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Chay
02-07-2012, 05:16 AM
Hey guys, I was thinking to get this laptop as my main computer for studies and DJing. If you guys are using this how is it? Any problems such as overheating?

JohnXVI
02-07-2012, 05:28 AM
Screw that, get a MBP 13". The price difference is minimal and the processor gap is abysmal.

DJ ArmanB
02-07-2012, 01:56 PM
The way I see it is, you pay more and get less. Go with the MBP.. :tup:

Andrew B
02-07-2012, 02:00 PM
The Air is faster than the 13" Pro in day-to-day use. But if you're going to be doing 3D rendering or something processor-intensive like that, then go with the Pro.

If you do get an Air, make sure it has 4GB of RAM.

NickJames
02-07-2012, 02:02 PM
As the others have said, go MacBook Pro... The main reasons:

- Cannot upgrade the RAM on a MacBook Air.
- The processors in a similarly prices MBP will be better.
- The MacBook Pro deals with heat better.
- Hard drive capacity is better on the MBP line, as long as you go 7200 RPM you'll be fine you do not need the solid-state the air offers.
- Ports are limited on the air.
- Graphics are limited on the air.

JohnXVI
02-07-2012, 02:37 PM
The Air is faster than the 13" Pro in day-to-day use. But if you're going to be doing 3D rendering or something processor-intensive like that, then go with the Pro.

If you do get an Air, make sure it has 4GB of RAM.

Andrew the speed issue is misleading. It all comes down to the SSD drive which I replaced on both of my MBPs. No MacBook Airs can touch MBPs running SSDs.

JohnXVI
02-07-2012, 02:45 PM
Given that they are running i5s of course. The new MBP also goes up to 16GB RAM which sounds like overkill until Traktor gets more crap on it. :lol:

Chay
02-07-2012, 11:13 PM
Screw that, get a MBP 13". The price difference is minimal and the processor gap is abysmal.

700MHz different between the two is not that much of a difference like it was a few years ago. Of course the extra 700MHz will be faster but it's not really needed for everyday usage along with Traktor...


The way I see it is, you pay more and get less. Go with the MBP.. :tup:

It's true that you do get more with the MacBook Pro but I don't mind sacraficing a little bit of power for more of a portable computer, nonetheless the MacBook Pro is still very portable.


The Air is faster than the 13" Pro in day-to-day use. But if you're going to be doing 3D rendering or something processor-intensive like that, then go with the Pro.

If you do get an Air, make sure it has 4GB of RAM.

Nope, just HD TV shows/Movies, listening to music while web-browsing/Facebook/DJF, along with using Traktor in 2-deck mode. That's my primary usage anyways, oh and the base MacBook Air 13" comes with 4GB of RAM as standard :)


As the others have said, go MacBook Pro... The main reasons:

- Cannot upgrade the RAM on a MacBook Air.
- The processors in a similarly prices MBP will be better.
- The MacBook Pro deals with heat better.
- Hard drive capacity is better on the MBP line, as long as you go 7200 RPM you'll be fine you do not need the solid-state the air offers.
- Ports are limited on the air.
- Graphics are limited on the air.

- 4GB of RAM will be plenty for everyday usage and Traktor.
- True, the extra 700MHz is nice, but doesn't seem nessarry to me since I won't be using anything that is CPU intensive.
- The MacBook Air using a Ultra Low Voltage CPU will deal with the heat just fine, at the cost of CPU power of course.
- I have a SSD on my desktop and honestly, I cannot use anything else. The base MacBook Air 13" comes with a 128GB SSD which leaves you about 111GB of usable space, most the storage will be for music of course but my collection is about 15-20GB.
- Indeed ports are limited, however I will only use a USB flash drive and one USB port for connecting my DN-X1600 mixer to it. If anything I can always use USB hubs if I need to.
- Both MacBook Pro 13" and MacBook Air 13" use the same Intel HD 3000 graphics, same amount of power but the main reason why I want to get the Air over the Pro is because of screen resolution, in comparison to 1440x900 and 1280x800.


Andrew the speed issue is misleading. It all comes down to the SSD drive which I replaced on both of my MBPs. No MacBook Airs can touch MBPs running SSDs.

I was thinking to get the MacBook Pro 13" before and get a SSD in it, but I've spent enough money on computer parts :O


Given that they are running i5s of course. The new MBP also goes up to 16GB RAM which sounds like overkill until Traktor gets more crap on it. :lol:

Yep Intel Core i5 at 1.7GHz. 16GB is unheard of for me to use :lol: My desktop has 4GB of RAM and it works just fine, unless I start up Battlefield 3 :P

I think I'm just going to wait till the 2012 refresh comes out for both the Air and Pro and decide then. Although I'm leaning towards the Air a lot at the moment :)

Thanks for your input all! :tup:

willythekidd
02-07-2012, 11:25 PM
I use the air to spin with...i swear i will never go back to a non-ssd drive. besides the first gen air's...there aren't widespread overheating issues that i know of. i don't remember the temps right now but with my old MBP...it was scorching hot after a night of spinning; my air is much much cooler.

mostapha
02-08-2012, 06:51 AM
If I were buying today, I'd get the higher-model 11" Air, but I'd also get an iMac to sit at home. The laptop would literally do nothing but day-to-day stuff and SSL. I mean…I'd install Logic or Pro Tools on it just for the heck of it, but I wouldn't care that much. I'd also seriously consider upgrading the SSD in it to something that's actually fast, since that's the one upgrade you can do to them.

If you're considering a 13" laptop, though, I don't think there's a reason to get the Air over the Pro. The only benefit is weight–which isn't bad on the 13" pros–and the laptop is a bit more fragile because the front is so thin. I'd get the 11" just because I think 13" is too big to carry. If they made an 11" MBP, I'd probably preorder it and worry about selling this one when it came in.

Oh, and at this point, I wouldn't own a computer that didn't boot a high-end SSD. They're so blazing fast that everything else feels like a dinosaur, including high-end gaming PCs that have specs that should tear it to pieces and boot off RAID 5s. If it runs off a spinning platter, it feels slow now. I'd pick an SSD over 16GB of ram any day.

Chay
02-08-2012, 09:26 AM
If I were buying today, I'd get the higher-model 11" Air, but I'd also get an iMac to sit at home. The laptop would literally do nothing but day-to-day stuff and SSL. I mean…I'd install Logic or Pro Tools on it just for the heck of it, but I wouldn't care that much. I'd also seriously consider upgrading the SSD in it to something that's actually fast, since that's the one upgrade you can do to them.

If you're considering a 13" laptop, though, I don't think there's a reason to get the Air over the Pro. The only benefit is weight–which isn't bad on the 13" pros–and the laptop is a bit more fragile because the front is so thin. I'd get the 11" just because I think 13" is too big to carry. If they made an 11" MBP, I'd probably preorder it and worry about selling this one when it came in.

Oh, and at this point, I wouldn't own a computer that didn't boot a high-end SSD. They're so blazing fast that everything else feels like a dinosaur, including high-end gaming PCs that have specs that should tear it to pieces and boot off RAID 5s. If it runs off a spinning platter, it feels slow now. I'd pick an SSD over 16GB of ram any day.

Another reason for me to get the Air over the Pro is the higher resolution, and yes SSD over 16GB of RAM nowadays but 16GB of RAM is quite cheap nowadays :P

mostapha
02-08-2012, 02:42 PM
Yeah…the Mabook Air displays are gorgeous. If you really care, the 11" has about 6% higher linear resolution…which isn't visible, but still.

And my SSD is faster than the ones that come in the Airs. To get something comparable would cost about $250 (for the 120GB, but they com in up to 480GB for $1200). Fortunately, OWC also sells external FW800/400, USB2, eSATA chassis for less than $100 for the standard SSD, which is plenty fast/big enough for an on-site backup or an external work/recording hard drive.

Seriously, though, get an SSD over more ram. Keep good backups because they still have higher failure rates and lower life expectancies than traditional hard drives, but they're so blazing fast that it's unquestionably worth it in my mind. Hard drives are for archive storage and backups at this point. Everything real should happen on an SSD unless you're on a really tight budget, though you can get away with a cheaper drive for your externals because none of the external buses (save Thunderbolt) is fast enough to use the fastest SSDs (mine will saturate SATA3 channels on its own).

I have a 120GB SSD that I boot off of and that hold my DJ music and a 64GB one (my old, crappy one with a bad controller that needs to be wiped periodically to not slow down) that stores projects I'm working on. The 3 hard drives I own are a 320GB time machine drive (that came with my MBP) and 2 500GB archive drives that I swap out periodically in case one of them fails. And they're both going to be replaced with 2TB versions by the end of the year because they're getting pretty full.

I'd probably wait until more stuff came out for thunderbolt (specifically a firewire adapter and an affordable RAID enclosure for 2.5" SATA drives), but there's a damn good chance that my next upgrade (due in ~2 years) will be to an 11" air and whatever the smaller iMac is at the time (depending entirely on whether or not they release an 11" MBP in the mean time), 'cuz I could totally live with just that and an external display.

Andrew B
02-08-2012, 02:47 PM
(depending entirely on whether or not they release an 11" MBP in the mean time)

I'm kind of expecting a pretty massive MBP update this year. More Air-like.

bloomer
02-09-2012, 02:41 AM
I use an 11" MacBook Air, the most recent one, never had a single issue with it. i7 processor, 256gb ssd, 4gb ram, all hooked up to a 42" HDTV mm mm

Chay
02-09-2012, 03:25 AM
I'm kind of expecting a pretty massive MBP update this year. More Air-like.

We all are, can't wait :D

punky
02-09-2012, 08:58 AM
If I were buying today, I'd get the higher-model 11" Air, but I'd also get an iMac to sit at home. The laptop would literally do nothing but day-to-day stuff and SSL. I mean…I'd install Logic or Pro Tools on it just for the heck of it, but I wouldn't care that much. I'd also seriously consider upgrading the SSD in it to something that's actually fast, since that's the one upgrade you can do to them.

If you're considering a 13" laptop, though, I don't think there's a reason to get the Air over the Pro. The only benefit is weight–which isn't bad on the 13" pros–and the laptop is a bit more fragile because the front is so thin. I'd get the 11" just because I think 13" is too big to carry. If they made an 11" MBP, I'd probably preorder it and worry about selling this one when it came in.

Oh, and at this point, I wouldn't own a computer that didn't boot a high-end SSD. They're so blazing fast that everything else feels like a dinosaur, including high-end gaming PCs that have specs that should tear it to pieces and boot off RAID 5s. If it runs off a spinning platter, it feels slow now. I'd pick an SSD over 16GB of ram any day.

Yo Mos, it's weird that we're all down to zero rep and no posts, isn't it?

I wish I could afford an SSD. That is all. :)

jaytoh
02-09-2012, 09:23 AM
MBP! Especially if you decide to go into production aswell. Just buy once man

mostapha
02-09-2012, 11:58 AM
Yo Mos, it's weird that we're all down to zero rep and no posts, isn't it?

Yeah…it really is. Also, welcome back.


I'm kind of expecting a pretty massive MBP update this year. More Air-like.I'm not sure how I feel about them becomming more air-like. Them dropping firewire (and no one releasing a thunderbolt firewire card) would cost me so much money it's not even funny. But, I honestly don't think they're going to do that until there's an option. There are way too many bedroom producers and home recording setups based on MBPs that are based on FW interfaces…it'd be dumb. Then again, I guess I could always get a Thunderbolt JBOD enclosure…but that'd still be a lot of money.


MBP! Especially if you decide to go into production aswell. Just buy once man

IDK…I don't really stress my computer at all. And there are always ways to save on processor power (bounce to audio…also prevents you from endlessly tweaking things to some degree). I'd rather have something that would be easier to carry, since I just plug it into a big display and a bunch of other stuff as soon as I get home anyway.

Really, they just need to release 2 different 11" MBPs. One as a "just barely more than an Air" with real ports and an optical drive for people who think the Air is a netbook and don't want one because they've had bad experiences with eeepc or lenovo. And a second with a processor as good as anything in the MBP line, probably really shitty battery life, a 2nd hdd/ssd option (to replace the optical drive), and the ports that are already on the 13", though I'd happily sacrifice the SD card slot if they can't cram it into the case or want to replace it with FW400 so you could keep your sound cards and hard drives on different controllers.

Gjhowe1
02-13-2012, 01:38 PM
Having owned a macbook pro id recommend it if you plan on traveling around with it as a mobile DJ, ive dropped mine tones and it still keeps going. Never had an thermal issues or lag while running ITCH / Traktor on mine. Cant really say anything on the air as ive never used one. Kinda like the idea of having a CD drive though, just in case.

danthedj
02-18-2012, 08:46 PM
Sorry, I just don't really see where everyone recommending the MBP is coming from.

Ive used serato and torq both with 2gb of ram on a windows pc with no issues at all. So why exactly would anyone need 16gb of ram to dj? :uhoh:

Also, external hard drives are usually what I see other DJs use, but for those with less than 50gb of music they actually use (most people id say) then the SSD offers many benefits over a standard platter.

Another thing that I see people saying is that the MBP stands up to abuse better. This may be true, but I dont see why any product that costs over $1000 needs to stand up to major abuse. Its made out of a block of aluminum, its strong enough to take mild bumps and bruises but they should be taken care of not just thrown around.

To hit my final point, I use my macbook air daily at college. And as the OP said, they will be using this for daily tasks as well as djing. My roommate has the MBP and I can say for a fact, having the MBA in my bag is a great relief on my back. It usually feels like im carrying an empty backpack even with the MBA inside.