Buying Core i7 macbook.

Piplodocus · Post by **Piplodocus** » Mon Jul 05, 2010 2:36 pm

Hello!

What's the latest thoughts on the i7 17" MBP? Everyone happy? Running fine with Live 8.1.3, Snow Leopard, and firewire audio interfaces (esp. MOTU 828mkIII)? Wish you got the i5 to save some ££££'s, or have you got the i5 and wish you had i7?

How much faster is it than the old Core 2 Duo 2.8GHz/3.06GHz for live? I'm going from a 3GHz Core 2 Duo desktop (hackintosh) to the MBP i7 with 7200rpm drive. Reckon I'll notice much change? For the better I hope?

I don't have much problem with the current setup to be fair, but it's an arse to update (being a hackintosh), and it's not portable. I'd like to know I'll be able to worry less and have no problems or dropouts with big projects with lots of plugins in the coming few years!

It'll be getting an MCE optibay (or equivalent) shortly after purchase, with a 2nd 7200rpm drive. What do you think the limitations will be on that spec laptop?

It'll probably get a reasonably priced 1TB SSD in a few years too, this thing's gotta last...

Piplodocus · Post by **Piplodocus** » Wed Jul 07, 2010 5:38 pm

I assume the i7 macbook pro's either so crap that no-one's got one, or so great that all the owners are busy creating masterpieces instead of being on the forum...

Migra · Post by **Migra** » Wed Jul 07, 2010 6:06 pm

Piplodocus wrote:I assume the i7 macbook pro's either so crap that no-one's got one, or so great that all the owners are busy creating masterpieces instead of being on the forum...

LOL

I want an iMac 27" refreshed!

jesso · Post by **jesso** » Wed Jul 07, 2010 9:09 pm

I bought an i5.... although it's the 15 inch model.
I was upgrading from a C2duo macbook... so nowhere near as fast as what your upgrading from.... but the difference is night and day. Almost twice as powerful I'd say.
From what I can gather, you should get about 20% at least in performance benefits with an i5 over the 3.0 core 2duo. If you get the i7, and it only goes up a couple of %. It's the old story of diminishing returns! Don't know if you'd really feel the difference between the i5 and i7.... depends on how much extra cash your willing to splash just to have the very best.
You'll be heaven regardless of which you go for. Between the incredible battery, screen and tons of power it's an absolute treat to use from day to day. You won't miss your hackintosh I'll bet!

Rave · Post by **Rave** » Wed Jul 07, 2010 10:25 pm

Migra wrote:
Piplodocus wrote:I assume the i7 macbook pro's either so crap that no-one's got one, or so great that all the owners are busy creating masterpieces instead of being on the forum...
LOL

I want an iMac 27" refreshed!

Me too

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Wed Jul 07, 2010 11:02 pm

i7 15" here, working fine with Live and everything else. Very nice laptop, fast.

3dot... · Post by **3dot...** » Wed Jul 07, 2010 11:12 pm

good on ya...as long as it's running better than a i7 ...ehm I mean win7

leedsquietman · Post by **leedsquietman** » Wed Jul 07, 2010 11:14 pm

if it were me, I'd wait for the quadcore i7s. They should surely be coming soon, PC laptops have have them for ages ...

Piplodocus · Post by **Piplodocus** » Wed Jul 07, 2010 11:51 pm

Most of the quad core PC laptops are only about 1.6GHz a core, so if the program's not threaded very well it probably won't make much difference, or could perform worse. Saw one advertised earlier today; said it's 2.8Ghz quad-core, but when I read the specs that was turbo boost on a single core, and it was more like 1.6GHz per core! For now I'd be happy with 2x 2.66GHz that one can go turbo boost to 3.33GHz.

leedsquietman · Post by **leedsquietman** » Thu Jul 08, 2010 12:08 am

ADK have a SIX core i7 980X laptop running at 2.8 through to a (very expensive) 3.33 Ghz option and 12 meg cache, it also has a texas instruments firewire chipset.

http://www.adkproaudio.com/laptop2.cfm

Simmo · Post by **Simmo** » Thu Jul 08, 2010 2:54 pm

Yeh I looked at either the MBP 17 with i7 or the HP Envy 17 with i7.

You get more for your cash with the Envy 17 (by a long way) but unless you want to go down the hackintosh route you're stuck with Win7 instead of Snow Leopard.

I ended up going with the Envy 17, 8gb + i7-840qm

Hope that helps mate

Piplodocus · Post by **Piplodocus** » Thu Jul 08, 2010 3:13 pm

leedsquietman wrote:ADK have a SIX core i7 980X laptop running at 2.8 through to a (very expensive) 3.33 Ghz option and 12 meg cache, it also has a texas instruments firewire chipset.

http://www.adkproaudio.com/laptop2.cfm

They cheated and used a desktop processor! My argument still holds true for mobile processors, but yeah, if you wanna buy a beast of a laptop then that appears to be the one!

I want OSX and am fed up of Hackintoshing, and also I'll be using it for lots of other things, and taking it places in a rucksack, and using it unplugged for reasonably long periods so I'll take the value compromise fo lighter weight, longer battery life, and native OSX! So I'm not really open to suggestions I'm afraid, it's more about is everyone who owns that particular model trouble free with it.

I need to buy one before Steve Jobs puts USB3 in the macbook pro, and decides no-one needs firewire anymore and my £600 soundcard becomes unusable with all the latest macbook pros!

Silence · Post by **Silence** » Thu Jul 08, 2010 3:45 pm

Piplodocus wrote:
leedsquietman wrote:ADK have a SIX core i7 980X laptop running at 2.8 through to a (very expensive) 3.33 Ghz option and 12 meg cache, it also has a texas instruments firewire chipset.

http://www.adkproaudio.com/laptop2.cfm
They cheated and used a desktop processor! My argument still holds true for mobile processors, but yeah, if you wanna buy a beast of a laptop then that appears to be the one!

I want OSX and am fed up of Hackintoshing, and also I'll be using it for lots of other things, and taking it places in a rucksack, and using it unplugged for reasonably long periods so I'll take the value compromise fo lighter weight, longer battery life, and native OSX! So I'm not really open to suggestions I'm afraid, it's more about is everyone who owns that particular model trouble free with it.

I need to buy one before Steve Jobs puts USB3 in the macbook pro, and decides no-one needs firewire anymore and my £600 soundcard becomes unusable with all the latest macbook pros!

may i ask what your issues with hackintosh might be? why u find that running osx native is better?

Piplodocus · Post by **Piplodocus** » Thu Jul 08, 2010 4:15 pm

Silence wrote: may i ask what your issues with hackintosh might be? why u find that running osx native is better?

It took ages to get going properly. It's easier to do these days probably though. If I try to go to Snow leopard I get Kernel Panics on install, and then it resets all my BIOS settings. I've followed a few SL install guides too. It evolved to it's current state in a convoluted way, so I'm not sure what leopard drivers are doing something, and which are muddying the issue, and which, if any, are compatible with Snow Leo (probably none). I did have problems with quicktime, but they seem to have gone for now. Sometimes it seems to go a bit unresponsive. I have never been able to make it go to sleep (after trying various methods), which means if I wanna quickly browse the web I can open my wife's real mac, use it, and put it to sleep before I've booted up and logged into my hackintosh. Also it sounds like a f**king dustbuster in the corner of the room all the time and I don't wanna throw more money at it to make it quieter. Plus the MAIN fact it's not portable. I can't take it into the apple store if it doesn't work. There's other manufacturers with similar specs, but most of them are over £1.5k and I can get the MBP with student discount (as I'm doing part time uni course) for about £1.8k, which weighs less, has the trackpad, has OSX, and is unibody, etc. So it's not like I'll get much more bang for my buck by getting a PC laptop and hackintoshing it. I never seem to have enough time to make music as it is either, without spending time buggering about with a Frankenstein's monster of a PC (even if it runs OSX better than my old XP box).

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Thu Jul 08, 2010 4:19 pm

Stop it, you're making sense. Not allowed here.

Buying Core i7 macbook.

Buying Core i7 macbook.

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