Advantage of Macbook Pro over Macbook?

" Would there by any advantage to using a Macbook Pro instead of a Macbook for Logic Pro 8 (besides, of course, the difference between the 13" and 15" screen)?"

Yes.

RealDave

Nice answer Dave. Really thorough, LOL!

The MBP will have an expansion card slot, so you could get the symphony card or add a firewire bus or whatever. The MB doesn't have that.

The MBP (I think) has more capacity for RAM. I think it also has faster bus speeds, but I could be wrong about that.

And you will love the extra screen real estate. Trust me.

X

The MacBook Pro has a MUCH better graphics card, too.

If you ever want to use MainStage, you will go for a MacBook Pro because of that. Leopard probably also profits a lot from the graphics card. (and games 🙂

4GB of RAM. That makes all the difference in the world if you're running sample libraries.

Second, the Expresscard slot. That lets you put in an eSATA card for external hard drives to avoid saturating the FireWire bus you're using for an audio interface. Or maybe you want to run the Apogee Symphony card, or the UAD-1 that goes in the Expresscard slot. There will certainly be other options in the future.

Third, that shiny screen on the regular MacBook is...well, I don't care for it. You can get a regular non-reflective one on the MBP.

Fourth, the battery life is better on the MBP.

Fifth, if you're like me you keep laptops for a very long time. I switch desktop machines every couple of years, but I only upgraded to an MBP after seven years. The extra money you spent now will be long forgotten a few years from now.

I can't imagine that the better video card in the MBP would make any difference with Logic, but I believe it does if you're running reference video for scoring. My understanding is also that you need it for Final Cut Pro if you're going to do anything with video. But I could be wrong on both accounts.

And having said that, the regular MacBook is still an extremely nice laptop. We bought one for my 13-year-old daughter, and it's just great.

Edit: another reason for the MBP is that it has a dual-link DVI output that will drive a 30" display. You may want to do that at some point during the laptop's life.

The difference in graphics will make a difference. . . the normal MacBook doesn't necessarily even have a graphics "card" per se. Its 64 MB of shared graphics. . . strapped on to the CPU. . . so whenever graphics are drawn, its not handled by a secondary unit. . . such as. . . a graphics card. Its all handled by the CPU. That puts a bigger strain on the actual processor when doing anything and everything on a standard macbook. I would never recommend a normal Macbook for recording. . . Macbook Pro and no less.

The difference in graphics DOES make that big of a difference.