Question regarding new MacBook pro 13" i5 and i7 versions.

I wouldn't really advise the SSD. They're nice and all but for their current price it's more of a novelty item for what it brings to the table rather than a necessity.

A 13" with the i7 and upgraded RAM along with maybe a few more upgrades would be a good idea to me personally. Or the 15" with no upgrades if you want the larger screen.

To me the i7 without an SSD would just work better with Logic Pro than a weaker processor with the SSD. 4 cores compared to 2 cores.

You can always look for specific benchmarks to see what the "overall" performance of the system is but it varies between programs about the benefits a better CPU, SSD or GPU would give. Overall I give a better CPU the benefit in most cases over an SSD.

SSD does give great performance on top of the reliability but like I said before I personally believe the quad processing power of the i7 would give you more output in performance than an i5 would on an SSD.

You may be able to find specific benchmarks (most likely none pertaining to Logic Pro though) to see a general notation of the difference between an i5 SSD and an i7.

I have to disagree with the prior poster about what makes a computer faster.There is a reason we have 3 levels of cache on a processor and that is to keep it well fed. I just got the new 13" MBP with 8GB memory and 256SSD. This thing REALLY screams. I believe that the least important feature of a computer for performance is the CPU speed. The most important thing is the amount of memory, then it's speed and the hard drive speed. The computer moves only as fast as its weakest link. If you have ever watched the processor clock throttle work, you will rarely see it at max.
The speeds of the current SSD drives is incredible. I have an MBA with SSD and only 2GB. It really drags when challenged with my zillions of open sessions of google. The reason? Constant swapping of virtual memory as main memory is saturated.

Back to SSD vs mechanical HD. Beside lacking seek time which is a mechanical delay, the transfer rate is only average. SSD is like regular memory without these impediments.

We bought a new 27" iMac with I7 and 12GB of memory and my new MBP blows it away for instant application pop up.

If you check my posts I am very hard to please and this machine has totally blown me away since I have had it for 2 days. I credit the SSD.

Again it does go back down to what you're doing. More RAM will almost always help, if you're using it, but too much doesn't do anything. 8GB would be a good idea. Since I don't personally use Logic Pro I can't say if it would benefit more from a CPU or HD upgrade though in my experience between my Desktop which has an i7 compared to my MBA with its SSD I find the Desktop to perform better overall. SSD helps mostly in the transfer and reading of data. As far as an SSD goes moving files, it's way faster, using programs that write a lot of data, much faster, caching files into memory, also faster. However once you have everything into the memory and loaded up it's out of the SSD's hands and processing power is a much larger factor along with the amount of RAM you're able to expend.

Again, you may want to look around for specific benchmarks to get a general idea on performance but I know that when I use Sony Vegas on my MBA and then again on my i7 Desktop every single part of it runs better through my desktop even though it's accessing the HD a lot of the time. Simple answer for this is because I have more RAM to cache data and more CPU and GPU power to render through the data. While Logic Pro isn't video editing software it's very similar in the fashion that it works.


In a nut shell: 8GB of RAM is a good idea and I figure you would get it no matter which model you buy. 4GB will work decently enough in most circumstances though in case you decide to wait on it.

An SSD is a great upgrade but is it worth the cost and sacrifice of other options you could be getting in place of it.

Will you be using the full processing power of an i7 or will the i5 suit your needs. Could very well be that you wont use all 4 cores to their full extent but that doesn't mean it's not providing a benefit over the two core i5. It's quite a bit faster even if you're not using its full potential.

Comparing i5 to i7 performance on geekbench (both 32bit), there is about a 15% increase. I went with the i7 before knowing that, which I'm ok with, but its not really necessary.

I'm also not really clear about how valuable 8gb vs 4gb would be. I always seem to have around 600mb + of system memory free according to activity monitor. Logic pro 9 requirements are 1gb, and 2 are recommended by Apple. There is always a general claim that more RAM is better, but nobody ever actually quantifies that. Can Logic Pro take advantage of more than 4gb? This I do not know, and nobody else seems too either.

Hey bro,

Ive been working alot with the 64 bit mode of Logic, with the exact model.

Firstly, the most important thing is the Processor. If you wish to get the 13 inch, get the i7 because it has about double the performance. It will have 4 virtual cores instead of only 2.

ALso, 8 gigs of RAM is a MUST!!.... Ive used it with 8 gigs on my 13 inch with the older core 2 duo. You should know that some of my production uses a shyt load of effects and sounds aswell. WHen i ran it in 64 bit mode with 64 bit vst's, it was a beast. I loaded many tracks of Stylus, Omnisphere, and Trillian EXTREMELY easily. I loaded a FULL rack of 8 basses as a test of the RAM. It was amazing.

btw all the vst's u use are in 64 bit now like Battery, all Spectrasonics, Kontakt sampler etc etc...

Lastly, the harddrive.. I have an SSD on both my machines which is the iMac i7 Quad.

If you noticed, the HD meter in logic isnt really that high even on a slow 5400 HD.
If you want to save money, just get the 7200 speed HD. It will be fine.

The SSD is great for loading things super fast, but it is not needed.

I've been using the SSD for a year and its great, but the 7200 rpm HD is good enough for the job.

Irie Vybes.

For more info on testing the processor check out the EVAN's test... This is very popular where we use this standard test to rate the performances of Logic on different specs.


http://www.evan.se/logicprobenchmark/LogicMulticore_BenchmarkTest.html

Recommendation.

Get the Macbook Pro 13 inch i7 with 8 gigs of Ram, with a 7200 rpm hardrive.

with 64 bit Logic and supporting VST's.


http://www.gearslutz.com/board/music-computers/371545-logic-pro-multicore-benchm arktest.html

+*Firstly, the most important thing is the Processor. If you wish to get the 13 inch, get the i7 because it has about double the performance. It will have 4 virtual cores instead of only 2.*+

There is a marginal performance gain with the i7 over the i5. As was previously mentioned, the i7 is only about 15% faster (the i7 has more L2 cache which also boosts performance). Both the i5 and i7 in the 13" have hyperthreading enabling 4 virtual cores.

Valid point.

Regardless, If you use logic 9 with mostly VST's then any Macbook pro will make your day. Even last year's models where more than good enough for most Logic users.

8 gigs of Ram would be recommended