Macbook Air 2014 (1.4ghz Dual-core Intel core i5 Vs. Mid 2010 MBP i7 Quad-Core and PT

[TheGoodhusbands]

I have a dilemma, I have access to a newer 2014 MB Air 1.4ghz turbo up to 2.7ghz with 4gb RAM and 128 GB PCIe Memory (not alot i know) and a mid 2010 MBP i7 quad core chip with a 500GB non SSD HD.
What I was wondering is for optimizing for PT 10 or higher which machine is going to perform better?

If I upgraded my HD on my i7 quad-core to a SSD and added more ram is that going to out perform the much newer chip in the Machbook Air ?

My main goal is to run multiple channels of different VI's such as Native Instruments, etc. Currently the MBP with the i7 constantly bogs down and crashes and freezes even when I'm constantly changing the sample rate from 128 - 1024. It says all the time I'm running out of processor power which leads me to believe its the chip.

Am I getting this error because of the slow hard drive as well? Would that fix my problem? What's it going to take to do what I want to do? I would be willing to sell both the computers and cash in for a computer with a bigger brain if thatll solve the problem. Please HELP!

[Glenjb]

Are you running your vi's in PT10? Pt10, being a 32bit app, can only access 4gb of ram no matter how much ram you have installed. PT11 and up can access all ram you have installed.

I would rather the i7 processor. I have a 2012 air w/ i7 8gb ram and it runs well but i7 is recommended for pro tools, i5 not so much. Maybe someone else will chime in on that.

Also upgrading the MBP to an SSD system drive will make the app load much faster. Do you use a separate 7200rpm or better Audio Drive that you save your sessions to? Separate samples drive?

[TheGoodhusbands]

I have not done that the separate drives for sessions and samples. Probably a good idea. That way I'm guessing PT can write audio to one drive without having to index it for samples at the same time. Take advantage of the multiple cores and not bog down the original spinning hard drive. And currently I was actually running PT 8.05 and it is really buggy. I know i've needed to upgrade for a while but I just hadn't made the jump.


Using your thinking, (and thanks for the help)
SSD upgrade for the MBP + Separate drive for Sessions and Samples should fix my issues?
I was going to ditch the disc drive and get a housing unit for a SSD drive and have the original hard drive on board also. Then go to 8GB on the Ram with the newer version of pro tools? Would that do it ya think?

Ideally I wanted to run Maschine and then Kontact at the same time for drums and Software Insts as well as maybe one other concurrently.

Then I have all the 3rd party RTAS plugins. Will this run smoothly at that point?

Again I may be slightly confused by super appreciative for the help.