Apple MacBook Pro

sawtooth

sawtooth

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I need to purchase a macbook for my son as he needs it largely for A level then University studies. Music is a particular requirement and his music teacher recommended logic pro X software.

We are looking at the 13" 2017 entry model which comes with 128Gig storage, but wondered if it would be the worth the extra to get the touchbar/touch ID model which also has a slightly faster CPU and 256Gig storage.

Thankfully we can get 27% discount through a family member who works for an apple company but still looking at £912 or £1350 respectively! These things are damn expensive.

Any macbook experts out there?
 
I bought a MacBook a year or so ago. Having spoke to one of the lads at work who is a tech geek. He told me to have a look on the apple site where they sell MacBooks. There is a section where they sell second hand MacBooks. In essence, these are ones that have been returned for whatever reason. There is nowt wrong with them. The spec on some of these MacBooks is fantastic. You still get the full warranty etc etc.
That is where I got mine from and it is fantastic.

just had a look under the refurb section and it looks like the latest ones are from oct 2016, not sure they come anywhere near the prices you have stated.
 
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I would say that 128gb is insufficient storage for a student using this laptop as their sole machine, especially as raw audio files can be quite large.

When I supply a windows laptop and they want a SSD hard drive (coz that's what we are talking about). The minimum I would want to see for a student is 500Gb .

No doubt apple make some lovely kit but it is well pricey.

Recently I've been buying Lenovo windows laptops from pc world with an I3 6xxx cpu, 4gb Ram for about £350 .

Then increasing the ram to 8gb for £31. Then adding a 500gb SSD for £145.
Cost to customer £649 , so similar performance to a mac , boots and On the net in 12 seconds, but at half the cost of a mac and with much larger storage.

If the music software can run on windows this may be a more cost effective option
 
Just had to make the same decision. Went for the one with Touchbar, just so it stays super quick that little bit longer and I just fancied the extra functionality. I love it, touchbar is a great little innovation. Key point for Mac's for me is the longevity. I've had my last 2 MBP's for 6 years each, and it was only during it's last year that it started to slow down even a little. Would never go back to Windows now.
 
Massively regret not getting a MacBook - was slightly hamstrung by software options in the end and went PC. Rarely bother with it now it's like a dinosaur after just 3 years. iPad bought shortly after is a dream.
 
I have had my Mac Book Pro for 4 years, used it every day and its never missed a beat, so in my view they are quality, but at a price as we all know.

The only this I will say is go for the bigger storage as mine was 128Mb and I too had to have an portable external drive for the family music we play on our Sonos
 
I have a 2011 MacBook Air and looking to upgrade to the pro later this year. Waiting for a while now for the step up to be big enough to justify the upgrade.

My favourite is the 13'' no touch bar but with the 256 GB drive. I currently have a 128 GB drive and I am constantly connecting an external drive to put stuff away. Photos getting bigger and bigger because cameras have more anymore megapixel.

I don't think I would use the task bar enough, and as I don't have one now I don't miss it.
 
Some Educational organisations have schemes where you can buy computers (Macbooks) at very reduced cost. Worth enquiring with the potential Uni to see if they do anything like it.
 
Currently looking for the same for my wife. We have a NAS so no need for large storage I hope.

Might get the 128GB one I think. Crazy they come with so little storage though... do the expect everything to be in the cloud or some kind of external storage?
 
ScienceBoy said:
Currently looking for the same for my wife. We have a NAS so no need for large storage I hope.

Might get the 128GB one I think. Crazy they come with so little storage though... do the expect everything to be in the cloud or some kind of external storage?
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its to get you into streaming more than likely

most of the memory on my macbook pro (2011 edition.. 6 years and still going strong!) 90% the memory of my 500gb is either movies or music. They are counting on people to sign up to streaming systems and to only use internal storage for small things
 
pauljames87 said:
its to get you into streaming more than likely

most of the memory on my macbook pro (2011 edition.. 6 years and still going strong!) 90% the memory of my 500gb is either movies or music. They are counting on people to sign up to streaming systems and to only use internal storage for small things
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All our music, movies etc are on the NAS as are all our documents.

I'm keeping a windows machine but we have ditched laptops for iPads.

Wife is missing the laptop experience though.

Hopefully I can set it up so nothing is on the local machine that doesn't need to be, like my PC
 
Replaced a Windows laptop 18 months ago with, after much deliberation, with a windows laptop. I got more bang for the buck. Not long after Mrs Hobbit bought me an iPad Air2 with not much memory. Loved it but very soon ran out of space. It's been replaced with a iPad Pro with a mountain of memory.... I have the keypad that's part of the cover, and the Best Buy to date of the Apple Pencil.

Taking notes in meetings, converting them to Word, adding diagrams.

1) I'd not rush back to a Windows based system.
2) I'd not buy a laptop either...iPad Pro with keypad/case and an Apple Pencil.
 
Logic Pro X is mac only software, It's excellent according to the couple of people I know who work in the music industry and use it - I've not used a mac with the touchbar but a quick google suggests that there are benefits to it when using Logic Pro.

If it's his only mac then I'd also be going for as big an internal drive as you can budget for - I'm a photographer and only have 128gb on my MacBook Air - but it's only used for editing and sending pics in the field. Space isn't an issue for that as I do most of my editing and any video work on an iMac with a 1tb drive.

The other thing to consider is getting a MacBook with a smallish drive and a decent size external drive to edit from - I use an external drive to store and edit all my files on the odd occasion I have to edit video away from home.
 
The entry level MACs are not that great a spec. go with as much as you can afford
 
guest100718 said:
The entry level MACs are not that great a spec. go with as much as you can afford
Click to expand...

Agreed, you are paying for the build as much as the spex. Can build an epic gaming rig on windows 10 for the same money.

I'm going to be pushing the wife towards a iPad Pro with a keyboard cover
 
Thanks for all feedback.

Probably looking to go with the Touchbar version with extra 8gb RAM.

Adding a bigger disk and RAM , and even a faster CPU (I7) to the base model takes it up to the price more or less of a touchbar model.

TB model also has a faster CPU (albeit still I5 versus I7) but with 2 extra USB C ports, slightly better graphics card and of course the touchbar and touch ID feature.

Since we expect him to keep macbook for at least Uni years and hopefully a few years beyond thought we should try to get best machine without going mad. He has agreed to repay back half - yeah right I believe that when I see it😬
 
Modern i5s are more than fast enough.

I have an i7 from 2009 and it's still overpowered for most needs.

I7 if you are doing video editing and 3D modelling is a must however. Music stuff should be fine with a 5 but IMO those types of programs are the ones that benefit from the jump up.

What does the min/recommended specs say for the software?
 
LPX hardware requirement just mentions 4Gb RAM recommended and doesn't say anything about CPU.

Should think ( I hope) Dual core 3.1Ghz I5 is quick enough.

Not spending anymore that's for sure, I could have had a brand new set of clubs, bag and trolley for the same money....with change!
 
I'm toying with the idea of getting a macbook pro, but the price is just insane. I like to do video editing so need some big performance and im looking an bombing off my desktop for portability and just doc the mac/laptop to my screen, etc. Windows deffo half the price, but out of date pretty quickly. i just wish they would have updated the mac mini, that would have been an ideal replacement for my desktop.
 
I have a feeling the Mac mini might be gone. Have a look at macrumours where they estimate what gets updated when quite well.
 
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