New Mac(book) - need your recommendations

[Tympanic]

hi guys,

as im in the need of a new macbook, i thought i´ll ask
this community if they can recommend one.
since those retina-books are there, i cant find my way
around, because i really dont like the direction
apple is going with all that proprietary ram/hdd stuff.
awful. but thats another story.

macbook i have atm:

15inch early 2011
2,0 Ghz i7-2635Q
AMD Radeon HD 6490M
16 GB RAM


i need a machine that is at least 40-50% faster (cpu wise)
because i do live sequencing from external gear and
everything is calculated in realtime (synths and stuff).
there is no option to freeze/bounce or whatever.
the concept is strictly "live".



cheers (and thanks),

daniel

[3dot...]

15" new quad core MBP fully loaded (16 Gb RAM 512 Gb SSD drive)

[Tympanic]

yeah sure. that would be the safest option, wouldnt it?
but i want to try to get the best price/value ratio...

[3dot...]

2600$

[alpertt]

I have 15" mid 2012 8 gb (upgraded to 16), 2.6 GHz i7.
removed cd and installed 480 gig ssd (expensive, but worth it.)

For me, unibody advantages over retina:
*- Firewire (i have fw soundcard and alot of hdd's)
*- Ethernet
*- Line input (without a dedicated soundcard, i can use 2 line & 1 mic ins simultaneously, thanks to aggregate thing.)
*- Upgradable

I don't like the direction apple is going either.

[3dot...]

Alpert

You're nitpicking imo

fw and Ethernet are available via adapters...and work great

It's thinner (!!!) + lighter with a superior screen...and no moving parts except a CPU fan that kicks in sometimes

Line input on the old MBP was horrible
And if you have an audio interface it's redundant in any case

My 2 cents... I like the new MBP much better than the old one...

[Tympanic]

hmmm, im in line with alpertt.
and you, 3dot, as well.
point is, i want the possibility to upgrade some parts.
especially the ram. and to be on the safe side
regarding the ssd/hd.
but the most important aspect would be the cpu.
i really need some headroom and knowledge about which cpu
will give me that.

the cpu im using atm - 2,0 Ghz i7-2635Q - has my setup crackling
when the cpu meter hangs around @ 70%.

i need a cpu where the actual setup taxes around 30-40% instead of 70%.

who has upgraded a macbook in here, because of the need of more processing headroom.
and who can tell something about it?

[alpertt]

2.6 GHz seems the biggest horsepower if im not wrong.
As i said ram and hdd is updradable with the unibody.
But if you mean upgrading the cpu, i don't think that's possible.

[3dot...]

You need more than 16gb RAM?

In all fairness...coming from a PC customizing background...
I got a fully loaded Mac so I would not need to upgrade the internals
This kind of business is beginning to make more sense to me as time goes by
This computer should be fine for the next 3 - 4 years
I do not wish to upgrade anything
When the time comes that this computer chokes..I will switch it to a modern machine

Now regarding your CPU...it should be plenty fast..
What kind of setup you're running? What's your buffer size?
I'm guessing you can find better effective ways to lower your CPU usage

[3dot...]

Also the only machine that will give you the performance boost you wish for (50%-60%)...
Is not a MacBook

It's a high end desktop machine (PC/Mac )