Quick 1.6/1.8 : 1.6SSD/1.8SSD question (refurb)

rijowysock said:

i have a 1.6 right now, bought when they came out and im had that annoying screen wobble for last few months and i cant stand it anymore....

saw the refurb prices and i was going to ask this question..

i do:
safari browsing all the time, with ichat always running and mail,

on occasion i upload about 400-500 12mp pictures and then sort thru and delete the scraps in iphoto and edit about 50 at the same time in photoshop Cs3... i notice now that after about 15 pics it just gets real slow...

would you:

A: 100$ more get the 1.8
B: 200$ more get the 1.6 SSD
C: 300$ more get the 1.8 SSD

i hear SSD writes slower but reads faster, so uploading my pics would be a pain, and then editing would also be a pain since i think it temporarily saves them and thats why its lagging? so im unsure if the SSD would be beneficial or opposite to my needs..

thank you very much for your responses, i appreciate all the help.

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If it were me, I'd go with a refurb MacBook or MacBook Pro and a fast 7200RPM hard drive. But if you must go for the Air, I'd go all out. So (C) would be my choice. SSD would help considering you were probably on the 4200RPM 80GB hard drive, but it won't be anything like a MacBook or MBP.

And you are right about SSDs, but not all of them write slow. There are two types of SSD out there; SLC and MLC. For example, a Intel SLC SSD can read and write really fast (about 250 and 170MB/s, respectively). MLC has about the same reading speed, but about half that for writing. SLC on the other hand is expensive ($600+) and good MLC SSDs without the JMicron controller are in the $400-500 range. SLC SSDs currently max out at 64GB while MLCs are up to 256GB.

Apple, I believe, use non-Intel MLC SSDs. So you'll benefit from faster boot times and opening those images. But when it comes to Photoshop editing, you will have to wait for the writing to be completed on the drive. At least it will be snappier than an Air with the 80GB drive.

A MacBook?

Sounds to me like you need more RAM? So consider a MacBook 2.4 - to me the change from 1.6 to 1.8 would not be worth much.

Yes, most likely you will not be able to "feel" the difference, but of cause $100 is not that much and knowing you have the 1.8 might be better than having any doubt on your mind if you choose the 1.6 - if you can follow me?

Don't buy any of them. Save up some more money and buy a rev B MBA. It's one seriously nice computer in a small elegant case. With the original, you get a nice elegant case and a nearly worthless computer.

Read about the xBench differences. A rev B MBA with 1.6 and HDD will outperform an original MBA with 1.8 and SSD.

The new MBA is the real deal - a fully capable and powerful computer. The original is an underperforming, overheating, core shutdown, and miserable nightmare of a computer.

Stay away from it! Save the extra money and get some real value for your money rather than an expensive, PRETTY, but worthless original MBA.

Scottsdale said:

Read about the xBench differences. A rev B MBA with 1.6 and HDD will outperform an original MBA with 1.8 and SSD.
Stay away from it! Save the extra money and get some real value for your money rather than an expensive, PRETTY, but worthless original MBA.

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Sorry, but I can't agree with you. I have RevA 1.6 HDD, and bought the new Rev B with 120Gb HDD and there was very little difference in speed besides of shorter start-up times. Nothing felt snappier. So don't trust synthetic benchmarks, that's not what you do the whole day long.
I don't know if SSD would help much, but for 200" I would go for it. 100" for 1.8 seem not that much, but it I don't think it's worth it.