Ableton Forum

in your personal opinion...

would you rather get the macbook pro with an i5 2.8 and 16GB of ram or with an i7 3.0Ghz and 8GB RAM?

Both are quad core?!

If so I would say: Depends.

The i5 with more RAM if you use lots of multisampled instruments. The i7 with less RAM if you use more virtual synths and heavy effects processing.

If the i5 is dual core, then the i7 in any case.

whad'ya get

He spilled his coffee on it and then let a cig burn on the side of it.

still considering^^

btw i5 and i7 are both Dual cores in the 13" MBP
The only difference is the i7 has 4mb Cache while the i5 has 2 Or 3

coffeencigs wrote:in your personal opinion...

would you rather get the macbook pro with an i5 2.8 and 16GB of ram or with an i7 3.0Ghz and 8GB RAM?

Either or neither one. The 15" MacBook Pro with quadcore i7 is the preferred model. A second hand quadcore is a better buy than new duocores if we're talking music computers.

The i5 in your model there is a little bit slower than the i7 also in benchmarks and should only be considered if you know you're going to be using really large sample sets or load large recordings into RAM. If not, 8Gb should be sufficient.

Then you have storage, which you curiously seemed to have not considered further.

TomViolenz wrote:Both are quad core?!

There exists no quadcore i5s to my knowledge.

Both have 2 physical and 2 virtual cores.
I don't want the mb to replace my desktop pc which will always be my main daw.
But when i travel or whatsoever I want to be able to run live without having to worry to start the third instance of massive or not

coffeencigs wrote:Both have 2 physical and 2 virtual cores.
I don't want the mb to replace my desktop pc which will always be my main daw.
But when i travel or whatsoever I want to be able to run live without having to worry to start the third instance of massive or not

physical cores count. I'd go for the i7 then, as you don't seem to need more than 8gb.

If the RAM is user replaceable then get the better processor. Apple way over charges for RAM. Get it through a third party and install it yourself.

Hate to break you the bad news........but considering that apple is WAY BEHIND in processor power, it's paramount that you get the most processor speed you can afford considering.

AND lappy's have WAY less CPU speed than imacs.

Hopefully you'll understand..........

i7 by far, unless you use sample libraries like I do 8GB is enough, and even then they do eat CPU as well as RAM and disk I/O.
So a 16GB i5 is more like for someone who never wants to have any applications closed on their laptop, not for someone running huge sample libraries etc.

I'd pick an Asus.

Treshell wrote:I'd pick an Asus.

You mean a chord spelled A-D-E…?

I thought this thread was about computers.

so did I