Hi everyone,

I am thinking about purchasing a Macbook Pro soon, as I am in need of a laptop.  I wanted to list the specs of the laptop to see what everybody thinks of them.  I know it meets the minimum (and I'm pretty sure the recommended) requirements, just want some opinions. 

Ok here are the specs:

Macbook Pro 13";
2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB
250GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm

I use Sibelius 5.1 and VDL 2.5

The only thing I am worried about is the 5400 rpm drive instead of 7200.  I'm also unfamiliar with Macbook pros sound card and if it works well with Sibelius + VDL.  Seems like a lot of people use macbook pros, so I'm guessing it works fairly well.  But, if you think I would need an external sound card, let me know. 

Oh, and one more thing.  What do you do about the lack of a Numpad? 

Thanks,
Zach

Hi Zach, welcome to the forum!

-That should be plenty of computer for the most part. The 5400 vs. 7200 is definitely a factor, but I used by 15"; MBP with a 5400 for the longest time and it worked fine. It partly depends on what sort of score you're going to be running, be it just percussion, full band, or even full orchestra. The larger the number of instruments, the harder the whole computer will have to work to keep up. If you were looking to upgrade that, [url=https://www.tapspace.com/forums/index.php?topic=3704.msg19487#msg19487]this drive[/url] that Jesse Mattson pointed out might be a good option to consider.

-As far as an additional audio interface goes, you rally only [i]need[/i] one if you're going to be using studio monitors or something of the likes. I've been working on primarily headphones for the past 2-3 years and have never had any problems.

-Numpad: That is one of the only caveats as far a input goes with Sibelius. Most people just get a numpad peripheral. Fortunately, Macbook Pros support Bluetooth, so if you got one of those you're be good to go. I personally use an external monitor with the DVI or VGA adapter and a full-sized keyboard when I'm working at home. On the road, I use my iPod touch with the NumPad app for my numpad.

Hope this helps!

Thanks for the reply Bryan.  You pretty much answered the question, but what i mean by external soundcard was if MBP has latency issues because of the onboard soundcard, would i need to buy a better external soundcard and run it through firewire.  Something like this

[url=http://www.digitalconnection.com/products/audio/fw410.asp]http://www.digitalconnection.com/products/audio/fw410.asp[/url]

Since you said you used your MBP for a while, that lets me know that the onboard sound must be pretty good.  That hard drive you mentioned sounded nice.  Do you think that VDL could fit on the 4GB of solidstate space it comes with?

-Zach

The onboard sound is fine, but I use an external interface for my instrument in and monitor out.  If you're just going to plug speakers into the headphone jack and use a USB MIDI keyboard, then the built-in sound is good.

Ok thanks, that's exactly what I am planning on doing.

Thanks for all the help,
Zach