I am the hard drive serial killer.ian_halsall wrote:rude bastard

I am the hard drive serial killer.ian_halsall wrote:rude bastard
Machinesworking wrote: The Retina Macbook Pro is built dammed solid, at 4X2.7 ghz, 512 SSD, and 16GB RAM I don't think I need to worry about it's "lack" of upgradability.
Honestly the RAM is the biggest concern. USB 3 and Thunderbolt mean that adding more external hard drive space is a cinch, plus you can upgrade the SSDs (flash drive actually I think?), but the RAM is the RAM in a Retina. I've just started playing with string libraries that broke the 8GB of RAM my Mac Pro had. so when I came into some money I waited until a used 16GB Retina popped up cheap. The other reason was/is I'm convinced that at some point here Live will be geared towards loading entire Sets in RAM, for speed etc. and I want to be ready for that.Forge. wrote:^except the 512 SSD and 16GB ram is about $600 extra in total... the bottom end retina here is a 256 SSD and 8GB RAM.. mainly the SSD is what concerns me as that's not a lot, and never is a strong word when it comes to upgrading.
you know theres already a button in clip view that lets you load samples into RAM? be interested to know how that runs with full stems actuallyMachinesworking wrote: The other reason was/is I'm convinced that at some point here Live will be geared towards loading entire Sets in RAM, for speed etc. and I want to be ready for that.
Thanks for reply! Very useful and clear.Dragonbreath wrote:@ Pasha
Recording to disc with a 5400rpm is realisticly a issue you will never run into. I recorded 8 tracks simultaneously at 96/24 without any troubles at all on my MBP. Where you might have issues with a 5400 is with playback of large sample library like session drums. I have now upgrade to a 7200rpm and I had a project I using session drums in and my friend loaded on his mac mini (more powerfull CPU) with 5400rpm and he had disc issues that I didnt have on my older MPB with the 7200rpm. Also I dont know why your under the impression you cant upgrade your RAM in you Imac. RAM can easilly be upgraded on Imacs. (expect for the 21,5 built after mid 2012) [url]http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1423[url]
SSD would be great but as your saying budget is in the way for most people. I would try to avoid external drives for playback of multisample library unless its on USB3 or thunderbolit. External can bottle neck trough USB or firewire. You wont get the full potential compared to an internal disc.
I would avoid the seagate hybrid. I considered that drive alot when I bought mine but after reading some review it seemed alot of people that installed it in MBP had issues with it. I didnt risk it They will only speed things on frequently accessed data. So mostly usefulll as your boot disc. You computer will boot faster and your frequently used apps and files ( aka Live) Would be practicly no advantage as secondary external drive (takes 3-4 access before its cached in the SSD)
Running everything off the same disc is not as bad people would have you think. Of course you will get performance from running 2 disk, (one for programs and OS and one for recording and samples) but it is far from being necessary.The project I am currently working on has close to 20 tracks including 1 sometimes 2 session drums streaming from disk and can still overdub a couple tracks live without any disk overloads. I ended up buying a hitachi travelstar 7200rpm 750gigs and works very well. The only issue is it seems to draw a bit too much power when I switch to the higher end video card in the MBP and the power supply starts to get uncomfortably high if I am running live at the same time. Had not considered that when I bought it
@ Retina vs reg MPB
I am on the fence with that as well. Thinking of getting a new MPB soon enough and getting away from the retina not bieng able to be upgraded at all and wanted to do the double hardrive (maybe with SSD eventually) with the original unibobdy. I think for audio applications the retina model makes no sense. The problem is I wont be able to afford it till next summer and I am afraid they will go all retina by then :S
Pasha I would save a bit and go for a quad Imac if your looking to upgrade. Once you factor in screen and accessories the difference in price is not so much and you will get much more powerfull computer. Maybe consider the 27' as the ram is still user exchangable on that model