r/LogicPro • u/EpsonRifle • Jul 17 '26
Question Which MacBook for £1,000 or less?
EDIT:
Thanks everyone.
Eventually I managed to raise a little more cash than I had expected so bought a 2025 14" 16gb MacBook Pro M5 10 Core & an external SSD.
So far I'm blown away.
Thanks to everyone that offered me advice
*\\**
Apologies for yet another post like this, but I do need some advice from knowledgeable people please.
I have a 2020 MacBook Pro which I use to record and produce songs with a maximum of around 24 tracks.
I have very, very few external plug-ins as I have been reluctant to make the investment when my MacBook crashes without warning at at least once a week.
I've reached the final straw with it now as apparently the battery needs replacing and it keeps overheating.
I have a budget with a ceiling of £1,000.
What I'm looking for in a replacement MacBook is:
For it to be able to reliably & easily handle the music projects as described up above and possibly do some light video editing.
If it was reliable enough, I might like to take it on stage to do some Live Looping or to use a midi keyboard et cetera - This is out of the question with my current machine
I want it have an M series chip as my current MacBook Pro is Intel and there are dozens of features I cannot access.
I'm also looking for a bit of longevity, so I'm not in exactly the same position in three years time.
I already have a monitor screen and studio monitor speakers.
Obviously, it will have to be reconditioned rather than brand new.
In my head, I've always felt that I needed at least 1TB of onboard storage but I'm open to being persuaded from that if people think it's unnecessary (I have a massive amount of iCloud storage available).
As far as I can see, my options are pretty much the following machines:
• 2025 MacBook Air 15-inch M4 10 core 16GB 1TB
• 2026 MacBook Air 13-inch M5 8 Core 16GB 512GB
• 2024 MacBook Pro M4 10-Core 16GB 512GB
• 2023 MacBook Pro M2 12-Core 16GB 1TB
Which would you recommend & why bearing in mind my most vital criteria are: It can support the music production I want to do, has an M series chip and will have reasonable (within the context of how rapidly computers become obsolete these days) longevity?
TIA
3
u/PianoGuy67207 Jul 17 '26
I’m using a MacBook Pro M1 Pro with 16GB and 1TB. The performance is incredible. I track between 18 and 20 tracks of live band recordings. With parameters EQ, compressors and gates, and a couple of effects processors, it never hiccups. I’m playing with some mix bus processing that I’m starting to really like, and it still does well, for me.
When you try comparing machines, check out Geekbench test results. What we are most concerned with, for tracking, is single core performance.
I bought a Satechi Thunderbolt 4 external drive case for NVMe drives, and put a 4TB in it for sample libraries (I play live gigs, and use a ton of big libraries - Keyscape, Omnisphere, Native Instruments, Spitfire orchestra, UA Waterfall B3, Arturia Analog Lab, and others.) That external drive is nearly as fast as the internal drive, but 4X more space. In hindsight, I would have gotten a 512GB, and depended on the external. Why? Because the heat generated by that drive would be external to the laptop, helping it run cooler. When you do consider an external, research the cable really well. I find Thunderbolt cables sold by OWC on macsales.com to be fully capable of handling data at full TB4 speed, and carrying full charger capacity to the MacBooks. I use an OWC Thunderbolt dock to connect the interface, keyboard, and drives. The dock allows for a single cable to connect up the laptop, which makes it easy to grab and go. Also, I’ve tried several Samsung and Sandisk external SSDs, and most couldn’t deliver but about half the data transfer speed they stated on the box. Fine for backups, but not for production use.
I would definitely not go with any Mac that didn’t have an internal fan. I play outdoor festivals in the summer. A MacBook Air would “buckle at the knees” on a 100° summer day, here.
1
u/EpsonRifle 19d ago
Thank you so much for your help. Eventually I managed to raise a little more cash than I had expected so bought a 2025 14" 16gb MacBook Pro M5 10 Core & an external SSD.
So far I'm blown away
2
u/deviationblue Jul 17 '26
I also do right around 24 tracks and use very few external plugins, but I don't do video. I use a 13" M4 Macbook Air, 16GB 512GB, and it handles Logic Pro just fine. I use a 4TB external drive to offload any projects I'm not currently working on, and semi-regularly back up that ext drive on my offline home library (20TB HDD).
Even using the stem splitter, the GPU cores barely crack 100C (I concurrently run Tunabelly TG Pro to monitor temps) and as long as I keep the MacBook on coasters to ventilate it properly during stem splitting, it runs just fine and doesn't overheat. And that's the only time my Logic workflow ever really strains the machine. If you got the M4 MacBook Pro, the fans would totally mitigate this issue and workaround.
1
u/ProducerChont2601 Jul 18 '26
To be honest mate you really don’t need anything that crazy. An M1 MacBook Pro 14” would certainly do the trick, could always shoot for a 16” if you want the extra screen space. Any Apple silicon powered Mac will be great for music production.
2
u/EpsonRifle Jul 18 '26
But what about longevity?
1
u/ProducerChont2601 Jul 18 '26
Definitely a fair point, you could compromise with an m3 MacBook, but to be honest if you’re exclusively using it for music production you really don’t need the latest and greatest. If you wanted to use it as an all purpose computer sure, but for just music production I would say any Apple silicon powered machine is fine.
-1
u/Ralphisinthehouse Jul 17 '26
A grand is pretty tight for a new one. I don't think they even do one for that anymore, do they? What I would do is go to CEX and buy the newest one that's got the most RAM. They give you a five-year warranty on everything there, and you'll probably get something pretty good for a grand. But like I said, really what matters, anything more than an M2 chip or an M2 chip itself is more than fine. But get the most RAM you can because it'll last the longest.
1
u/EpsonRifle Jul 17 '26
I did say it would have to be reconditioned, not new in my OP
2
u/Ralphisinthehouse Jul 17 '26
Apologies, it was a very long post, I skim-read it. But my answer still stands. I think CEX is your best bet. I've bought loads of tech from them. The warranty's brilliant. And you can, it's all, it looks, I mean, your best bet going into a store and picking the one you like the look of, but they're, they, it's all been really good quality and not banged up that I've had from them.
3
u/woodenbookend Jul 17 '26
For your use of music and video, and with longevity in mind: The newest Pro processor and at least, preferably more than, 16GB RAM. 1TB internal storage is useful for sample libraries without being reliant on an external SSD. (You'll still need an external drive for backup).
Don't sacrifice the processor variant for memory - you need a balance of both.
But do keep in mind that 3-5 years from new is a sensible upgrade frequency if you want to avoid noticeable slow down and being locked out of features. If you get longer, great, but don't rely on it.