Apple's new Macbook Pro with Retina Display

[Obsidian Dragon]

Just a few quick notes:

Discontinued is the 17" MPB so if you want one, get it before it is out of stock.

13" and 15" (Non-Retina) gets refresh (faster processors and 2 USB3 ports)

Retina model comes only in 15" and is thinner and lighter (flash drive only - no spinning HD). Also DVD-RW is gone (external USB only). Ports on both left and right of notebook including HDMI port and 2 Thunderbolt ports. (NO FIREWIRE PORT)

All models have faster CPU and GPU

[nst7]

They also announced a new upcoming Thunderbolt to Firewire cable, which will be great for many reasons, and will allow you to use it with this new Macbook.

The new Thunderbolt to Ethernet cable is only $29, hopefully this firewire one will be the same.

[Obsidian Dragon]

That would be a great solution for many of us.

[tamasdragon]

I would immediately buy two of those thunderbolt to firewire cables. I've been waiting for so long....

[Bielefeld]

I am pretty new to Pro Tools. I have been using a 15" MacBook Pro that was purchased in September. I have just received the new 15" MacBook Pro with Retina Display and a 2.6 GHz (with a turboboost to 3.6 GHz) processer yesterday and so far the machine is amazingly fast! The only downfall I have right now is the fact that Apple as not released its new Firewire to Thunderbolt adapter yet... and for some reason I had Pro Tools 10.2 crash on me for the first time (so far it happend only once). I am hoping that the next update of PT10 will incorporate the HiDef Resolution of the Retina Display.

Like I said I am not a heavy user, only a couple of tracks here and there. But this computer is pretty amazing and light weight. I would recommend it to anyone interested.

[robertomg]

Originally Posted by Bielefeld

I am pretty new to Pro Tools. I have been using a 15" MacBook Pro that was purchased in September. I have just received the new 15" MacBook Pro with Retina Display and a 2.6 GHz (with a turboboost to 3.6 GHz) processer yesterday and so far the machine is amazingly fast! The only downfall I have right now is the fact that Apple as not released its new Firewire to Thunderbolt adapter yet... and for some reason I had Pro Tools 10.2 crash on me for the first time (so far it happend only once). I am hoping that the next update of PT10 will incorporate the HiDef Resolution of the Retina Display.

Like I said I am not a heavy user, only a couple of tracks here and there. But this computer is pretty amazing and light weight. I would recommend it to anyone interested.

Are you using an external drive of any kind? Or are you using just the SSD?
I want to buy the retina macbook pro too, but I am afraid performance is affected by not using a second drive for recording/playback. As far as I know SSD are not officially supported by Avid and they always recomend a second drive just for record/playback.

[nst7]

SSD is not supported for audio, but it works fine as your main system drive, which is what these new Macbook Pro's come with.

For your external drives, you have a few choices with it. You could use Thunderbolt drives, or you could use firewire drives with the inexpensive Thunderbolt to firewire adapter that Apple is releasing soon, or, since it has USB 3.0 ports, you could use USB 3.0 drives, which are much faster than firewire, and much less expensive than Thunderbolt drives.

[mostapha]

I've been using an older SSD in a FW800 chassis as my Audio drive for a while (months…maybe a year) on Logic 9 and then PT 10 and had zero issues. (System drive is a newer SSD)

IHNFC why Avid hasn't said it's okay, but their reasons are likely garbage. SSDs are faster and more reliable in every way except a shorter MTTF, which just means that you need to make backups……which you should be doing anyway.

I actually had someone in an Apple store tell me not to do that, and he brought up a bunch of BS reasons like cache size being smaller or seek times being longer, both of which are completely wrong.

It's possible I'm missing something, but I don't think there's any reason to use spinning platters for anything except archives and backups.

[nst7]

Yes, they seem to work fine, but I don't know if the extra expense is worth it for just audio vs. a 7200 rpm spinning drive. But for the system drive or for sample libraries, it certainly is an improvement.

I think the previous poster was concerned about it being the only option for the system drive on the Retina model.

[Bielefeld]

Originally Posted by nst7

Yes, they seem to work fine, but I don't know if the extra expense is worth it for just audio vs. a 7200 rpm spinning drive. But for the system drive or for sample libraries, it certainly is an improvement.

I think the previous poster was concerned about it being the only option for the system drive on the Retina model.

So far it seems to work fine with playback (I haven't tried recording with the SSD yet) I have had Pro Tools crash a couple of times now though... Any idea when/if Avid will upgrade PT10 to support SSD? Or there reasons for them not to? I mean SSD runs cooler, faster and has less moving parts... Why not support them?

I guess in the worst case senario I could always invest in a thunderbolt or USB 3.0 external.