3 ms·

First of all, it's probabaly safe to say that it will be a good investment, regardless of how you are going to use it. (School, work, design etc.) I'm all up fo

First of all, it's probabaly safe to say that it will be a good investment, regardless of how you are going to use it. (School, work, design etc.) I'm all up for the 8 RAM upgrade if you think you need it, but for the i7, I'd say don't go there if you are not involved with complex rendering or serious multitasking. i5 will do just fine. (I have an i5 model with 4GB and had no problem for close to 7 months now.) Just a heads-up, make sure to check the air's wi-fi connectivity when you buy it, as the prime problem seems to be it. Enjoy.

winter_blue 13y ago
Thanks for the advice. > for the i7, I'd say don't go there if you are not involved with complex rendering or serious multitasking I'll be doing some software development locally on my machine. It'll mostly be small personal projects. I just thought maybe I'd benefit from the small boost that comes from the i7. According to Anandtech, the i7 makes things about 25% faster (according to various benchmarks).
- waivej 13y ago
  I haven't read the benchmarks... But go for mhz rather than cores. (Amdahl's Law)
  - winter_blue 13y ago
    The only differences, based on ARK Intel between the MacBook Air i5 and i7 are: Speed: i5 @ 1.3 GHz vs. i7 @ 1.7 GHz Cache: 3MB on the i5 vs. 4MB on the i7 So yes, the clock speed is higher -- but I'd assume that much of the increased performance comes from reduced cache misses due to the larger cache size... (correct me if I'm wrong).
- prawks 13y ago
  It really matters most what those "things" that are 25% faster are. I don't have Mountain Lion, but if it's a general speed up on the entire system I'd say it might be worth it. Maybe go to a store and try a demo? Might make it more obvious what, if any, difference the upgrade will make for non-resource intensive tasks.

3 ms·

First of all, it's probabaly safe to say that it will be a good investment, regardless of how you are going to use it. (School, work, design etc.) I'm all up fo

by Mustafabei 13y ago

winter_blue 13y ago
Thanks for the advice. > for the i7, I'd say don't go there if you are not involved with complex rendering or serious multitasking I'll be doing some software development locally on my machine. It'll mostly be small personal projects. I just thought maybe I'd benefit from the small boost that comes from the i7. According to Anandtech, the i7 makes things about 25% faster (according to various benchmarks).
- waivej 13y ago
  I haven't read the benchmarks... But go for mhz rather than cores. (Amdahl's Law)
  - winter_blue 13y ago
    The only differences, based on ARK Intel between the MacBook Air i5 and i7 are: Speed: i5 @ 1.3 GHz vs. i7 @ 1.7 GHz Cache: 3MB on the i5 vs. 4MB on the i7 So yes, the clock speed is higher -- but I'd assume that much of the increased performance comes from reduced cache misses due to the larger cache size... (correct me if I'm wrong).
- prawks 13y ago
  It really matters most what those "things" that are 25% faster are. I don't have Mountain Lion, but if it's a general speed up on the entire system I'd say it might be worth it. Maybe go to a store and try a demo? Might make it more obvious what, if any, difference the upgrade will make for non-resource intensive tasks.