Is An Extra 1gb Of Ram Worth It?, Need some real-world info on MacBook Pro performance Options

[bennybob]

Hi everybody,

The time has come for me to graduate from a Tascam 2488 (24-track all-in-one DAW) to a Mac based DAW. I'm about to pull the trigger and get a MacBook Pro this week as well as Logic Pro 7.2.

Specs:
17" MacBook Pro 2.33 GHz C2D
7200 RPM 100GB drive
2 GB RAM standard

My dilemma is in opting for more RAM. Apple wants another $650 CDN to max the machine out at 3 GB, but I'm not sure if I really need it at this point or not.

I intend to have this machine act as a very portable studio, only using an external drive for backups and very large projects. most of the time I would like to be composing/recording/ tweaking out on the deck or on the living room sofa with not much more than the MBP, a compact MIDI keyboard and an acoustic guitar. I plan to have track counts between 20 and 40 and use a healthy dose of plug-ins and effects. It would be about 70% on-board synths and loops and 30% recorded audio.

So should I spring for 3 gigs of RAM now or wait and buy a 3rd party RAM upgrade at a later date? The other hitch is that the stock MBP RAM is a 2x1GB setup filling both slots, meaning that to upgrade later, I would have to spring for a single 2GB card and have it replace one of the 1GB cards, leaving me with a useless 1GB to sell on eBay or something.

Anyway, long story short - can I get the performance I need out of just 2GB or should I bite the bullet, get the extra 1GB and relax, knowing I've maxed it out as much as I could?

Thanks in advance for any and all responses!

[GordyC]

2 Gb of RAM should do you well, but the more plug-ins that you have linked to your files the more RAM you are going to use. I currently run a Mac Mini with a mere 512MB of RAM and have had no problems what so ever. It all resides in how you set up your mac environment the more background programs you have running such as picture scrolling backgrounds or pixel intensive backgrounds that will keep the cpu and the RAM busy while you are trying to run your DAW. so streamline your environment and 2Gb's should serve you well. Just my two cents, but then again if you have the cash spring for the extra you can never have too much RAM.

[PhilTrueman]

Sorry guys - this all looks completely new to me. It's a while since I replied.

Is it worth it? Not at that price. 2Gb would be just fine - the machine spec looks great - in fact my dream, laptop config. You would be better spending a small portion of that on a fast external drive for sound files, loops etc. If you could get an extra 1Gb for say $100 - great... but that price???

Spend the money on an external drive and more software - have a good time.

PT

Ce message a été modifié par PhilTrueman - mar. 13 févr. 2007, 19:06.

[mortalengines]

Mac RAM ain't cheap but you can look around & find it for cheaper. I tried to replace my own in my Powerbook a while back & the screws on the cover were teenier than my teeniest screwdriver & threatened to strip out. However I was able to run quite a bit more in the way of certain virtual instruments & plugs in Ableton when I added a gig of RAM & so I would say its worth the money.

[t_a_burrows]

Agree completely. I just got a 2.33 MacBookPro and it breezes with 2 gig of RAM. As someone who's been used to big desktop systems for many years but has only begun recording on a laptop over the past year or so, the biggest performance increase I've found * by far * has come from getting a fast external Firewire drive. Obviously if cash is not an issue to you, an extra gig would make things even better, but it doesn't make good financial sense.

T.

http://www.myspace.com/terryburrows

Ce message a été modifié par t_a_burrows - mer. 14 févr. 2007, 08:32.

[hahaworld]

I'd also like to add that you don't need to fall for Apple's claim that you must use Apple-approved RAM in your machine. Third-party RAM is much cheaper, and works absolutely fine (except of course for the occasional bad stick, but that's easily remedied). My Desktop G4 Quad is full of third-party RAM, and it likes it just fine.

HaHaWorld