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Which MacBook Air processor should I pick?

K

knicksplayer

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 14, 2010
42
5
Hi guys,

I am looking into buying an 11" MacBook Air and was wondering if it really makes a difference to pick a 1.8GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i7 processor over the 1.6 i5? I am getting the educational discount so getting the 1.8 would cost me $135. Given that my usage doesn't really beyond listening to music, watching a few movies, surfing the web and using a little word and powerpoint, what would you guys pick if you were in my shoes? Also planning on getting 128GB which in my opinion is plenty of space for what I do.

Thanks in advance for your input!
 
blackhand1001

blackhand1001

macrumors 68030
Jan 6, 2009
2,599
33
knicksplayer said:
Hi guys,

I am looking into buying an 11" MacBook Air and was wondering if it really makes a difference to pick a 1.8GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i7 processor over the 1.6 i5? I am getting the educational discount so getting the 1.8 would cost me $135. Given that my usage doesn't really beyond listening to music, watching a few movies, surfing the web and using a little word and powerpoint, what would you guys pick if you were in my shoes? Also planning on getting 128GB which in my opinion is plenty of space for what I do.

Thanks in advance for your input!
Click to expand...

Don't waste your money in my opinion. Its better spent on other things. The whole core i5 i7 thing is a bunch of bologna spread by intel. Unless you run benchmarks all day your not gonna see a difference. They are both dual cores. Spend it on something else or get a larger ssd.
 
Abazigal

Abazigal

Contributor
Jul 18, 2011
19,579
22,044
Singapore
i5. The stuff that may get a performance boost from i7 like graphic editing, you won't be doing on your comp anyways.
 
B

bwhinnen

macrumors 6502
Apr 15, 2010
302
53
McKinney
I have to admit I wanted the i7 on my 11" originally, but when it came down to it the only way to get it in store was to get the 256GB SSD as well and the premium over the 11" i5/128 was just not worth it. I have not done anything yet that where I've thought "gee I should have got that i7 after all"...

So my vote is the i5 is sufficient for most things. Now if you were doing a great deal of encoding, or video editing then perhaps an i7 would be warranted, but in reality you would have gone for a larger model than the 11" if that were the case I'd imagine :)
 
gnasher729

gnasher729

Suspended
Nov 25, 2005
17,980
5,565
knicksplayer said:
Hi guys,

I am looking into buying an 11" MacBook Air and was wondering if it really makes a difference to pick a 1.8GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i7 processor over the 1.6 i5? I am getting the educational discount so getting the 1.8 would cost me $135. Given that my usage doesn't really beyond listening to music, watching a few movies, surfing the web and using a little word and powerpoint, what would you guys pick if you were in my shoes? Also planning on getting 128GB which in my opinion is plenty of space for what I do.
Click to expand...

My advice: Don't go from specs to price, but start with the price. Decide what you want to pay. Then pick the best you can get for the money. For example, for the same money you might get the 1.8, or you might get the 1.6 plus some important software plus an external hard drive for backups. Then you decide what is better for you.
 
K

knicksplayer

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 14, 2010
42
5
Appreciate everyone's input! Seems like i5 wins hands down! And thanks gnasher for your advice.
 
zap2

zap2

macrumors 604
Mar 8, 2005
7,252
8
Washington D.C
knicksplayer said:
Appreciate everyone's input! Seems like i5 wins hands down! And thanks gnasher for your advice.
Click to expand...

Just remember once you buy the MBA, you're CPU is there to stay, while things like software and external HDDs can be added later.

Not saying don't get the i5, but if you're planning to stick with the Air for a while that extra speed might end up helping to running an OS a few years down the line.

I'd agree you'll need an external HDD and maybe software, but most software has a freeware alternative to hold you over for a little.

I'm sure either way, you'll love it.
 
dissdnt

dissdnt

macrumors 65816
Aug 3, 2007
1,489
5
Yep go i5, the i7 is such a minimal bump. I watched a bunch of benchmarks comparing on youtube and it's like half a second faster in most cases.
 
blackhand1001

blackhand1001

macrumors 68030
Jan 6, 2009
2,599
33
zap2 said:
Just remember once you buy the MBA, you're CPU is there to stay, while things like software and external HDDs can be added later.

Not saying don't get the i5, but if you're planning to stick with the Air for a while that extra speed might end up helping to running an OS a few years down the line.

I'd agree you'll need an external HDD and maybe software, but most software has a freeware alternative to hold you over for a little.

I'm sure either way, you'll love it.
Click to expand...

The difference between the i5 and the i7 is not gonna be the difference between running a later software or not. This isn't like celeron vs pentium 4 where the celeron has so little cache that it starves itself. (celerons in those days had as much as 4 to 8 times less cache than the comparable pentium 4) For 95 percent of things the slower 1.6ghz combined with the ssd is faster than a base macbook pro 13 inch.
 
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