13" MBP w/ SSD or 13" MBA

[obri3n]

Ive got a grand a 24 hours to decide which to get...

 

Id love a MBA for the portability of it... Nothing worse than lugging round a tonne on your back ( Currently 2009 15" Pro ) Plus extra gear.

 

But the drive space is limited, so I woud have to when recording/producing use n external HDD ( I have a 750gb 7200rpm )

 

Can also get the new ssd external.

 

Will I still be getting the speed benefit of the HDD on usb?

 

ooooooooooooooooor

 

a 13" Pro with an SSD in, plus swap out the superdrive and put my HDD in there?

 

The extra firewire ports etc dont bother me. The screen does!

 

I'll be running Logic. Native Instruments Komplete 8. Maschine. Waves plugins etc.

 

Any thoughts?

[triplets]

External USB drives are the worst choice for recording audio, only good for backup. So you would need a FW port anyway for that matter.

 

SSDs are still expensive and don't have a lot of space still, and reports vary about their supremacy against regular SATA drives.

 

So there you go. A MBA is not meant for audio work until thunderbolt drives are available and more affordable.

[n6smith]

I would agree with the last comments made about the MBA.

 

At this time i couldn't and wouldn't recommend an MBA as a basis for a DAW.

 

When Thunderbolt devices make their appearance (and prices have dropped to more reasonable levels..) then that will be a different matter but for now, I don't think the MBA is a wise purchase as a DAW given what else you can buy for much less money and more performance.

 

The latest Mac Mini's for example.. the MMS is incredible value for money in terms of performance and ability as a DAW, at the moment imho.....