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MBP 13 inch advise for music production
I am looking to upgrade my old 2013 MacBook Pro 15 inch, Intel Quad Core i7 which has 16GB of ram with one of the new 2020 MacBook Pro 13 inch models. The reason I’m interested in the 13 inch over the 16 inch is portability. I will be using it for Logic Pro X and Reason 11 and various plugins.
Originally I was going to buy the £1999 MacBook Pro 13 inch with intel Quad Core i5, 1TB storage and 16GB ram but for £600 more I could get a custom built model with intel Quad Core i7 and 32GB ram.
Is the extra £600 worth it for the Quad Core i7 and 32GB ram or am I better off saving the £600 and getting the Quad Core i5 and 16GB ram model? I read somewhere that the i5 is just as good as the i7.
Comments
I just got mine yesterday, I got the Quad Core i7 with 1 TB storage and 16GB of ram and so far its really great, Im using Logic Pro X and Reason Intro. I upgraded from my old 2011 13 inch MacBook Pro and I'm extremely happy with my purchase. In hindsight I wish I bought the one with 32 GB of ram, not because 16GB isn't cutting it, only because I found out that the ram isn't upgradable, you're pretty much stuck with whatever you buy. I thought I could install more ram myself later like I did with my old Mac but nope.But I feel like 16 GB is more than enough for what I do in Logic Pro though.
The only other thing is that it comes with Catalina installed, and I also use MPC desktop software with and MPC Studio Black, and it doesn't work with my Studio Black because Akai hasn't made drivers for it yet. But I could finally update Logic to the latest version and its soooooooo good!!!
It’s likely the higher-spec choice will be viable longer so will be a better value overall. I always buy the highest spec I can for my budget. My current Mac Pro is still running strong after 7 years and has cost me around $10 a week over its lifetime.
I would definitely want the i7 over the i5. 32GB versus 16GB would be less of a concern for me, so I would maybe drop it back to 16 if it saves you some money.
If the question is more processor vs more RAM vs more storage the answer is always YES. 😆
@Artmuzz I can’t speak to the current MBP 13 model (I have the 2016). But depending on your needs one often overlooked spec in comparing the recent (ultrabook thin) MBP 13 to MBP 15-16 (or pre 2016 13") is heat management and GPU performance. It's not a thing people always think of for music uses, but to my knowledge it has a history of being a big performance bottleneck for a lot of music making uses ever since they thinned down the MBP 13 in 2016. Not sure for the 2020 model, but with the previous thin ones, e.g., lots of modern plugins and music apps (e.g. VCV Rack) push both the GPU and the thermal management hard enough to make these thin MBP 13 perform much worse than the other specs would suggest.
Tl;dr: Keep a close eye on the GPU and thermal management performance of the MBP 13, and how it affects performance for your use case; in evaluating which model to get, that might be a huge hidden advantage of the MBP 16..
@ohwell I was thinking of getting the 16 inch MacBook Pro because the GPU isn’t built in like on the 13 inch model and the 6 core i7 as opposed to the quad core but I was looking for a portable laptop that was powerful too and the £2,599 MacBook Pro with i7, 1TB ssd storage and 32GB ram ticks all the boxes for me. However, I’ve started thinking more about the 16 inch model but what is putting me off is the size.
@Tarekith I was thinking of just getting 16GB because Apple are charging a lot of money to upgrade to 32GB. It will cost an extra £400 to upgrade to 32GB and I cannot justify the price.
@Strizbiz Good to hear you are enjoying the 13 inch 2020 MacBook Pro with the same specs I’m thinking of buying except I’m wanting 32GB. Reading your post is making me press the trigger and just buy it.
I still haven’t decided whether I will because even though I have enough money saved up to buy the upgraded 13 inch 2020 MacBook Pro with i7 processor, 32GB ram and 1TB ram I’m finding it hard to justify the price of £2,599. However, I’ve seen a few 13 inch MacBook Pro 2020 models with the same specs I’m looking for that are £200 cheaper on eBay but I’m a bit unsure.
Anyway, thanks to everyone who replied to my thread.
@Artmuzz I totally get what you mean with portability. For myself, I've come to the conclusion that 3lbs is still not light and portable enough to be worth a serious performance hit. But if the 13 does perform well enough for your needs, then the weight benefit might be worth it.
I’m not sure there’s going to be a theoretical answer short of giving the 13” a shot and throwing enough realistic performance tests at it within your return period.
@ohwell definitely with you on the gpu performance/thermal management thing on the 13 each model. I have the same mbp pro 13 2016 and some apps like vcv and cherry modular just make the mbp go nuts temp wise. My only solution is to run thoses apps in low res. I’m definitely gonna opt for something like a 15 inchwith a dedicated gpu next time around.
I would definitely get the 15 inch if you can swing it, I plan on getting a 16 inch mainly for video editing and After effects and C4D work, but Cherry Modular works great on the 2020 13 inch MBP model I have, I downloaded it and ran it yesterday and it was so much better than my old 13 inch MBP. On the website its says a Quad Core computer is recommended and my old one is a Dual Core.
4 days in and so far so great. I can say that only having 16GB or ram hasn't been an issue so far, Im not saying not to get 32 gb if you can swing it but I don't see myself needing it for Logic Pro, but I can see where doing ram previews in After Effects or longer format projects in Final Cut Pro where it would come in handy.
Hi!,
Cherry Modular was running great before the 2.0 update. After the update, my MBP would overheat quite a bit but since putting it in low res, it's running much better.
Definitely gonna go for a 15 inch for the next one.
Cheers!
I mostly do music production on my current 2013 15 inch, 16GB i7 MBP, so getting the 16GB model would certainly save me £400. I am tempted with 32GB as it will be future proof but even though I have saved up enough money to buy the 32GB model as I said before I cannot justify £400 to upgrade the 16GB to 32GB.
I recently bought the new 2020 iPad Pro 11 inch 512GB model and very impressed with it and I’ve been using BM3 and Drambo on it and it’s awesome but I’m looking at upgrading my current MBP to take full advantage of the latest Logic Pro 10.5.
I’ve got the 16”, it’s an upgrade to my 2012 15”. The 16” is much thinner, and so lighter, and because the footprint is the same as the screen goes closer to the edges.
My 15” is a hefty old thing in comparison, so no issues for me with weight or size, and the slightly bigger screen is surprisingly more usable.
Thanks for the advise. However, I finally decided to buy the MBP 13 inch with i7 quad core and 32GB ram with 1TB storage from a seller on eBay Brand new and sealed for £2,399 which has saved me £200. However I’m a bit nervous with it being eBay in case I get conned but it was payed via PayPal which gives me a bit of security.
Anyway, thanks for all the advise and suggestions.
Yeah careful, there's a lot of scammers around. I tried buying via Amazon to save £200, but was contacted by a scammed 'technical support' who seemed to have hacked the sellers account, trying to get more info. Needless to say I cancelled that one and bought straight from Apple.
I'm sure you'll be fine, but be aware of any odd phonecalls. New laptops are a bit of a favourite of scammers.
I am getting a bit stressed out and worried now.
I contacted the seller asking when MBP will be delivered and he said that PayPal have put the payment on hold for 24 hours. When the hold is lifted he will send it to me.
What I don’t understand is that when I made the payment the transaction on my PayPal account was completed successfully and the money came out my bank account yet the seller is claiming that the payment is on 24 hour hold from his account.
I’d check with PayPal to see if this is standard procedure, or if something fishy is going on.
It’s a lot of money, better to be safe than sorry.
I’ve contacted PayPal and awaiting a reply.
However, I’ve read some info about this 24 hour payment hold and what I’ve read is that this is a security measure by Paypal.
What happens is that the 24 hour payment hold is lifted and the payments goes into the seller’s account once the buyer is satisfied with his/her item when received.
However, this is very frustrating because the seller will not send me the MacBook Pro until the 24 hour hold is lifted. I don’t know if this is true as I read it from another forum.
Hopefully if the worst comes to the worst I’ll just report this and get my money refunded.
This is giving me panic attacks as I suffer from severe anxiety and depression and panic disorder.
Don't panic, you've alerted PayPal so made them aware, and it does sound like the sort of thing they'd do, and you'd be covered by PayPal/your credit card anyway. Paypal are pretty good at buyer protection.
I've never bought anything from eBay so this could be a standard thing.
I also feel always save with PayPal.
Yes, do not panic.
I received a reply for PayPal.
What has happened is PayPal have a security feature where the seller has to upload a tracking ID so that when the MacBook Pro is delivered to me and I am happy with purchase then payment hold gets lifted on the the sellers account.
However, the frustrating thing is that the seller won’t send the MacBook Pro to me until the payment hold is lifted. So I emailed him to contact PayPal himself for confirmation of what I said and if he is unhappy I will file for full refund.
This has been one stressful experience.
Sounds a bit convoluted, but I can see it from both sides. You’re protected in case it doesn’t turn up, but as a seller he’s worried he’s sending something off without payment.
I can understand why you’re stressed, I felt the same with my first attempt. More expensive, but it was so much easier buying direct from Apple.
Yeah, I can see me having to spend the extra £200 and buy direct from Apple when I get the money refunded from PayPal.
As you said the problem is that we are both worried about being scammed and with this being a first purchase for me on eBay with no feedback history he is apprehensive about sending it until the payment hold gets lifted and like wise I am worried he won’t send the MacBook Pro and run away with the money.
I’ve just received a reply from the seller telling me that the payment hold has been lifted and the money is in his account now which has got me worried because PayPal told me the payment hold will be released when I receive the item but I haven’t received the item yet. Hmmm! I have contacted PayPal again about this matter.
I received two emails from PayPal and eBay confirming that my MacBook Pro has been posted. I then got an email from the seller with a photo of the receipt with tracking ID and it’s on it’s way to me so everything is cool now. This was a stressful experience which I didn't need because I suffer from anxiety disorder and depression.
Sounds good, hope it all goes well, enjoy your new Mac!
I received my new MacBook Pro this morning and very happy with it. It’s a fast powerful machine and I’ve been producing some tracks on Logic Pro and Reason 11 and it hasn’t broken a sweat.
The only snag with my new purchase is that for some reason my new MacBook Pro has the US Keyboard instead of the UK keyboard. I mentioned this to the seller and he says he usually gets a mix of UK and US model dispatched to him. I was wondering if having the American US model of the MacBook Pro would affect my warranty in the UK?
@Artmuzz I'd say warranty should only be affected if you ordered it from outside the UK. Apple offers all the keyboard types in all countries afaik.
I'm finding it a bit weird you couldn't specify which keyboard you'd get.
What do you mean you find it weird how I couldn’t specify which keyboard I’d get? I assumed it would of been the model with British UK keyboard so I didn’t need to ask.
Strange thing is that the MacBook Pro was factory sealed in its box with the UK British power adapter but the MacBook Pro itself has the US American keyboard.
what’s the diffetence between the 2 keyboards? Layout, characters, etc? I’ve never seen a uk keyboard, now I’m curious.