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Topic: mac advice

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ok just a quick one i'm looking at buying a new macbook for dj work and to run vdj with music,karaoke & video, some people are saying i need a quad core processor, others say dual core so looking for advice, i was thinking about a mac book 13.3" but as these only have dual core would i need the 15" version with quad core? looking at retina versions on both at the moment.

cheers all
 
Posted Tue 22 Oct 13 @ 10:57 am
Go with the 15' as the 13' has an integrated video card which isn't good at all for video work.
 
Posted Tue 22 Oct 13 @ 11:27 am
ok looking at new macs released today the 13.3 has intel iris graphics, the base 15 retina has intel iris pro, the top spec has intel iris or nvidia geforce gt750m so which would be best?
 
Posted Tue 22 Oct 13 @ 2:54 pm
If money is of no object, then I'd definitely go for the one with the Nvidia card.

I've been keeping a close on them a s well and I'm going with the 15' with the Nvidia card for sure. But then I usually run 2 or 3 video programs at once so I definitely want as much power as I can get, lol!!
 
Posted Tue 22 Oct 13 @ 3:09 pm
i'll just be running vdj, mainly video & karaoke but been a pc user for years and bought my first imac earlier this year so now transferring to gig machine as well but being a mac novice all help is appreciated lol so would the intel iris graphics run vdj and one extra screen?
 
Posted Tue 22 Oct 13 @ 3:13 pm
I've just bought a mac book pro (just discontinued it seems - doh!) I went for the 13 inch i7, 2.9 Ghz non retina and intel graphics and I've got to say it's running both virtual dj and Serato DJ with HD videos without a hiccup through HDMI to my TV.

Maybe the most useful thing to know is apple do a 14 day money back policy, I got the cheapest mac book pro going and it did actually run video but the processor was getting towards 75% when loading so I took it back after a couple of days and swapped for the next model up no hassle.

Just got to make sure you do all your testing within the first week of having it and you'll be all good.

Obviously, if your budget can stretch to the all singing all dancing model with the built in nvidea then go for it, but I didn't have £2000 to drop on a laptop, but just over £1000 I could cope with - a half decent windows laptop can easily cost £700 to £800 so that bit extra didn't seem too bad to get something well built.
 
Posted Tue 22 Oct 13 @ 5:49 pm
thanks for the advice, it seems the only 13.3" units now available are either non retina with intel hd 4000 graphics or retina with intel iris, currently looking at the refurbished units and there seem to be a few deals there to be had with nvidia graphics, looks like i may need to take a trip to my nearest apple store and ask if i can test vdj on a couple of the newer models and see what works and what dosen't
 
Posted Wed 23 Oct 13 @ 2:28 am
Personally I think the retinas are a waste cause this extra pixels are taking away video power from the programs that need it. Unless your into photography or video editing I would say away from it.

If your gonna look at refurbished I'd go with a 15' with a 1 gig video card. 2011,2012 have been great machines for me. I do projection mapping and use syphon a lot so I don't slack on the video card. :
 
Posted Wed 23 Oct 13 @ 9:59 am
Cool will see what's about thanks for the advice
 
Posted Wed 23 Oct 13 @ 2:08 pm


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