I'm looking into getting a MacBook Pro Retina to run ableton and a couple of midi fighters. I like the 13inch size but all the non upgradable parts(ram included) leave me wondering what I should buy? This will be an audio only computer so gaming beyond some simple indie titles is not a concern. I'm thinking the $1500 model with the ram upgraded to 16GB(it's soldered in) and upgrading the Processor to the I7 would future proof me enough but what are your opinions?
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Dallas, Texas
Get the max amount of memory you can. ram and hard drive. The solid state memory is NOT upgradable. save the hassle and get the memory
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D D D Detroit, not the burbs
if you are in school use the student discount. It doesn't seem like much at first but if you look at before and after with the upgrades its huge.
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Taichung, Taiwan
I have a late 2011 15" MBP that I added a 240GB SSD + 720GBHDD (2nd Drive) and 16GB of RAM and it works beautifully. I purchased it right before the retinas came out and wanted it specifically so that I could upgrade it myself.
It's been a beast since I purchased it and use it mostly for video editing. It runs on an i7 processor (4+4 cores).
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Michigan
DJCactus wrote:
if you are in school use the student discount. It doesn't seem like much at first but if you look at before and after with the upgrades its huge.
And keep your receipts. There are "education" taxes that you may file come tax season.
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DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT GET THE 13" MODEL GO FOR 15" OR BIGGER
It doesn't have a dedicated audio-in jack, the newest 13" ones. 15" and up should be fine and have it.
Source: found this out the day before a friend's recital when he wanted to use his 13" Macbook Pro to process incoming bassoon audio for his electric bassoon piece. Since it had no audio in jack, we had to haul an iMac down two flights of stairs and use it instead. (Had to use Apple products due to the project relying on Logic and Guitar Rig being the tools of choice).
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Riverside, CA
sxe_weekend wrote:
what are your opinions?
Don't buy Apple products.
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Maine
The Silph Scope wrote:
sxe_weekend wrote:what are your opinions?
Don't buy Apple products.
what he said
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Finland
Im rocking 2009 White Macbook as my Ableton Live 8 machine, works well for me.
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Maine
im rockin a 10 year old laptop with windows vista and a dual boot of ubuntu.. works amazing for my tracker needs
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Litebritedeath Land
It's easy to say "don't buy apple products". If you don't like apple offer a windows laptop you think would work well. I think the apple vs windows vs android fan battles are silly. I love explaining how android tablets have about 4 audio apps to people looking into buying tablets. Each brand has positives and negatives in my opinion.
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seattle
buy it directly from apple's website, but leave it in the shopping cart for a week, you'll get a 10-15% discount
supposedly
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Maine
i just know ive had massive compatability issues with mac...
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I have a love hate with the new lineup. Hate that I can't replace the parts love the hardware. The 15inch retina MacBooks are a wonderful piece of hardware. oddly enough I really am most impressed with the 13inch MacBook Air. Can get an i7 in them and they are stupid fast (pcie flash etc).
I ended up going imac due to graphics power, but it was between that and the retina 15"
As far as a windows based recommendation, acer makes some pretty solid 13-15" laptops at a very good price. fanboys will hate but they seem to be very good to me
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Finland
Whatever people say, but Macbooks have really good value for laptops, every other brand has really fallen apart in 2 years or so.
edit: didnt mean to sound like a dick. Just meant that Ive been using Ableton Live since 2007 or so and even with this very outdated machine + audio interface I can do fairly good job (not tons of effects per track but still plenty). Also OSX Live seems to be more stable at least for me.
Last edited by DKSTR (Nov 22, 2013 6:47 am)
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Dallas, Texas
seatrash wrote:
buy it directly from apple's website, but leave it in the shopping cart for a week, you'll get a 10-15% discount
supposedly
That isn't true. It's been thoroughly debunked.
The Silph Scope wrote:
Don't buy Apple products.
Anyway, I also think the 'don't buy apple' crowd are funny and silly. My best three arguments are these:
Apple is a hardware company, and microsoft is only software. Apple integrates their software with their hardware in a beautiful way. Elegant and functional. You will not find this with other computers.
The resell value is incredible. There is a huge market for old and used macs. Buyers know exactly what they are getting when they buy a mac. So they're willing to pay near the original price for it. No one want's to take it on good faith that the computer you might have paid 1500+ dollars building is well put together, the parts are all compatible/compliant with each other, and that is runs as smoothly as the specs lead you to believe. because of this resell value you an upgrade to the newest and greatest mac as soon as it comes out by selling your old one and only paying a few hundred (if even that!) dollars out of pocket. I know more then three people that do this on the regular.
They are intel based now so theres no more 'I want to play games' or 'I want my windows applications' excuse. You like windows? THEN RUN WINDOWS ON IT. If you buy a dell or HP or something else good luck trying to get OSX running as smooth as a mac can run windows. Also running windows apps under wine is as easy as takin a shit 
Last edited by TylerBarnes (Nov 22, 2013 11:15 am)