mac ppc died. macbook pro or mac pro for pt 9

[Ghostdreams]

My ppc has just bit the dust. I am considering buying a new apple (macbook pro 17" or mac pro quad) I am looking for advise on best computer and updating to pt 9. I was on 8.01. 002R. 2 Glyph 400 fw hds. factory. I have heard horror stories from users making the switch. HELP. Big Money to be spending at this time.

[otlyer]

mac pro is the best investment

[nst7]

No reason to get the Macbook Pro unless you absolutely need the portability.

You will get much more bang for the buck with the Mac Pro.

Plus you can use internal hard drives and sell off your Glyphs, unless, again, you need to carry drives to sessions with other people, etc.

[albee1952]

Amen! A Mac Pro with 3-4 internal SATA drives will stomp any laptop in performance.

[Ghostdreams]

Thanks, This is the most definitive advice I've received. I will start planning.

[nst7]

It's not that the Mac laptops are bad. It's just that that you're paying a certain percentage of the price for the portability. The same amount of money will buy you much more processing power in a desktop. Plus it's a better setup all around because of being able to use internal hard drives, where information flows faster back and forth.

On the other hand, if you do a lot of location based recording, then obviously laptops are handy.

[AxeDye]

the xeon processors are very powerful but really it only benefits servers and video editing. That will all change when Avid release a 64 bit running version of Pro Tools. If you have the money and don't need the mobility most definitely the Mac Pro because truthfully 64 bit pro tools isn't very far away. The ram possibilities also a major concept behind power is the actual power supply. Notebooks are designed to run on lower power to use less battery and to run as cool as possible. Buy a gaming notebook and you will see how hot any notebook could actually get, anyways this is cutting a lot of the performance you get with desktops. Also a thing that ticks me off with apple is the core i7 macbook pro is the dual core, core i7 model and not the quad. For the price people are paying they are getting a bad deal on the processor, hell 4GB of ram is standard why not just give us 2 standard and a quad processor, because ram is workable all the time.

As for hard drive capabilities I wouldn't let that make your decision, I have always felt recording on an external is better because you never know when you might need that session, of course you could always move it to an external, but I have always just used an external.

I am going with a macbook pro, except I am getting a 2.8 Ghz Core 2 Duo Unibody model, sure it's getting out dated but if I am going to end up with dual core anyways why buy the new crap when it's not what I want. And I don't want to drop 2000 on a MBP until light peak is offered.

[Kenmillerjr]

Yeap. I'd go with the Mac Pro. MBP's are good, but nothing is better than editing/mixing on a Big Mac.

[Ghostdreams]

Thanks everyone! I am almost sure I will get a new Mac Pro quad 2.80. Should I spend the extra and update to 6g of ram? Any other options I might want to do at purchase?

[Obsidian Dragon]

The upgrade (crossgrade) to PT9 was simple and runs great for me. Don't fear the update. I am on PT9 and will never go back to PT8. It is that much better and very stable for me. I also agree that if portability is not required, a MacPro is the better solution. PT9 is still 32-bit so it will only see/use 4GM of RAM. Additional RAM can be used with appropriately written plugins however.