dual-core MBA + quad-core MMS = 6 cores. Problem?
I am planning a hardware purchase and I want to be able to use Logic Pro with samples, synthesis engines, physical modelling instruments and some audio, as well as some fairly heavy convolution reverb (Altiverb). Not epic arrangements - probably not more than 20 tracks at a time. My employer is getting me (for non-music reasons) a new MacBook Air 13" which I am upgrading to 8GB, with the i7 dual core processor. And I plan to buy a Mac mini server, also 8 GB, to network with the MBA. I have read several old threads about Logic not doing well with 6 cores - here, for example: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1000550 . My questions for you are:
1) With the setup I described, would I be better off running *everything* from the MMS, or Logic on the MBA and the samples, synthesis etc. on the MMS? Or some other combination?
2) I'd have a total of 6 cores. Is this still a problem, as in the thread I linked to above, which says Logic performs better on 4 cores than 6? Maybe it's not even an issue if Logic could never spread itself across two machines the way I'm imagining it?
3) Is it worth getting two SSDs on the MMS? You can order it with 500GB HD x2, or 250GB SSD x2, or 750 HD + 250 GB SSD. I'm thinking maybe getting both drives SSD is overkill because in any case networking between the machines is going to be more of a bottleneck than read/write on the HDs? Or should I shell out $500 extra for a 512 GB SSD on the MBA instead of 256 GB? That's pretty steep!
The main sample sets and instruments I will be using are VSL special edition, NI Komplete 7, Pianoteq, SampleModelling brass.
Most important, I guess, is where to put the extra money for a larger SSD: MBA or MMS. And that would depend on which CPU I set up Logic to run on, and which will serve the samples.
As you can tell I am new at this so if my post betrays any big misconceptions about how this will all work, I would also be grateful to hear about it. Thank you!
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.8), 17", early 2009