Anybody here using a Macbook Pro for REAL work?

[Meads]

With the release of the new Macbook Pros and seeing how much power they pack I'm thinking about getting one as my main rig.

I need a machine for my studio and for my home. I'm running HDN PCIe at both places atm, at home I have a 12 Core MacPro (cheesegrater) and at the studio I use a i7 5960x Hackintosh.
I work mainly in post with huge and plugin dense sessions, and I need to hook up to 5 screens to the machine. The most taxing would be 2x 1440P and 1x 4K at once. Other scenario would be 5x 1080P.

So my plan would be to get the highest spec'd MBP 15" with an i9 and 32GB RAM, plus a Sonnett PCIe Chassis with Thunderbolt 3 for my HDN card, and two thunderbolt to 2x displayport adaptors to take care of the screens. Tuck the Macbook away into the machine room where I'll use it with a closed lid (thermal issues...?).

Is there anyone here who can comment on that based on experience and not theory alone?
To me this would be practical as I wouldn't have to buy/upgrade/maintain two computers (at home and at the studio) but have one Macbook as the horse that carries my whole business. But I'm a little hesitant and in doubt if it is up to the task of replacing two full blown tower computers.

Thanks for your comments!

[mightyduck]

Originally Posted by Meads

With the release of the new Macbook Pros and seeing how much power they pack I'm thinking about getting one as my main rig.

I need a machine for my studio and for my home. I'm running HDN PCIe at both places atm, at home I have a 12 Core MacPro (cheesegrater) and at the studio I use a i7 5960x Hackintosh.
I work mainly in post with huge and plugin dense sessions, and I need to hook up to 5 screens to the machine. The most taxing would be 2x 1440P and 1x 4K at once. Other scenario would be 5x 1080P.

So my plan would be to get the highest spec'd MBP 15" with an i9 and 32GB RAM, plus a Sonnett PCIe Chassis with Thunderbolt 3 for my HDN card, and two thunderbolt to 2x displayport adaptors to take care of the screens. Tuck the Macbook away into the machine room where I'll use it with a closed lid (thermal issues...?).

Is there anyone here who can comment on that based on experience and not theory alone?
To me this would be practical as I wouldn't have to buy/upgrade/maintain two computers (at home and at the studio) but have one Macbook as the horse that carries my whole business. But I'm a little hesitant and in doubt if it is up to the task of replacing two full blown tower computers.

Thanks for your comments!

Maybe have a backup rather than relying on one laptop to carry your whole business. I am using a MBP 15 2017 and it works fine. I do not believe you can get 32GB RAM on any MBP.


mighty

[Meads]

Originally Posted by mightyduck

I do not believe you can get 32GB RAM on any MBP.

You better.

[mightyduck]

Originally Posted by Meads

You better.

I mean they do not offer it as a possibility. Mine's working fine with 16.


Mighty

[Meads]

Yes, they do with the latest model.

[mightyduck]

Originally Posted by Meads

Yes, they do with the latest model.

Oh, when did that start?


Mighty

[Meads]

A couple days ago.

[xrekcor]

Ordered mine last Thursday, except I went with the processor listed in my signature. it was weird someone on here posted that 32Gb of ram was on the horizon and I had been going over sys config's on their buy page for a couple of days. then when I went to order I noticed the lil orange coloured "new" text and there was the the i9's and 32Gb ram I took up the ram offer and went with a 1T ssd. should be here in about a week, sorry don't have a lot of experience with mac but I intend it use to be mobile studio and live.

[Dalton_Sound]

I'm in the same boat. I need a new computer for doing recording, but I need to be mobile and able to work with dense track counts with lots of plugins at high sample rates.

My main concern with the new MBP is the thermals. If the i9 is capping itself because the fans won't cool the computer, am I better off getting a pc? I have software and hardware that also only works on a mac.

On a side note, does PT Ultimate work well on a PC?

[EGS]

Originally Posted by Dalton_Sound

... My main concern with the new MBP is the thermals. If the i9 is capping itself because the fans won't cool the computer, am I better off getting a pc? ...

Here's a Windows "gaming" laptop, available with i9 hexcore & 32GB ram etc https://www.asus.com/us/Laptops/ROG-G703/ They claim it has good thermals.