to you but I couldn't work like that and have to wait
for "the beach ball of doom" to go away the whole time !!

Marty.

 

[brdeveloper]

Here's what I've got:

Mid 2010 17" MBP
Processor: 2.66 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory: 8 GB 1067 MHz DDR3 (Upgraded from 4GB's right after I bought it)
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M 512 MB
Storage: 500GB HDD 7200RPM


I'm a freelance filmmaker and editor and I'm slowly transitioning over from FCP7 to X and after using X on several projects, I'm actually starting to like it. The only thing is that it runs so rough at times it makes me want to send my 7 iron through it.

By rough I mean literally ever 5 seconds I've getting the spinning wheel of death and it'll stop responding even when I'm doing the simplest of tasks. If I just let it sit for a few minutes it'll usually come back, or it'll just crash. When I try to skim through footage, it'll start out realtime, but soon the frame rate beings to drop to the point where I have to stop and let it sit for a second, then try and skim again. I never had these issues with FCP7 nor did I experience anything like this when trying out my friends newish MBP, which leads me to believe that X doesn't like older MBPs.

I was using a Sonnet Tempo Express34 to eSata card but after I upgraded to Mavericks, it no longer supports the card so I had to resort to daisy-chaining my main array and my backup array via Firewire 800 which I'm sure isn't helping the situation either. I really need USB 3.0 and/orThunderBolt.

I've been contemplating throwing an SSD in there to give it a little jump start but I feel like it would be better for me just to put that money towards a new MBP.

I mean 4 years is pretty good for a laptop isn't it?

I would just get a Mac Pro and be done with it but I do a fair bit of traveling and I hope I'll be doing even more so portability is key.

So here's what I was looking at getting:
15" MacBook Pro w/ Retina
2.6GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.8GHz
16GB 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
512GB PCIe-based Flash Storage
NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M w/ 2GB GDDR5

Obviously its not a good time to buy one right now, so I'll definitely be waiting for the update later this year.
Hopefully the update is significant because I just can't wait for the next big update, I needed a new mac yesterday.

I presume your work deals with a lot of I/O, so a SSD is mandatory. Also, why did you upgrade to Mavericks? Bad decision if your system worked well with Snow Leopard/Lion/M.Lion. I made the same mistake when I upgraded my white Macbook to Mavericks and I lost CUDA support for my 9400m video card.

A brand new Macbook will bring new problems to you, like having to buy new enclosures (move from Firewire to USB3 or Thunderbolt). You'll probably need a Thunderbolt dock since rMBPs have only 2 USB and 2 Thunderbolt ports. Well, of course a new Macbook will bring other advantages, like faster I/O and processing power, but do you really need this or do you just need a faster storage (most SSDs will multiply your I/O speed by 5 or even more)?

 

[TMothy]

why did you upgrade to Mavericks?

Haha I ask myself that every day. I waited a little bit before I did, I wanted to make sure all the programs I use were supported which they were, but stupid me, I didn't check think to see if the E/34 card would be supported too. Although after talking to Sonnet about it, they didn't see the issue coming either. After about a week of diagnosing the issue they came to the conclusion that my specific model has an issue with the built-in Apple PCI drivers continuing to operate the E/34 slot in Mavericks. And only apple could fix it with a patch. Well who knows how long (if ever) it would take to fix that specific issue.