MacBook Pro 16, Mac Mini or neither?

[Pete from Bristol]

Hi everyone!

My first post here as a new Ableton 10 user.

I'm running this amazing software on an old 2011 MacBook Pro and it seems to be coping okay, although I guess that might change as I get more ambitious with tracks, plug ins etc.

I was thinking anyway about upgrading for work. Was just wondering how people were finding the new MacBook Pro and Mac mini with Ableton.

I read some posts here about heat and fan noise being a problem with the pro. Is that a general experience or just from demanding professional users. I'm a total amateur!

I'm veering towards the Pro for portability reasons as we'll be traveling, but am really interested in what existing owners think. The alternative is windows 10 I guess, but I'm wary...

All the best and many thanks for any advice.

Pete

[Tarekith]

Love my 16" Pro, best computer I've ever had by far. I'm a professional and DON'T have the fan noise that seems to bother some people, so it's not something that everyone who owns that laptop is dealing with.

[Pete from Bristol]

Thanks for the reply and good to hear!

Pete

[TLW]

iMac. More USB/TB sockets and bigger screen. Also reasonably portable for a "desktop", unless you need to be able to use batteries of course. Though DAWs chew through MBP batteries pretty fast - if I try running Logic on my 2014/5 i7 it even pops up a warning if the MBP isn't plugged in.

[Pete from Bristol]

Hi,

Yes, I did consider that. Probably fine for ferry crossings but not so sure about jumping on a plane with it. I figure I could take a mini and pick up a monitor locally.

Thanks for the suggestion. I will think about it...

[jlgrimes]

Hi everyone!

My first post here as a new Ableton 10 user.

I'm running this amazing software on an old 2011 MacBook Pro and it seems to be coping okay, although I guess that might change as I get more ambitious with tracks, plug ins etc.

I was thinking anyway about upgrading for work. Was just wondering how people were finding the new MacBook Pro and Mac mini with Ableton.

I read some posts here about heat and fan noise being a problem with the pro. Is that a general experience or just from demanding professional users. I'm a total amateur!

I'm veering towards the Pro for portability reasons as we'll be traveling, but am really interested in what existing owners think. The alternative is windows 10 I guess, but I'm wary...

All the best and many thanks for any advice.

Pete

I went Windows 10 and am mostly satisfied. Windows 10 is a step up from older Windows Operating systems IMO. I have a MSI GS63VR and a custom built gaming PC. There are some drawbacks going Windows but I think the Pros kind of balances either way.

[miyaru]

I'm running a purpose build music PC in a 19 inch housing. It is an Intel i7-7700 with two NVMe drives and a two TB HDD and 16 GB ram. The cooling is strong but silent. It ain't portable, but is very reliable with Windows 10 pro on it as OS.

A Mac might seem to work more intuïtive, but Win 10 Pro is afaik more tweakable.

If you are not so much in to PC's, I would choose a Mac for it's ease of use - if you are handy with PC's take that one for the lower price to start with.

[Pete from Bristol]

Hi Miyaru,

Thanks for your reply. I use Mac for the sound and win 10 for the lights at the moment. I'm fairly comfortable with Windows, as long as I don't have fiddle around with code.

Macs are an absolute non starter for me now, until they're released with the new Apple Processors. I'll dig into Windows options a bit more.

All the best!

[miyaru]

Be aware that not all "powerfull" Win Laptops are good for DAW's! I have a Lenovo V320 laptop for everyday use with an i5 processor and 8 GB ram, but it struggles to run Live Suite. It is just not build for that. A friend of mine runs an Acer Gaming Laptop for audio, and it has an i7-7700M CPU along with 64 GB ram, and it runs just fine!

[Pete from Bristol]

Funnily enough I was searching info on a Lenovo p50 this morning and reached the same conclusion. Interesting what you say about the Acer. Predators seem to get great feedback from musicians - and they're way cheaper than Macs.

Can I ask, if you've got a minute, do you need to reconfigure win 10 machines a lot for Ableton? I'd Def turn off virus checkers and updates while recording, but is there stuff in the bios etc that you have to change?

Pete

[miyaru]

Turn off powerthrotling and set windows so that it runs at 100% all the time. Take high performance in energy settings.