Gearlust

[re.mark]

I really cant decide what/where I want to plug my next bit of money into.

Torn between:
1 Samsung 256gb SSD for my macbook (roughly £500)
2 A large 22"+ monitor for macbook home studio usage (roughly £500)
3 Logic Studio 8, for the pitch correction plugin and other decent plugins it has. (roughly £200)
4 An iMac for studio usage, making my macbook my gig specific unit. Its starting to struggle with my productions, bit weary around the 20+ track mark. (£900+)

They're all kind of necessary in their own way, the SSD would give me more storage space and peace of mind traveling with it and using it live etc - I have a feelin the HD could die soon on it anyway after a couple near misses.
Screen because 13"s is not enough space for studio work for me.
Logic 8, dont see the need for 9 when everything I wants in 8, and its big price difference, and something Ive been hankering for.
And then iMac as explained.

So which do i do? - or in what order?


Or do I wait, save the money and maybe start a Brooklyn Hype needs a car fund and just live with the pain of not having any new gear?

[4.33]

blackjack and hookers

edit: not neccesarily in that order

[re.mark]

blackjack and hookers

edit: not neccesarily in that order

the edit made me laugh alot.

Point received Rave, already have the connection cable so thats not a worry.
Id read impressive/positive stuff about the speeds of the Samsung (in partiuclar) 256gb SSD, Read/Write 220MB/s & 200MB/s respectively as opposed to my current 5400rpm thing.
And the whole no-moving parts thing is always a slight worry in the back of my head.
But maybe Ive just oversold it to myself in my head? lol

[audiofeen]

£500 for a hdd ...tell them there dreaming!
maybe just buy a 7200rpm if it's speed your after then get an external hdd back everything up once a week..

I have a macbook pro 2.16ghz with 4gb ram and a 7,200rpm drive and I can run a stupid amount of audio clips.

I have an iMac 20" 2ghz 4gb ram and 250gb hdd
one of the newer ones and I don't use it any more at all as I got sick of not having all my stuff on one computer
when i needed it.
It's for sale if you want it...€800.00

[aeon_flux]

IMO SSD brings you no real benefits (for the price) on a small macbook

you joking, right?

my vote is ssd.

[Dr Dub]

definetly get an external Monitor, as you will benefit from it all the Time you use your Computer!!! Best purchase ever. And i would get a cheap 24" with full HD (1920*1080).

Then buy two 500 gb Drives and one external enclosure. Use the external one just for a weekly backup of your internal one or use Timemaschine. This will give you MUCH more piece of mind than one SSD.

All of this would fit easiely fit into your Budget.

My 2 cents

Wait with the new Computer until the Speed increase you will get is bigger, and as it will cost significantly money.

[ekwipt]

4: 27" Core i5 min i7 if you can afford
3: Logic 9
1: Only buy an Intel SSD Gen2 (the latest), buy a firewire/usb drive for all your music/backup
2: Wouldn't bother since you can use the 27" as a monitor for your macbook

[re.mark]

1: Only buy an Intel SSD Gen2 (the latest)

What makes you say that? The maximum capcity atm is 160gb, and sequential write time is 70Mb/s compared to 200 with the samsung. Comes in at roughly £300/350.
If im gonna spend decent dollar on an SSD Id rather go the whole way and get 256gb, as I currently have a 150gb hard drive in my macbook atm and with 30gb spare could do with more than a 10gb upgrade.

[squelcht]

+1 For the 22' monitor. I was in the same boat before. Was using my MacBook 13' in the studio but it was too harsh on my eyes when working for lengthy time. You will greatly benefit! Picked up a 22' bout a year ago. The other thing you can opt for is to save up for a new 17' MacBook Pro---That way you'll have a newer/bigger harddrive & a bigger screen. Kill 2 birds w/ one stone. I know thats what my plan is There really is such a huge difference between working on a 13' & a 17'

[aeon_flux]

i got ocz vertex ssd few months ago. ssd is the best upgrade you can give to your computer. cpu, ram are not bottlenecks these days. but every of those relatively "fast" elements waits for years now for "slow" hdds. that sucks. hdds are last element from previous era which slow downs everything. i would even can downgrade my ghz/ram for half a value if i can keep my ssd.