Late 2019 MacBook Pro Specs for Logic Pro X

[haskins02]

I got tuned off to the idea of buying a new Windows 10 laptop because of continued reports and uncertainties associated with DPC latency. So I decided to bite the bullet, play it safe (?) and buy a new MacBook Pro (either 13 or 15 inch) with Logic Pro X installed, also supported by Apple.

I would appreciate suggestions on which features to order that will be “comfortably sufficient” for my relatively modest music production needs. I am a hobbyist creating mostly background tracks for my solo performances. However, I do plan to buy plug-in instruments like Kontact Komplete 12 which may have large sized samples. I will use the MacBook mostly as a home office computer and with a large 4K external monitor, so the internal display size does not matter.

Obviously, the 15-inch MacBook Pro is the best way to go with all the top end features I can afford. That’s a given. But I’d like to see if I can save a few bucks with a top-end 13-inch model with the following:

2.8GHz quad core 8th generation Intel Core i7 processor, Turbo Boost up to 4.7GHz (Comfortably sufficient? The upgraded six core CPU is only available on the 15-inch.)

16GB 2133MHz LPDDR3 memory (Comfortably sufficient? The upgraded 32 GB memory is only available on the 15-inch.)

512GB SSD storage (I would use it with a 2 TB external SSD for song files and sample libraries. Is USB-3.1 Gen 2 connectivity comfortably sufficient rather than the faster and more expensive Thunderbolt 3?)

Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655 graphics (Is this comfortably sufficient for a single 32-inch external 4K monitor? Upgraded graphics are only available on the 15-inch.)

Thanks for your feedback and suggestions.

[jancivil]

Turbo Boost is not going to kick in too often unless you use software that leans hard on a single core, or that's my received understanding.

if you get into 'large size samples' at all, do the 32GB

[Michael L]

FWIW, For their Kontakt libraries Spitfire Audio Recommends: 2.8GHz I7 (six-core), 16GB RAM

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

I got tuned off to the idea of buying a new Windows 10 laptop because of continued reports and uncertainties associated with DPC latency. So I decided to bite the bullet, play it safe (?) and buy a new MacBook Pro (either 13 or 15 inch) with Logic Pro X installed, also supported by Apple.

I would appreciate suggestions on which features to order that will be “comfortably sufficient” for my relatively modest music production needs. I am a hobbyist creating mostly background tracks for my solo performances. However, I do plan to buy plug-in instruments like Kontact Komplete 12 which may have large sized samples. I will use the MacBook mostly as a home office computer and with a large 4K external monitor, so the internal display size does not matter.

Obviously, the 15-inch MacBook Pro is the best way to go with all the top end features I can afford. That’s a given. But I’d like to see if I can save a few bucks with a top-end 13-inch model with the following:

2.8GHz quad core 8th generation Intel Core i7 processor, Turbo Boost up to 4.7GHz (Comfortably sufficient? The upgraded six core CPU is only available on the 15-inch.)

16GB 2133MHz LPDDR3 memory (Comfortably sufficient? The upgraded 32 GB memory is only available on the 15-inch.)

512GB SSD storage (I would use it with a 2 TB external SSD for song files and sample libraries. Is USB-3.1 Gen 2 connectivity comfortably sufficient rather than the faster and more expensive Thunderbolt 3?)

Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655 graphics (Is this comfortably sufficient for a single 32-inch external 4K monitor? Upgraded graphics are only available on the 15-inch.)

Thanks for your feedback and suggestions.

Graphics card will be fine. Everything else? Depends.

When you talk of "large sized samples", do you mean the samples themselves, or the libraries being large. And how extensive do you think your sampled arrangements might become?

Also, wondering why you would need a 512gb ssd if you plan on hosting pretty much all of the big content on an external drive.

[mgw38]

I’m using a maxed out 2016 13 inch MacBook Pro and have not yet found a reason to upgrade. Performance wise any of the new ones should be perfectly fine.

You want to make sure that you have as much RAM as possible though. 16GB should be ok.

USB 3.1 is enough for data. I have an external graphics card on the TB3 port so that I can drive multiple 4k monitors. If you want to do something like that you need TB3, otherwise USB 3.1 is fine.

13 vs 15 inch is mainly a question of mobility. I find the 13 inch model substantially more convenient when on travel. The smaller internal display is the main downside.

[Gamma-UT]

Quad core is sufficient IMO. Extra cores really only benefit situations where you're mixing and it involves a lot of tracks. You're far more likely to max out one core well before then.

More memory is better, particularly as the MacBook memory isn't upgradeable later. But unless you're planning big orchestral arrangements, 16GB seems OK.

USB3.1 is plenty good enough for streaming samples from an SSD.

[jancivil]

People who do actual full symphonic like teh 128GB jobs. Since this choice is forever, you want 32 if you can do it.

[haskins02]

Thanks everyone for the great responses! Re:

When you talk of "large sized samples", do you mean the samples themselves, or the libraries being large. And how extensive do you think your sampled arrangements might become?

Also, wondering why you would need a 512gb ssd if you plan on hosting pretty much all of the big content on an external drive.

Regarding the “large sized samples”, I am not sure because I have not purchased them yet but I expect it will be around 100 GB of samples. If there are any large-sized ones being used for a particular song, it would likely be just 2 or 3 of them at a time since I typically work with a limited number of tracks (1 to 3 audio, 5 to 10 MIDI). So does 16 GB seem comfortably sufficient?

Regarding 512 GB SSD being overkill if I am using it with a 2TB external SSD, the MacBook would be used as a Home Office computer too with other applications. Also, I want the flexibility of possibly doing a dual boot system where I would use Boot Camp to create a separate Windows 10 partition.

[jancivil]

I recommend to weigh a larger SSD for internal by cost vs the external. See if the internal connection doesn't spec out faster.
External drive for samples is from the earlier era of system on mechanical drives as that bottleneck, that's history.

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

I recommend to weigh a larger SSD for internal by cost vs the external. See if the internal connection doesn't spec out faster.
External drive for samples is from the earlier era of system on mechanical drives as that bottleneck, that's history.

While it's true that in the past mechanical drives worked better with a distributed load, that's not the reason to recommend it today. Cost is.

The internal drives Apple puts in are f'sure extremely fast. However, they also have a huge mark-up (Nearly 1000 euros to go from 256gb to 1tb). A 2tb 'standard' SSD such as Samsung EVO 860 can be had for 300 euros, and bunged into any 3rd-party enclosure. It will be fast enough for all but a few use-cases, and certainly fast enough for what the op has in mind

[haskins02]

I recommend to weigh a larger SSD for internal by cost vs the external. See if the internal connection doesn't spec out faster.
External drive for samples is from the earlier era of system on mechanical drives as that bottleneck, that's history.

While it's true that in the past mechanical drives worked better with a distributed load, that's not the reason to recommend it today. Cost is.

The internal drives Apple puts in are f'sure extremely fast. However, they also have a huge mark-up (Nearly 1000 euros to go from 256gb to 1tb). A 2tb 'standard' SSD such as Samsung EVO 860 can be had for 300 euros, and bunged into any 3rd-party enclosure. It will be fast enough for all but a few use-cases, and certainly fast enough for what the op has in mind

Thanks for the suggestions. I agree that large internal SSDs on Macs are ridiculously expensive. I checked into the Samsung EVO 860 and it’s an internal SSD. I don’t believe you can add a second storage drive to a MacBook. So among Samsung products, I was thinking of the Samsung T5 Portable SSD - 2TB - USB 3.1 External SSD for $300 in the USA. I read that it has transfer speeds up to 540 MB/s (USB 3.1 Gen 2). I suspect that would be “comfortably sufficient” for my particular needs.

[jancivil]

I did the opposite of recommend a mechanical drive, I stated that a system on a mechanical drive is a known, gigantic bottleneck as far as ever hoping to stream samples, while an SSD is not that problem at all. In no sense was I even talking about buying a mechanical drive.

AFAIK the internal connection is your faster connection, so how much cheaper is the external USB3 drive.

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

I did the opposite of recommend a mechanical drive, I stated that a system on a mechanical drive is a known, gigantic bottleneck as far as ever hoping to stream samples, while an SSD is not that problem at all. In no sense was I even talking about buying a mechanical drive.

AFAIK the internal connection is your faster connection, so how much cheaper is the external USB3 drive.

Yeah! Don't know what I was trying to say with that first line. It doesn't really make sense. I know you weren't suggesting buying mechanical drives.

What I mean is that the recommendation to use an external drive (SSD) now is not because the SSD cannot handle the multiple i/o streams of data on one drive, but because Apple charges huge markups on their internal drives. And seeing as external SSD's are still wicked-fast, it might make sense for someone looking for large amounts of space (Which one would need to install Logic and Komplete, for example), to buy an external SSD.

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

I recommend to weigh a larger SSD for internal by cost vs the external. See if the internal connection doesn't spec out faster.
External drive for samples is from the earlier era of system on mechanical drives as that bottleneck, that's history.

While it's true that in the past mechanical drives worked better with a distributed load, that's not the reason to recommend it today. Cost is.

The internal drives Apple puts in are f'sure extremely fast. However, they also have a huge mark-up (Nearly 1000 euros to go from 256gb to 1tb). A 2tb 'standard' SSD such as Samsung EVO 860 can be had for 300 euros, and bunged into any 3rd-party enclosure. It will be fast enough for all but a few use-cases, and certainly fast enough for what the op has in mind

Thanks for the suggestions. I agree that large internal SSDs on Macs are ridiculously expensive. I checked into the Samsung EVO 860 and it’s an internal SSD. I don’t believe you can add a second storage drive to a MacBook. So among Samsung products, I was thinking of the Samsung T5 Portable SSD - 2TB - USB 3.1 External SSD for $300 in the USA. I read that it has transfer speeds up to 540 MB/s (USB 3.1 Gen 2). I suspect that would be “comfortably sufficient” for my particular needs.

Speed isn't everything when it comes to SSD drives. All of them are going to quote those speeds. But there is much more involved when it comes to how drives perform.

The Samsung 850EVO is an internal drive, unless you put it into an external enclosure. I'd go this route myself. I think it's a better performing drive (I'd have to confirm this. But it was the case that the T1 was outperformed by the equivalent 'internal' model). The EVO is not as small as the T2, though. Also, not sure how robust the T2 case is, or whether you'd be able to rip out the drive and use another enclosure if it fails.

Also, there is a Crucial drive which is a great contender:

Crucial MX500

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078C515QL/re ... QNSBD?th=1

Cheaper, but still a great performer. I went with a Crucial over an EVO, which saved me money, and has given me faultless, speedy performance for about four years, so far

[jancivil]

anyway, 512 seems small to me.
The 15" starts with that and it's 200 bucks to go 1TB, I just checked.