I am looking to get a MacBook Pro for composing with VSL and hardly any audio recording. In fact, I hope to be able to use the internal soundcard for basic reference on the road. Samples will be streamed from an external hard disk (eSATA). So my questions are:
(1) How bad is the latency with the internal card and drivers with real time midi input (as opposed to programmed input, where it does not matter much)?
(2) Will I need the 7200 RPM drive or will the 5400 RPM drive suffice to run the DAW (DP 5.12 and Logic 8)? Any hits to performance with the 5400 drive just running the midi controlling the VIs (probably in VE at some point)?