Which is better? (New) MacBook Pro 15 inch or 17 inch

[Hookshot]

Hey Everyone,

I'm interested to know what the community thinks about the newly released MacBook Pro 15 inch vs. the 17 inch. Drop in and leave a note regarding your favorite and why.

Thanks!

[Obsidian Dragon]

My honest opinion may surprise you. "Neither." Apple removed the firewire400 port on thes new Macbook Pros (both 15" and 17") and only has one firewire800 port. For Protools LE with a firewire interface like the 002/002R, 003/003R/003R+, Mbox2Pro, you'll use that one port. To connect the required external firewire drive, you no longer have a second port and therefore must get a drive with two ports to daisy chaine the second firewire devices. If you gat a firewire800 drive, there are reports that there are problems using in simultaneously with the firewire400 digidesign interface so make sure you get a firewire400 drive with two ports instead and you must also get the firewire800 to firewire400 adapter cable (not all work). One option is to get an ugly ExpressCard34 adapter with firewire400 ports to connect either the interface of the hrd drive separately and avid the whole internal firewire bus altogether. Just be clad you are not getting the new Macbook (nonPro). There is no way to add firewire at all the these and therefore will not work for Protools. What a mess Apple has created. Luckly the new white plastic Macbooks are still available with a firewire400 port.

I highly recomment the previous model MacBook or Macbook Pro as they have both a firewire400 and firewire800 port (although you can't use both speed simultaneously) but you can connect your devices withour needing to daisy chain them.

The newer Macbook Pro is faster than the previous ones in terms of processor and memory and have a faster graphics chip. Some folks don't like tee keyboard on the new units however.

[Hookshot]

You know - I've seen multiple people say that you can still get the previous version of the MacBook or MacBook pro with the 400 and 800 FW ports - but I don't see any on Apples site. Would someone care to actually post a link to this magical place where they're still on sale so I can at least take a look at the product to compare? All I see on Apple's site are "refurbished" ones.

[BlueThursday]

My brother-in-law works with them and says the 17's are having some sort of issue but I don't recall what it was, so he went with a 15 instead. He does digital photography so it had nothing to do with audio engineering.

[CME]

Originally Posted by Hookshot

Would someone care to actually post a link to this magical place where they're still on sale so I can at least take a look at the product to compare? All I see on Apple's site are "refurbished" ones.

I have bought 2 refurbed Macs from Apple with no complaints. Both seemed to be brand spankin new. Just came in a box that said refurb. Just my .02

[Obsidian Dragon]

I got mine from Mac Mall but I'm not sure if they still have them. I think I saw one at a local Guitar Center. Also check Unitek, Mac Connection, Mac Warehouse, or Dino Computers.

Don't be afraid to get a refurbished unit either.

[BlueThursday]

I bought a refurb Mac Pro, works great. They are constantly being updated so check back often.

[therecordinghouse]

just because there is no fw400 port does not mean you cant use your fw audio interface. even when the computers had both fw400 and 800, there were on the same buss, which means it is the SAME THING as daisy chaining and interface and drive on one port... 800 to 400 cables are easy to come by, and relatively inexpensive.

i currently have the 17in model and enjoy the high res display tremendously when using pro tools...

[Obsidian Dragon]

Originally Posted by therecordinghouse

just because there is no fw400 port does not mean you cant use your fw audio interface. even when the computers had both fw400 and 800, there were on the same buss, which means it is the SAME THING as daisy chaining and interface and drive on one port... 800 to 400 cables are easy to come by, and relatively inexpensive.

i currently have the 17in model and enjoy the high res display tremendously when using pro tools...

We've heard from more than a few folks here that the fw800 to fw400 cables don't work. Yet others have had good results. I thnk the Belkin cables have had good results. The problem (and we seen may posts about this lately) is people try to use a fw800 drive since they only have a fw800 port and then daisy chain the Digi003 or other firewire 400 interface off the fw800 drive and have problems. It seems to work with fewer problems hanging a fw400 drive off the notebook and then daisy chain the fw400 interface. This should probably be the case even when using the fw800 port on new or older Macbook Pros.

[JrummerJ]

I would go with one of the new 15" macbook pros. Connected correctly with a 800 to 400 cable, there are no problems running an interface and fw drive. And the new macbook pros with the 1066 fsb, blazing RAM, and faster processors are quite a bit faster than the previous generation. I have a 2007 2.2GHz macbook pro and my frineds $2500 15" 09 version kills mine as far as the plugins it can run, and don't get me started on the latency issue. He can open quite a few tracks with plugs, and record BFD lite at 32 sample buffer.

Mine throws errors occasionally at 128 while tracking with Superior 2.0. Anyway, I think that the new ones are the way to go, get an expresscard if you have to, who cares if it runs fast and stable?

J