Which desktop mac should I save for?

[pattyløve]

Hi all, first time poster in this side of the forum so please excuse me if this has been done before.
Essentially, I am looking at saving for a 21.5" mac desktop to replace my dying macbook pro. However I know nothing about computers, processors etc... Essentially it is out of these two specs:

-2.7 ghz 3rd Gen Quad-core Intel Core i5 CPU
-2.9 ghz 3rd Gen Quad-core Intel Core i5 CPU

There's a $300 difference between these two models so of course, Id rather get the cheaper one. However the last thing i want is to 'settle' for the cheaper spec and then end up with laggy tracking/mixing etc.
What will the difference be between these two? Can i get away with the cheaper one? I will be running Pro Tools 10.

Edit: Both are 8gb RAm and 1tb HD. As far as i can see, the processor is the only difference..

 

[Hellbastard]

Both of those machines will do just fine. I'm running ProTools 10 on my MBP 15" 2.4GHz i7 8GB Ram, and I haven't had any problems so far.
So if the budget is tight get the first one and upgrade the RAM to 16GB

 

[tsverrir]

If the processor is really the only difference, you won't get a $300 worth of processing power for the larger one.

 

[atheos]

What size are your sessions? Track count, length, number of plugins?

Both of those models are good. They also have different GPU but the faster one mainly speeds up gaming, video editing, 3D modelling etc. I've been running an 80-track Logic Pro session on my much slower Mac mini so there should be plenty of power even in the base model. Still, the least you should do is double the RAM to 16GB. No, you can't do it later. Much, much bigger help than .2Ghz increase in CPU.

Next you should consider an SSD drive. Could go with Fusion Drive but I wouldn't do it for a production machine; it's relatively new technology and I'd hate to see the drive array glitch/fail in the middle of a recording. The regular HDD is slow but at least you know exactly what you're working with. An SSD is fast but expensive. Totally worth it though, if you ask me.

The CPU would be my priority #3. Between those two models you would notice hardly any difference. The i7 CPUs kick some serious bottocks, however.

 

[Betrayer_Bass]

I don't want to discourage you, but a fair word of warning: I used a Mac dedicated to music production and it is really not suited to it. I don't know what it is, but I have been experiencing slowness, choppy playback and just general annoyances. It crashes a lot and doesn't handle it that well. This is using Reason 6.5 and Logic (separately) Just be careful is all

 

[pattyløve]

Both of those machines will do just fine. I'm running ProTools 10 on my MBP 15" 2.4GHz i7 8GB Ram, and I haven't had any problems so far.
So if the budget is tight get the first one and upgrade the RAM to 16GB

Okay, so from what ive gathered from the responses so far, the cheaper one would get the job done and the more expensive one would not be $300 worth better for audio recording.. is that correct?

Am i better off saving the $300 for a RAM upgrade and/or other recording gear than the more powerful computer? Thanks guys, thats the answer i was hoping to hear! Ahah.

Oh, and thanks for the heads up, profania. I will have a look into it. ive been an apple guy for quite some time with no problems so hopefully they dont come up! But i appreciate the warning!

 

[PatQ]

Am i better off saving the $300 for a RAM upgrade and/or other recording gear than the more powerful computer? Thanks guys, thats the answer i was hoping to hear! Ahah.

That's correct. But wait until next monday, there's a keynote at Apple's WWDC - maybe with new (upgraded) products.

 

[testing1two]

I would get another Macbook Pro and consider adding a docking station to increase the available ports so you can use a trackball, full size keyboard, large external display and external hard drives.

Macbooks are fully capable of recording and mixing anything you could possibly throw at them in a home studio environment. I wouldn't buy a tower unless I was building a ProTools HDX rig that required PCI cards, lots of ports and cutting edge horsepower.