Which MacBook should I buy?

Never had one.
I’d like a model suitable for music production but don’t have (and don’t want) to spend an insane amount of money.
The idea is to use it with Maschine.
What’s the best compromise?

for music, only the Pro is worth looking at
15" - discrete graphics puts out more heat but frees up resources somewhat to crunch audio. Larger screen is nice.
13" - better for heat, somewhat underpowered CPU, but quiet, runs cooler, and you don't need the touchbar.

Really ask yourself if it needs to be a laptop and if you need OSX.

I'd get the 13" one but do mind it's nowhere near as powerful as a desktop rig.
That said, they're all quite powerful these days.

Get 16GB RAM even if you can't afford it.

The right model might end up lasting you for many years. What is "an insane amount of money"?
- 9 years on a 13" Macbook Aluminium, 7 on 15" MBP, 5 w/ Hackintosh

Best bang for your buck is the mid-2015 Macbook Pro Retina. I’ve got a brand new 2017 one which replaced my work-issued mid-2015 model and, for the money, it’s not a worthwhile upgrade.


The mid-2015 matches the new ones on almost every spec with a few exceptions – they’re not as thin and light, no touchbar and the newer screens are a little nicer. If I were buying a new mac today with my own money, I’d grab one of those. The new ones are not noticeably faster, nor seem to have better battery life. And you wont need USB-C dongles to plug in all your gear!

MacBook Pro, with lots of RAM. I’m on year 7 with mine, so an “insane” amount of money can actually get you something that will last a very long time.

Dell XPS15 (with 14" Footprint) 4K Screen, Quad Core, 1TB SSD, 32GB Ram

I grabbed one a month or so ago at the Dell Outlet (not their main site) for about £1600.


Try getting an Apple of that spec for that cost :wink:




… At the end of the day I bought a base model MacBook Pro 13”, with dual core i5, 8gb RAM and 256gb SSD.

Nothing fancy but it’s the maximum that I could afford right now for a new machine.

Plus it was on offer with a discount of 250€, So I paid a reasonable 1550€.

Thanks for your help! :slight_smile:

FYI late 2011-early 2012 is the last year before they started soldering the drive and ram to the motherboard. The quad cores in the 15 inch models still haul ass. Cheap, reliable and upgradeable, if somewhat big and heavy.

FYI late 2011-early 2012 is the last year before they started soldering the drive and ram to the motherboard. The quad cores in the 15 inch models still haul ass. Cheap, reliable and upgradeable, if somewhat big and heavy.

+1. And you can also double the RAM (8 Gb instead of 4) even if it’s not officially supported, it will be used anyway.