Would this Mac do?

Peter's icon

Hi everyone!

I'm planning to buy myself a Macbook Pro but wondering witch one will do. I'm a beginner to Max and have no idea what the program needs in a computer...so please help.
Will the 15" - 2.4GHz be enough, or will the 2.53GHz or higher be worthe the extra money?? Which ones are you using?

Thanks!

Tim Lloyd's icon

I've got a MBP 2.5GHz (from 'bout 2 years ago) and I don't have issues with it being fast enough. I wouldn't imagine that a 0.13GHz difference in processor speed would be very noticeable. And as I remember, Apple charge an arm and a leg for that little bit extra.........is it worth it? You might get better performance:cost if you went with the 2.4, and then did an immediate RAM upgrade from www.crucial.com. Their RAM is cheaper than Apple will charge, and as I understand it, just as good.

Some things to think about maybe....somebody else may hold an opposite opinion that's just as valid.

cudnylon's icon

These new hardware updates have me salivating compared to my currently dying 2.16Ghz 2GB RAM Macbook.

Trying to decide if I should go for 2.66GHz with a 500GB HD or 2.53GHz and upgrade to the 128GB solid state. Would a solid state drive work better with sfrecord~?

vichug's icon

all i know is that with my old 10.4 osx macbook not pro i have rapidly problems with not-so-complicated patches. The basic idea is that you can easily overburden your computer with Max, it all depends on what you do with it, but personnally i happened to have problems faster than i thought...

Szrp's icon

I can't really say whether it will be worth the money. I'm using a MBP 2.66GHz, 4GB RAM now and it -is- significantly faster than my 2.16GHz, 2GB RAM Macbook - but I can't say what steps in processor speed are exactly how relevant, and to which degree the greater RAM and other factors played into that. And it's true of course that Apple really charges a lot for those few additional GHz percentages...

Solid state sounds great of course, but in the end I just didn't like the fact that I would get so few GB of space for paying much more money. And what I do on the computer rarely relies much on HD speed anyways - I've never had problems with sfplay~/-record~. It may be different for people who use those extensively.

Peter's icon

Thanks you all!! It's strange that there's not much to find about this subject, but you've been very helpfull. I'm totally looking into the immediate RAM upgrade, it looks worth checking it out.

Thanks again...
Peter