Hi guys,
I'm gonna live most of the time abroad and constantly sleeping at hotels. So I'm now in need of a good laptop, and since it's really well adapted for that (Apple Care, and 7h of official battery time that actually last 6 or 7hours) and convenient, and also cause it's the good moment, I'm gonna try the Apple route.
SO I'm searching for the right Macbook Pro for me.
My budget is irrelevant (in a 1000-1800 range), it's also gonna be recorded as a professionnal expense anyway cause I have created an Irish ltd company, and have now a VAT number. So I can consider I'm buying the tax-free value.
So as I'm gonna need a high mobility system, I'm not gonna go the 17in route, it would be still too expensive though and a useless power.
So I have all options between 13 and 15 inches, 2010 or 2011 versions.
I think all 2011 versions are powerful (CPU) enough, even the i7 dualcore 13in that seems almost as powerful as my (old) 3.0i7 quadcore on my PC...
I'm a bit afraid about the 2010 versions, though the most powerful 15in seem ok and equals the new 13in. Here are the charts :
http://www.primatelabs.ca/blog/2011/02/macbookpro-benchmarks-early-2011/
(considering my tower PC does 7500 and I have plenty of headroom in my mixes CPU consumption, with the added info it has a 1Gb GPU which does not impact the geekbench value, so in reality there is a greater difference to consider between the new 13in and 15in because of the fact the 15in have a dedicated card)
So basically I'm feeling I'm stuck between :
- 2010 15in boosted (I mean, with the option of a faster CPU)
- 2011 13in boosted
- 2011 15in
The 13in is an awesome option for mobility, it's little and powerful. Though, I feel being stuck with 1280x800 can be horrid in the long term, though I'm contemplating the possibility to have a big screen at home and travel with the laptop only to have best from both worlds. But it has no GPU so i'm a little afraid for my photo editing, though it seems it equals the previous GPU (almost) in the 2011 version so I maybe shouldn't worry at all.
The 15in is better cause it has a dedicated GPU that seems decent, is a quadcore, and I can have the option of a 1620px screen, but is much more expensive though and not as tiny as a 13in so it's a difficult choice.
a used 2010 15 in seems a very valid option, cause for a lesser price, it's still powerful enough I guess, though dualcore, has a decent GPU card, and I can find one with a high reso screen of 1620px. I just need to be patient until I find one.
For info, I found a 15in with HD screen and apple care until august 2012 for around 1100 euros.... (15' core I7 2,66 Ghz, 2010, like new, Apple Care -> august 2012,4go RAM, 500Go, with the invoice, + MAC OS X snow leopard + iphoto 11.)
13 in i7@2x2.7ghz = 1450€ (1211€ taxfree)
15 in i7@4x2.0ghz = 1750€ + maybe HD option (1460€ taxfree)
15 in i7@2x2.6ghz = something like 1000 to 1200
You can compare the new specs here : http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/specs-compare.html
So for those of you who know well Apple, what would be the best choice ? Is the 2010 version still relevant ? I'm guessing it is, cause until the 2011 arrived it was the current weapon of choice, but I prefer to ask in case it suffered anything for medium to heavy sessions with VSTis and heavy CPU consumming vsts.
Also what would you consider relevant to buy with it ? Is apple care mandatory ? It's an added cost if I buy it new. Considering I'll be travelling a lot, maybe it's better. What about the apple products that are good to have, and those who are just a money trap ?
On an audio perspective, I'm considering an Apogee Duet 1 : http://weallmakemusic.com/files/2010/03/duetdetail.jpg
travelling with my headset and why not a microphone etc when I need it.
Since the 2nd version has been released, its easy to find one used now that all the fanboys are buying the new one. Good choice ?
Also, what is the best way to run in parallel/virtualize windows 7 nowadays in macos ?
Pretty long for nothing but I needed to be clear so that you can give me the right advice !
I'm gonna live most of the time abroad and constantly sleeping at hotels. So I'm now in need of a good laptop, and since it's really well adapted for that (Apple Care, and 7h of official battery time that actually last 6 or 7hours) and convenient, and also cause it's the good moment, I'm gonna try the Apple route.
SO I'm searching for the right Macbook Pro for me.
My budget is irrelevant (in a 1000-1800 range), it's also gonna be recorded as a professionnal expense anyway cause I have created an Irish ltd company, and have now a VAT number. So I can consider I'm buying the tax-free value.
So as I'm gonna need a high mobility system, I'm not gonna go the 17in route, it would be still too expensive though and a useless power.
So I have all options between 13 and 15 inches, 2010 or 2011 versions.
I think all 2011 versions are powerful (CPU) enough, even the i7 dualcore 13in that seems almost as powerful as my (old) 3.0i7 quadcore on my PC...
I'm a bit afraid about the 2010 versions, though the most powerful 15in seem ok and equals the new 13in. Here are the charts :
http://www.primatelabs.ca/blog/2011/02/macbookpro-benchmarks-early-2011/
(considering my tower PC does 7500 and I have plenty of headroom in my mixes CPU consumption, with the added info it has a 1Gb GPU which does not impact the geekbench value, so in reality there is a greater difference to consider between the new 13in and 15in because of the fact the 15in have a dedicated card)
So basically I'm feeling I'm stuck between :
- 2010 15in boosted (I mean, with the option of a faster CPU)
- 2011 13in boosted
- 2011 15in
The 13in is an awesome option for mobility, it's little and powerful. Though, I feel being stuck with 1280x800 can be horrid in the long term, though I'm contemplating the possibility to have a big screen at home and travel with the laptop only to have best from both worlds. But it has no GPU so i'm a little afraid for my photo editing, though it seems it equals the previous GPU (almost) in the 2011 version so I maybe shouldn't worry at all.
The 15in is better cause it has a dedicated GPU that seems decent, is a quadcore, and I can have the option of a 1620px screen, but is much more expensive though and not as tiny as a 13in so it's a difficult choice.
a used 2010 15 in seems a very valid option, cause for a lesser price, it's still powerful enough I guess, though dualcore, has a decent GPU card, and I can find one with a high reso screen of 1620px. I just need to be patient until I find one.
For info, I found a 15in with HD screen and apple care until august 2012 for around 1100 euros.... (15' core I7 2,66 Ghz, 2010, like new, Apple Care -> august 2012,4go RAM, 500Go, with the invoice, + MAC OS X snow leopard + iphoto 11.)
13 in i7@2x2.7ghz = 1450€ (1211€ taxfree)
15 in i7@4x2.0ghz = 1750€ + maybe HD option (1460€ taxfree)
15 in i7@2x2.6ghz = something like 1000 to 1200
You can compare the new specs here : http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/specs-compare.html
So for those of you who know well Apple, what would be the best choice ? Is the 2010 version still relevant ? I'm guessing it is, cause until the 2011 arrived it was the current weapon of choice, but I prefer to ask in case it suffered anything for medium to heavy sessions with VSTis and heavy CPU consumming vsts.
Also what would you consider relevant to buy with it ? Is apple care mandatory ? It's an added cost if I buy it new. Considering I'll be travelling a lot, maybe it's better. What about the apple products that are good to have, and those who are just a money trap ?
On an audio perspective, I'm considering an Apogee Duet 1 : http://weallmakemusic.com/files/2010/03/duetdetail.jpg
travelling with my headset and why not a microphone etc when I need it.
Since the 2nd version has been released, its easy to find one used now that all the fanboys are buying the new one. Good choice ?
Also, what is the best way to run in parallel/virtualize windows 7 nowadays in macos ?
Pretty long for nothing but I needed to be clear so that you can give me the right advice !
