« A beast of a laptop »

What do I like most? EVERYTHING! This computer is super fast (every action I notice is faster than my macbook 2.2ghz 4gb ram), has excellent graphics capabilities (I run Windows 7 on Bootcamp and play all the latest games on the highest settings and it runs flawlessly), super fast bus speed (for running samples on external HDD) amazing multitasking capabilites, excellent craftsmanship (all aluminum/glass unibody) and it just looks so darn sexy. The only thing I didn't like about this computer was the trackpad not having a button (the whole track pad is now the button) like my old macbook. But, after using this for a week, my old macbook feels awkward so I guess I have adapted and honestly, its very nice to have such a large trackpad instead. I paid around $2400 for this baby which was a heck of a lot, but when you need a super powered computer that can also fit in your backpack and is also a Mac, then the high price tag doesn't seem so ridiculous. The precision and sound quality is extremely improved over my macbook. Mainly because of the position of the speakers (next to the keyboard in the new model). When it comes to my audio work, I use a RME FireFace 800 and since this new Macbook Pro has firewire 800, the speed/connection between the computer and the Fireface is twice as fast and solid. I looked at a few other macbook pros but after reading the bench tests on the new i7 Cores I had to have this one. Yes I would definitely make the same choice again. This computer is definitely strong enough to hold its own for the next couple of years, which seems to be a hard thing to say about most computers. I spent this same amount on a Compaq laptop back in 2000 (boy was I naive then) and it was virtually useless 3 years later (64mb of ram, ughh!). Once SSD drives come down in price and I also install the 8gb ram upgrade, I don't think I will need a faster computer for the rest of my life.....but I'm sure in 5 years that will all change.
A final note for Ableton users: I use this macbook Pro to run over 20 virtual instruments (10 of which are grabbing samples off an EXT HDD), 3 send channels 2 of which have looping stations and all 3 have an instance of Artillery 2 (awesome plugin) by sugar bytes, tons of clips/samples and 8 real instruments (2 Vocals, Rhodes, Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Bass Guitar, two synths all being run into a looper and it never reaches over 30% cpu usage. I LOVE IT!!!!!!