# 2017 i7 Macbook (12 inch)?



## bjderganc (May 14, 2018)

Is anybody using this laptop with a DAW and soft synths? How does it run?
The fanless design is pretty appealing..


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## fretti (May 14, 2018)

bjderganc said:


> The fanless design is pretty appealing..


Not extremely familiar with the newer MacBooks and their architecture but unless they use another really good cooling system instead of the fan it might (or probably does) heat up very fast. So does my MacBook Air. 
Other than that it should be running quite good, also depending on the ram of course, but even my Air is capable of running Logic with a few Kontakt instances running orchestral things.


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## Damarus (May 15, 2018)

Here is the comparison of that processor (i7-7y75) vs a quad-core laptop variant (i7-7700hq)






It's fanless because the processor is so low power it can be passively cooled (no fans).


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## bjderganc (May 15, 2018)

I'm really curious if the computer throttles the CPU with DAW work, and what affect that has on a session. If it can run up to, say, 20-25 tracks including a handful of synths, that would be killer.

The single core specs aren't bad at all: 3929 geekbench for the 2017 1.4 Ghz (i7-7Y75), versus 4627 for the current top rMBP CPU (i7-7920HQ).

Oddly, Apple calls the i7-7Y75 a 1.4 Ghz? Maybe they overclock it slightly be default..

https://browser.geekbench.com/macs/422
https://browser.geekbench.com/macs/419


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## Jeremy Spencer (May 15, 2018)

bjderganc said:


> Is anybody using this laptop with a DAW and soft synths? How does it run?
> The fanless design is pretty appealing..



How much RAM do you have? Flash drive size?


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## Damarus (May 15, 2018)

The CPU is going to throttle as much as it needs to stay cool because it does not have a fan to cool it down.


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## bjderganc (May 16, 2018)

Wolfie2112 said:


> How much RAM do you have? Flash drive size?



The 16/512 limit on the Macbook is plenty for what I have in mind.


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## Jeremy Spencer (May 16, 2018)

That would be perfect, however I would consider upgrading to the 15". I'm not convinced the heat wouldn't be an issue.


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## fretti (May 16, 2018)

Wolfie2112 said:


> That would be perfect, however I would consider upgrading to the 15". I'm not convinced the heat wouldn't be an issue.


Macbook is only available in 12''. Not talking about Macbook Pro


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## Jeremy Spencer (May 16, 2018)

Sorry, you're right. I meant upgrading to a Pro.


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## bjderganc (May 20, 2018)

In case anyone is interested, I tried the base Macbook out at the store.

It ran the demo project "Colors.logicx" at around 20-25% CPU usage. The project is around ~80 mixed tracks with mostly audio, some samplers, and maybe an ES1 or two. There were a lot of compressors, reverbs, guitar amps as well. (I'm having trouble remembering everything that was in there - anyone have a copy of this demo?)

It took 6-7 alchemy patches (swapped the ESX24s in the demo) for the project to overload @ 256 samples. Temps were 90s, like most Mac laptops. I wish I took note of which Alchemy patches, because there are some extremely demanding patches where one could have probably taken down the system. :/

So, all in all I thought it was pretty amazing and extremely underrated. The price seems too high, even for a Mac, but the most concerning thing is the butterfly keyboard. They fail frequently and the repair can be $200-300+.


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## Jeremy Spencer (May 20, 2018)

I’d be more concerned about running 3rd party VI’s, unless the stock Logic plugins are what you’ll be using.


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## bjderganc (May 20, 2018)

Sure, but I mean, Alchemy does have some really CPU intensive patches, and there are some very efficient third party plugs (e.g. Fabfilter). It'd be great to hear first hand accounts with Reaktor and U-he stuff.


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## Tyll (May 20, 2018)

The CPU is super weak in the first place and the fan-less design makes it drop in performance a lot after a short period of high load. I'd not even want to work on a laptop with the steady peak performance of this CPU, but with this poor cooling, you'll get a lot of dropouts unless you always only work for 2 minutes at most.
Here's a review: https://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple-MacBook-12-2017-Laptop-Review.230656.0.html#toc-performance

You are much better off waiting for the next generation of MacBooks, which should come out this year. The newest generation of processors are about 50% faster than their equivalents of the last generation. Then buy a proper workhorse 15" model (or 13" if they ship with the 8x50H processors, but that's unlikely to happen) and either use a third party tool (or windows) to throttle the performance of the CPU by a few percent. That mans that you still have about four times the power of the 12" MB and still a very silent computer.


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