Ableton Forum

wildcon wrote:Thanks again for the replies

I'm using some pretty heavy CPU plugs - NI Komplete u-He etc, so I think I'll go for a much power as I can get.

Fusion 3.1 seems to be the way to go for transfering Windows stuff? The Office for Mac program seems to have been slated in reviews and I do some pretty intense Excel stuff for work so can't take a chance.

One more question - I read on a user review that the i7 is a lot noisier and runs hotter. Does anyone have any comment on this. My PC Laptop fan ran constantly and drove me nuts and was easily picked up by my mic, which was a pain.

Cheers

Fusion is fine. Much better than dual boot. But you're gonna want to install Live on OS X then, I wouldn't use it with Fusion. So make sure any third party stuff you use is available in OS X versions.

Mac:Office can be painfully slow, has an awkward interface (even by MS Office standards!) and doesn't support VB script, so if you use Excel macros you really can't use Mac:Office. Mac:Office 11 is coming in a few months and looks promising, but I don't know if it'll support VB script.

Heard about the heat issues and maybe you should consider the fastest i5 option instead, not that much slower. Don't know if it's any cooler though...

My i7 MBP is much quieter and cooler than my 2.16gHz c2d MBP was. My laptop will get hot sure, but only during really extreme processing that pushes all cores to 100%. Things like video rendering. For normal music making, I can easily have it on my lap.

Right,

I've decided to go for a 15" i7 Macbook Pro.

I may kick myself for getting the larger model but I'm trying to get the highest spec for longevity.

I'm going to have to load windows on Bootcamp or preferably? fusion as i tried the Mac versions of office and they really are pants!

One final question - is there any point whatsoever in getting 8g of Ram over 4g?

Thanks for all your help, I'm going to have to live off bread and water for a year, but hopefully it's worth it.

Oh - and one final point.

I f**king hate Apple, ever since I bought my girlfried a 1st generation ipod nano and having carefully removed it from the box scratched the f**k out of the screen. Apples response "buy a cover" - unf**kingacceptable

Just when I thought I had covered everything !

Is there any point in going for the extra high resolution screen?

I will be doing some limited video work and general graphics Photoshop etc

Seems a bit over the top really but the 'carrot' is dangling

Thanks

I don't think so myself, just makes all your DAW and softsynth controls that much smaller IMO.

I like seeing more tracks. I prefer the higher res screen. I still have my older 17" MBP with 1680x1050 screen, and going back and forth between that and my 1920x1200 I realize how much I love the high res. Everything is crisper, too. Like looking at an iPhone4 screen vs. the 3GS. Now the 3GS just looks blurry.