DP 9 or 10 with the NEW MBP!!

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I have that dock and frankly all that's connected to to it is one extra TB (which it also consumes from the trash can) and on extra FW port. I can certainly see how the dock would be useful on a laptop. My real need was a USB3 multi-port hub. This works nicely.



I gotta get me one of those laptop things again someday so I can put that darn dock to better use.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

ps - Don't let the $35 price fool you. THe thing is built well and totally reliable. I love the power switching on the ports.

[mikehalloran]

ps - Don't let the $35 price fool you. THe thing is built well and totally reliable. I love the power switching on the ports.

There are many USB hubs that go to sleep when the Mac does but doesn't wake up without disconnecting and reattaching. $35 for one that is known to work properly is a good price.

I have had good luck with these:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00E6 ... =UTF8&th=1

and bad luck with too many others to count including this one
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/USBHub7DLink

[waxman]

Waxman, here's another expansion option. I'm a big fan of OWC stuff and here's their answer to expanding the ports on the new MBP!

https://9to5mac.com/2016/11/03/owc-anno ... rts_tb3dk/

Yeah that looks better then the Belkin. I like Other World Computing myself... Thanks Kwiz

[waxman]

The general sentiment seems to be the new MacBook Pro laptop is over priced. What else is new? It's Apple. The new 2016 MPB laptop fits my needs for portability and i/o.

I am currently using a MacPro 6 core 3.5ghz trashcan. The MBP laptop is a step down in ghz and a loss of 2 Cores. The Ram speed at 2133MHz LPDDR3 in the Laptop gets some of the speed back. RAM in the trash can is 1866MHz DDR3 ECC.

So with those facts could some of you really smart tech engineer guys weigh in please? When it comes exclusively to Digital Performer 9.12? what do you think? Will I "feel" the difference in loss of mhz and 2 cores? Trash Can to Laptop????

Is it worth $200 for the extra .2 ghz which is less then 1% faster.
2.7GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor, Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz
2.9GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor, Turbo Boost up to 3.8GHz + $200.00

What about the graphics is it worth $100... does the graphics card even matter for use with DP?
Radeon Pro 455 with 2GB memory
Radeon Pro 460 with 4GB memory + $100.00

Seems the function key go away see video and 16gb limit for battery sake... http://www.theverge.com/2016/10/28/1346 ... l-schiller

[mikehalloran]

The general sentiment seems to be the new MacBook Pro laptop is over priced.

Considering some of the competition, this is a bit of a surprise. Two weeks ago in Fortune:

Apple's MacBook Pro Has Already Outsold Its Competitors
And it only took five days.
http://fortune.com/2016/11/09/apple-macbook-pro-sales/


Just two weeks earlier, Forbes wrote this:

Forget MacBook Pro Competition, Microsoft's Surface Has Found Success

Is the Surface range outselling the MacBook and iPad alternatives? No, and it’s not likely to do so in the next few years.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/s ... clnk&gl=us

[waxman]

I see the difference between the 13 and 15 inch MBP as huge... The comparisons with the Surface Pro are limited since the Surface pro only does the 13"...

I have made the decision to go mobile. I am only talking about $300 bucks with the faster CPU and faster GPU... however that will cover most of the goofy adapters I will need until the Tbolt 3 becomes ubiquitous. So what do you think? Faster CPU? Faster GPU? or save the $300 bones.

It's psychological because the faster cpu and gpu take the laptop over $3k. I am pretty sure next year they will come out with the upgraded RAM and Intel Kaby Lake CPU processor. As I process this it may be best to go for the less expensive since I will be selling it to get the Kaby Lake one that will inevitably be out next year when Intel gets their stuff together.

[Elektroakoustika]

I have a new Macbook Pro arriving in less than a week. I am finally upgrading my Early 2008 Macbook Pro (Powerbook body-style!) so this is a way overdue upgrade for me.

From what I've read and decided, the CPU upgrade isn't really the best use of money, nor does it increase performance much. So I went with the 2.6 Ghz, 1TB SSD, and 460 graphics. I also do a decent amount of photoshop work and the upgraded 460 graphics are, supposedly, a significant increase in GPU power over the standard 450 graphics.

I'm not sure how/if DP will use the GPU, but I'll let you know how things are on the other side.

Cheers.

[mikehalloran]

With DP, my experience is that there's a big difference between an i7 and i5 due to the FPU. Only a minor difference, if any, in overall performance due to a faster CPU. A faster GPU is often a good idea but not critical.

My 2¢

[waxman]

With DP, my experience is that there's a big difference between an i7 and i5 due to the FPU. Only a minor difference, if any, in overall performance due to a faster CPU. A faster GPU is often a good idea but not critical.

My 2¢

Thanks Mike... well your 2¢ just cost me a Hundred Bucks!

[waxman]

I have a new Macbook Pro arriving in less than a week. I am finally upgrading my Early 2008 Macbook Pro (Powerbook body-style!) so this is a way overdue upgrade for me.

From what I've read and decided, the CPU upgrade isn't really the best use of money, nor does it increase performance much. So I went with the 2.6 Ghz, 1TB SSD, and 460 graphics. I also do a decent amount of photoshop work and the upgraded 460 graphics are, supposedly, a significant increase in GPU power over the standard 450 graphics.

I'm not sure how/if DP will use the GPU, but I'll let you know how things are on the other side.

Cheers.

So 2.6 ghz I can't wait to hear how you like it. The 2.6 is actually doable. Maybe just the $2399 model is the best way to go for me... That is .9 less ghz and 2 cores down from my MacPro. How much will slower is that going to feel? If they are doing the student $100 bucks off that will be great...

[Elektroakoustika]

So 2.6 ghz I can't wait to hear how you like it. The 2.6 is actually doable. Maybe just the $2399 model is the best way to go for me... That is .9 less ghz and 2 cores down from my MacPro. How much will slower is that going to feel? If they are doing the student $100 bucks off that will be great...

I think the difference will be negligible at best. If you look at synthetic CPU benchmarks, the new Macbook Pro will definitely have a better single core score while your Mac Pro will have a better multi-core score (simply because of two additional cores). Another big difference that you have to consider is the SSD which is immensely faster in the new MacBook Pros than pretty much any computer in existence right now. That will make the entire computer "feel" faster.

For me, my 8-core tower Mac Pro still feels speedy even though it is over 7 years old. Granted, I upgraded the hard drives to SSD's and the memory to 32 GB. And its synthetic CPU benchmarks are below the new Macbook Pro I have coming in the mail. But the SSD's in my Mac Pro max out at 300 Mbps writes and reads. The new Macbook Pro has 2000 Mbps writes and 2800 Mbps reads (at least at the 1TB size). That is an insane difference.

From what I've seen on the synthetic benchmark sites, the difference between the 2.6 and 2.9 Ghz chips is about a 9% CPU improvement. For $300, I don't see that as a worthy investment. Plus, for my needs, I find that I need faster storage and graphics (I am disappointed in the lack of 32 GB memory option though).

A good site that measures performance between various Macs including the new ones is barefeats.com. They focus more on graphics applications, but you can definitely get a sense of how the different computers compare CPU and GPU-wise.

My Macbook Pro will not be a replacement for my desktop. I am planning on purchasing a new iMac in the Spring to replace my current Mac Pro. I've just been waiting for Apple to update the external ports to Thunderbolt 3/USB-c as that is the future of all peripherals.

[Elektroakoustika]

With DP, my experience is that there's a big difference between an i7 and i5 due to the FPU. Only a minor difference, if any, in overall performance due to a faster CPU. A faster GPU is often a good idea but not critical.

My 2¢

Yes, I would not go with a 13" MacBook Pro. They are all dual-core systems and the i5 barely achieves the performance needed for professional works.

All of the 15" MacBook Pros, on the other hand, are i7 quad-core systems. As I mentioned in my previous post, I don't see the reason to upgrade a 2.6 Ghz processor to a 2.9 Ghz processor for an extra $300 if I'm only getting a 9% performance improvement.

[waxman]

I love it...Elektroakoustika... Thanks for all the input. I am settling on the 2.6 256GB SSD no extras for $2399. I hope they still have the $100 buck student discount. If I can get out of this for $2299 I will be stoked. Use it for a couple years and maybe a new rocket ship will be ready with Intel generation 9 and who knows what else.

So looking forward to setting up a mix at a local hang out, Starbucks or some exotic local... How cool is that?

What about portable SSD? I'll need a 1TB for all my VI's...
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/ ... usb_c.html

How do these things travel? No adapter needed

Glyph Technologies Atom USB 3.1 Type-C External SSD (Gray)
1TB $399 525GB$229 275GB $129

[Elektroakoustika]

So I'm writing this from my new MacBook Pro and its pretty fantastic. The trackpad is MASSIVE, but I've found it to be quite useful and enjoyable to use. The keyboard takes a bit of getting used to but after a few days, I absolutely love it because it has a very unique and light feel. The screen is phenomenal and by far the best laptop screen I've ever seen. It's also amazingly portable for a 15" laptop. The speakers are pretty incredible for a laptop. I'd never use them for actual work, but for general video and occasional music listening they are more than adequate.

As far as the performance goes, I haven't had any issues with CPU or the SSD. It runs butter smooth all of the time in DP or any other program I'm using. I mainly use DP with VI's so RAM limitations can be an issue but this is going going to be used as my sketching tool as well as a place where I can take care of other business (like photoshop and other things). I have some recording project coming up next year and I don't see this thing have trouble with those.

The touch bar is really neat, but takes a bit to get used to. A lot of the shortcuts on it are things I need to reprogram my brain to use the touch bar instead of the mouse or a series of keyboard shortcuts. But overall there is a ton of potential for it. I especially like working with Pixelmator and Photos as it has a ton of useful features in both of those apps.

Overall, I love the new machine. Yes, it was expensive (too expensive IMHO), but I don't regret dropping the cash, especially since I haven't bought a new laptop in 9 years. I'd say that if you're comfortable if what the previous MB Pro offered, then go for that one, but if you want this new one with all of its crazy future-looking features (limited I/O, touch bar, slim design), it is a lot of fun...

Cheers.