Advice on new Mac setup

[ze kink]

Sup guise,

And inb4 PC debate,

I've been using an early 2011 15" Macbook Pro as my rig quite happily for a while. Now the hard drive on it is failing, and I'm rethinking my setup a little bit. Could use some ideas and help on deciding, so I don't blow my money like a stupid person. Also inb4 don't buy Apple then.

The thing with the failing HDD has made me realize that it'd be a lot wiser to have two computers, so I don't completely depend on a single piece. I'm also stuck on Lion right now because PT9 isn't supported on Mountain Lion, whereas Logic Pro X isn't supported on Lion, but Logic Pro 9 gets the slow GUI bug on Lion... So it's kind of a headache now with updates and stuff, to be honest. That, and I recently started studying ICT stuff - which also makes me eligible for student discounts, obviously - so I need to be able to throw a bunch of crap on one computer and dual boot Linux and stuff. Currently I'm fine with using a piece of crap PC laptop for that.

And I'm capping the CPU on my MBP while mixing, so more processing power wouldn't certainly hurt. Thing is, pretty much everything I do is mobile, so I'm gonna need a laptop. I also like to haul a laptop around pretty much all the time for songwriting, taking notes at school and so on. That, and I also use the laptop as my live guitar rig - I just bring a guitar, Duet 2 and my laptop running Ableton Live and Amplitube. So in a way, the "main" laptop doesn't have to be that powerful. The "work" computer could be a desktop, or a laptop just as well. Mostly for just mixing and other work stuff, so I'd keep it as decluttered as possible. The only games I play are indie stuff like Cave Story, so I'm pretty sure I don't really need a good GPU.

And it just so happens that I'm getting a bunch of money from tax returns in december, so it's a good time to be thinking about this.

My current ideas:
1) Keep current MBP, replace HDD with an SSD ASAP, get a Mac Mini after they upgrade them with Haswell CPU's. Maybe sell the 15" MBP later and buy a 13" Air with the money.
+ I'd be able to afford it instantly with the tax returns
+ Probably the cheapest option
+ The Mac Mini can be upgraded pretty easily AFAIK, so 16gb ram and an SSD would boost the capability clearly
+/- The Mac Mini is semi-mobile
- The Mac Mini lacks a discrete GPU - unlikely to bother me though TBH
- Need a separate display; I have an older 26" S-IPS LG though, which will do for a while
- The 15" MBP isn't "fun" to haul around all day, though manageable

2) Sell current MBP, get a top spec'd 15" MBP retina, save up until I can buy another laptop next year.
+ The rMBP screen is awesome; I'd be happy working on it alone, so it'd be cool on the go
+ The most powerful option
+ Would probably last the longest before I'd need to upgrade my setup again
+/- I'd have two laptops
- Most expensive, I'd have to sell the MBP to be able to afford the retina, even with the returns.
- Upgradeability is the worst of the bunch

3) Keep current MBP, replace HDD with an SSD ASAP, get a 13" Macbook Air with the i7
+ I'd be able to afford it right away with the tax returns
+ The Air would be fun and easy to haul around, both tracking and live rigs would become even lighter
+/- I'd have two laptops
- The worst performance of these three
- The 15" MBP will probably last me only for a year, until the lack of CPU starts to bother me

Currently I'm most into the first idea, but what say you? I'm also thinking that if I can manage to free myself from PT and can thus stop worrying about updates breaking stuff, I'd probably be fine with just one "main" computer, so the rMBP is intriguing too.

 

[electricred]

I see no reason to replace a 2011 MBP. HDDs bite the dust. Just replace it and keep on trucking. Regularly backup.

 

[xTomx]

Hey man, I work in an Apple store so I get to compare these all the time haha.

If you would only be having one computer then I would go for the 15" Retina MBP. It's just disgustingly powerful, we open every app on it simultaneously (including whole CS6 suite, Logic, FCP X, Aperture etc) at the same time and it doesn't give a fuck. Even with those all loaded up it'll still bounce a huge Logic session in seconds.

If you wanted two computers then I would either put an SSD in your current MBP (I did the same with my MBP from 2007 and it still runs fast enough for big sessions with Slate VTM etc)
and go for a Mac Mini or an iMac (which was updated yesterday, faster flash storage via PCIe makes it screamingly quick - this might be applied to the rMBP soon enough too so might be worth holding out for that.) And then for the portal machine get a Macbook Air 13". It weight nothing, it starts up and is ready to use in 14 seconds and it's more than powerful enough to even do video editing work.

Hope that helps, PM if you have any questions!

 

[3tuxedo]

^Super informative post. Thinking about upgrading soon and that helped a lot.

 

[ze kink]

I see no reason to replace a 2011 MBP. HDDs bite the dust. Just replace it and keep on trucking. Regularly backup.

Yeah, you're probably right. Though one aspect in all this is that if I sell my MBP now, I can still get quite a bit of cash from it. But I dunno, doesn't probably matter.

Hey man, I work in an Apple store so I get to compare these all the time haha.

If you would only be having one computer then I would go for the 15" Retina MBP. It's just disgustingly powerful, we open every app on it simultaneously (including whole CS6 suite, Logic, FCP X, Aperture etc) at the same time and it doesn't give a fuck. Even with those all loaded up it'll still bounce a huge Logic session in seconds.

If you wanted two computers then I would either put an SSD in your current MBP (I did the same with my MBP from 2007 and it still runs fast enough for big sessions with Slate VTM etc)
and go for a Mac Mini or an iMac (which was updated yesterday, faster flash storage via PCIe makes it screamingly quick - this might be applied to the rMBP soon enough too so might be worth holding out for that.) And then for the portal machine get a Macbook Air 13". It weight nothing, it starts up and is ready to use in 14 seconds and it's more than powerful enough to even do video editing work.

Hope that helps, PM if you have any questions!

Thanks man, super helpful post!

Yeah, I'm still waiting on the updates before I ultimately decide anything. The performance on the rMBP seems pretty amazing. The iMacs seem really powerful too, but damn the 27" model with an i7 is expensive, especially with an SSD. And getting the screen off to install another hard drive has been made so difficult that I probably wouldn't be able to upgrade - though I've tinkered with computers, it seems a bit too difficult. Doesn't it have a desktop CPU though, whereas the Mini has one that's more common in laptops?

 

[mva801]

If I was you? I'd go a cheap route. Keep my macbook and put in a new HDD. Then go for a mac mini or a slightly used iMac. I am running a 2011 iMac 21.5" with the quad core i7 2.8 and it's amazing. You could probably pick one of those up cheap. I also just picked up a macbook pro 20010 model dual core and threw 8 gigs of ram in it. $500. More than sufficient for the odd mobile session and interneting/ netflixing.

Those retinas are fucking amazing, but expensive as hell. EVERY time I buy a brand new expensive thing, I always wish I'd just waited six months and gotten it used/ refurbed....

 

[greyskull]

Pt9 Runs Fine on Mountain Lion.

It's not officially supported, but it runs well.

 

[ze kink]

Pt9 Runs Fine on Mountain Lion.

It's not officially supported, but it runs well.

Good to know. In case I keep this machine, I'll upgrade to ML and keep PT on this computer then. Lion has been pretty shit on this machine, I've even had to reinstall it once as installing it made some kexts go corrupt.

Pretty certain I'll go with a top of the line rMBP, but I guess we'll see in a week, when and if they then release the new models.

 

[Bmenz]

Good to know. In case I keep this machine, I'll upgrade to ML and keep PT on this computer then. Lion has been pretty shit on this machine, I've even had to reinstall it once as installing it made some kexts go corrupt.

Pretty certain I'll go with a top of the line rMBP, but I guess we'll see in a week, when and if they then release the new models.

I'm in the same boat - want to upgrage from older desktop to rMBP but holding out till next week to see what comes out (and what it does to current-gen prices!)

 

[ze kink]

The rMBP it is I guess. I think I'm going to go with the "better" model with 512gb SSD and 16gb ram, but won't probably bump the processor to 2,6ghz. Seems a bit steep for such a small upgrade. Although the new Mac Pro looks kind of tempting now too however, I think it would be overkill for me anyway.

Also, I upgraded to Mavericks to try it out. Pro Tools 9 seems to work, although I only tried it for a little bit. Nice! Lion was never good on my system anyway.

 

[mva801]

I'm jealous. I want a rMBP.