Ableton Forum

Hey guys,

I wonder if anyone else ist still using the
MacBookPro Early 2011
Processor 2 GHz Intel Core i7
RAM 16 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
???

Most pluggies seem to eat a lot of the CPU power, so a production without much flattening seems to be impossible. I wonder if it makes any sense working on this one or buying a new machine?

andrewj wrote:Hey guys,

I wonder if anyone else ist still using the
MacBookPro Early 2011
Processor 2 GHz Intel Core i7
RAM 16 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
???

Most pluggies seem to eat a lot of the CPU power, so a production without much flattening seems to be impossible. I wonder if it makes any sense working on this one or buying a new machine?

Many plug ins doesn't use much power at all. It's more about which you use and how many of them.

If you are obsessed with having 5 or more poly instances of aalto/omnisphere/diva(in divine-mode) in all your tracks don't get any laptop. I use my old MBP17 from early 2009 quite often still and it can handle my plug ins really well. I mostly use Lives or Logics stock plug ins and one or two others (diva/aalto or something like that + convolution reverb pro). Maybe my arrangements are too minimal or sparse, but you don't really need anything extreme to make music nowadays.

(a SSD is much more important for overall computer niceness today, IMHO!)
( + check if the 2011 MBP don't need it's graphics to be replaced!)

I use exactly this machine. But a couple of months ago I bought a Lacie 500GB external SSD (thunderbolt) and put the operating system, Live etc on there. It is now like the computer is new. Boots in 12 seconds, live starts in about 5 seconds, loads a heavy project in about 8 seconds...recommend it. As there is only one thunderbolt port I had to switch to USB for my extra monitor but for using Live this is fine, not much lag.

andrewj wrote:Hey guys,

I wonder if anyone else ist still using the
MacBookPro Early 2011
Processor 2 GHz Intel Core i7
RAM 16 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
???

Most pluggies seem to eat a lot of the CPU power, so a production without much flattening seems to be impossible. I wonder if it makes any sense working on this one or buying a new machine?

You don't have to flatten as you can stay at freeze. Also, that's still a quad-core I7-2635QM processor. Add an internal SSD and you are going to be able to do a lot of stuff.

i have this mbp , it can run a lot and its from 2011 almost as fast as new rMbp!!! but...the fan noise is ridiculous, especially when its right next to you and a second monitor automatically engages the turbo props..quite annoying after a while..next machine will be silent , will not overlook this

pepe castillio wrote:the fan noise is ridiculous

mm, the Macbook Pros based an on Intels "Sandy Bridge" are known to be hot. There were quite a few reports on this on forums and such. Many motherboards died because of faulty graphic cards. The thermal paste on the CPU were faulty applied on some units too. Later revisions were a lot better in this regard and are quiter.

(OT: It's a bit tricky to choose when buying a new MacBook Pro today - skip the "discrete graphics" and get a cooler running machine with better battery performance and less fan-noise and maybe get laggy retina-performance OR get a MBP with a dedicated graphics card and get a machine that actually can run a retina screen smooth but with added fan-noise and less battery...?)

avart wrote:

pepe castillio wrote:the fan noise is ridiculous

mm, the Macbook Pros based an on Intels "Sandy Bridge" are known to be hot. There were quite a few reports on this on forums and such. Many motherboards died because of faulty graphic cards. The thermal paste on the CPU were faulty applied on some units too. Later revisions were a lot better in this regard and are quiter.

(OT: It's a bit tricky to choose when buying a new MacBook Pro today - skip the "discrete graphics" and get a cooler running machine with better battery performance and less fan-noise and maybe get laggy retina-performance OR get a MBP with a dedicated graphics card and get a machine that actually can run a retina screen smooth but with added fan-noise and less battery...?)

or skip laptops altogether

pepe castillio wrote: or skip laptops altogether

yep, that has become my solution - just a small & supercool macbook air (when portability is needed) and a mac pro when at home.

Yes the fan noise is ridiculous.

Yes my motherboard died once. Cost me 600$ to fix it

I put a SSD in it, boosted it to 16 gigs RAM and the computer is powerful enough.

But the fan noise...

lapieuvre wrote: Yes my motherboard died once. Cost me 600$ to fix it

if the repair was for the discrete graphics chip failure then you can get a refund now from Apple:

http://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro-videoissues/

Thanks for all the replies.

Wow, I did not know that the Graphics Card has issues. Will ask my technician.

RAM is upgraded to 16 GB
SSD is inside.

So it must work like a charm.

I've been using it for years to run a 100+ channel live set with a lot of plugins and it works perfectly.

Had some trouble when I replaced the battery with a cheap alternative but all is fine again using an original battery.

for those with a 2011 mbp, apple admitted fault(class action lawsuit) and will reimburse if you paid to fix it for overheating, logic board or graphics issues and/or will cover any damages till February 2016 for free

edit: oops didn't see above poster post similar info

MacBookPro Early 2011
Processor 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5
RAM 4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
OS X 10.6.8
Ableton Suite 8
Lots of NI, Voxengo Elephant, ValhallaRoom,
Metric Halo ChannelStrip2, etc.

Still using it, still loving it ))

i have a late 2011 2.4 i7 sad 16gigs ram
it worked great on lion
after mountain lion something changed and i can barely run any plugins now
i use to perform with 4+ ominspheres with multiple other soft synths
now i can't even play most single patches at all
mavericks and yosemite haven't helped