[michael68]

Dear all, I would like to get a MacBook Pro but am unsure which specs would be best for my usage. I am getting mainly for:

1) Garage band: to start composing songs using USB keyboard, some mixing, etc
2) Photo Editing using Lightroom

I have seen the discontinued 17 inch model and was very impressed by e 15 inch Retina display model. I would like to seek Mac users advice on the min specifications if my main use is Garage Band and Photo Editing. Thanks!

Mike

[mcasan]

The wife and I are photographers. We ordered maxed out rMBPs. We want the max CPU and memory to execute Aperture, Lightroom, CS8, or any number of plugins. Plus we do not want to feel the machines are antiques in 3 years with Apple Care is over. We got the max SSD so that we can have that room to collect photos during multi week photo trips. All of our data files (photos, music, movies) will be on external thunderbolt drives.

If we had not gone the Retina route, I would get a 15" MBP with max CPU and min memory and HD. I would then put in 16GB of memory and a large SSD. You can probably do that expansions for cheaper than purchasing them from Apple.

So much as to do with the budget, how comfortable you are with modifying a new computer, and if you want Apple Care on the machine.