Best retina laptop for music composer/audio recording/film scoring

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Level 1

4 points

Best retina laptop for music composer/audio recording/film scoring

Hello All-

I recently purchased the 13" retina MacBook Pro with 3Ghz intel Core i7 Dual processor with 8 GB of Ram and am on the verge of returning it for the 15 inch 2.7 Ghz Quad core i7 retina.

I am a professional composer and also use my computer for audio recording (nothing TOO intense) and am beginning to get into scoring for animated shorts and even a little bit of film work myself.

I love the size of the 13 inch and it's pretty fast, but I am on the fence because I would have loved to have my 13 inch equipped with a quad processor and 16 GB of ram.

Am I being ridiculous, or is the 15 inch really not only the best bang for my buck, but also the most appropriate power for a growing artist.

(I have a beautiful 27inch iMac with quad processor i5 and 8 GB of Ram)

I have maybe 12 days to make the decision before I can't return it.

Please Help!!

Thanks

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3), To super upgrade or just to upgrade

Posted on Apr 18, 2013 4:36 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Bimmer 7 Series

Level 6

10,337 points

Apr 18, 2013 4:38 PM in response to jp66177

or you can go the other way and get the 15 inch non retina base model Macbook Pro and upgrade the RAM yourself to 16GB and change the hard drive (this is optional) for a SSD.

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Answer 2

jp66177 Author

Level 1

4 points

Apr 18, 2013 4:43 PM in response to Bimmer 7 Series

Thanks Bimmer.

My only issue with that is I am in love with the retina display. (Still ****** about the non upgradeable issue though)

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Answer 3

Apr 18, 2013 4:48 PM in response to jp66177

me too...I bought the 15 inch Macbook Retina when it first came out - with 2.7GHz - 16GB RAM and 768GB SSD.

nice and fast but had issues with it with Photoshop and Office - sold it to a friend who paid me for what it cost me.

decided to get a 15 Inch Macbook Pro (refurbished) - installed 16GB of RAM and Crucial M4 512GB SSD - best decision I made.

then again, my needs might be totally different than yours - you will benefit from the 15 Inch Macbook Retina because of the faster Nvidia Video.

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Answer 4

jp66177 Author

Level 1

4 points

Apr 18, 2013 5:00 PM in response to Bimmer 7 Series

Argh!!! Decisions!

My main program uses are Logic; Reason; Finale; and will grow to includ Final Cut and an Adobe animation product. (I'm working towards it)

The 13 inch is such a nice size. I don't understand this nonsense that we can't upgrade these parts. I thought Pro was supposed to be for Professional usage.

I'm pretty sure I can get away with what the 13inch I have.. I just have a history of buying a great apple product, only to have everything I really wanted come out within 4 months.

I wonder.. Can you return a laptop twice?

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