Ableton Forum

Hi there,

I currently work ITB with Ableton, i'm a windows user but am now porting to mac.

I want to be a bit more mobile so i'm going to buy a MacBook Pro. I have a question.

I can either afford the 13" MBP i7, 512 SSD & 16GB Ram or the 15" inch version, same specs but with a quad core. I use chunky-ish programs (Omnisphere/Massive etc).

I'm curious as to which is better, the 13" Portability seems right up my street - i'd love to take the Mac out and about and sit on the couch and play around but is the 15" just that much better? Is that quad core going to be worth it over the dual every time?

Would love to know if anyone has experience with the 13" because I feel it's the right size for me.

Cheers,

I have a 2009 MBP with a 13" screen

For portability, the small size is a boon. A 15 inch screen would be a nightmare on a plane, etc.

I generally use the MBP when I DJ, and then it does not need a lot of screen real estate.

I do find the screen a bit small for serious music production, but I am not sure going to 15" will make all that much difference.

At home, when I want to have some real screen space, I plug it into a 24" sVGA screen

As for sitting with it on the couch. It gets hot. Be careful.

For music production four cores over two cores every time!

Too bad the 13" doesn't come with four cores, but as it is, the decision should be clear: The 15"!

I dont't think there is a right answer to this. I'm in a similar situations between the 13" and the 15". Keep in mind that the 13" is faster than my 4-core desktop from about 4-5 years ago and I still don't have any real performance problems with this thing.

....i'm running on dualcore machines only here.....

and with a load of ram, at least 8 gigs and a 500 ssd you'll be fine.....

does much more to the performance than the processor....

the 15" does not make such a differnece in workflow and usability....the quad core is of course an advantage, but i never hit any serious limitations with my dual machines....

apart from the fact that they don't heat up that fast....

reeloy, that's an very good point. would you say that the current 13" is really more silent while working than the 15"? have you compared it?

one additional question...are you doing any serious work on 13" screen or is it just for portability reasons... and all work is done with an external display?

edit:
oh... sorry another one... do you use the 13" at the default retina resolution (1280x800) or at a higher resolution for forme screen real estate (1440x900 or 1680x1050)?