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i7 4GB or i5 8GB?
- Thread starter ted55
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Yours is a common question as are the insulting responses you've already received by posters who believe their answer is the only correct one. If anyone has different advice, they proceed to argue.
1. Very few people run applications that benefit from a faster processor, therefore, given the two options you mentioned, the i5 with 8 gigs is the better one.
2. Neither option will give you more, or less, 'durability'.
3. If you 'run out of memory', the laptop will run slower. If you run out of storage, you will have to decide which files, music, etc., you will have to leave at home or start using an external drive, SD card, etc. An SD card would not decrease portability, but an external drive would. Therefore, if you have to choose between more memory or more storage, get more storage.
4. Finally, memory and the processor cannot be upgraded with the current MBA models and no one, yet, makes a replacement SSD. So, take your future needs in mind as well. If they differ from your current needs, your only choices will be living with a laptop that does not meet your needs or selling the laptop you buy now and buying a new one, a solution people with limited funds may not want, or be able, to do.
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I agree. However I would not call the other responses "insulting" per se.
People think what's best for them is best for everyone else. A lot of people on this forum are geeks and typical geek computing requires a lot of ram, dgpus, sometimes processing power and storage seems neglegtable, since externals and aftermarket ssds are an option.
For the average human being a computer is supposed to work and a laptop is supposed to be protable. So for average computing needs it usually is software>ssd>ram>gpu>cpu.
It's also interesting to see the consumer psychology at play here.
Notice that we have had two recent threads started by people who pretty much assume that they have to upgrade *something* even though they can't justify it themselves technically.
It's like if you went to a burger restaurant and the waitress asked if you wanted to pay extra for sweet potato fries or pay extra for a salad. Because of the way the question is posed, I'm sure most people would feel like they're "supposed to" pay extra for something.
Marketing people call this "framing."
(Of course, standard disclaimer that many people would actually benefit from the memory/storage upgrades.)
The last thing you said applies here. I think that the idea of upgrading RAM simply for future-proofing, etc. is sort of classic consumerism. But that's up for debate. It comes down to individual requirements (software, usage). OP says he'll be doing a lot of multi-tasking. However, 4GB goes a lot farther than people think. Like I've said before, I've run VMs on this guy with little problems.
SSD upgrades are a possibility I don't think OP considered. He'll want more storage. Even if he doesn't use all of it, it's a lot more important. If he wanted, he could run bootcamp to run Windows software, or put all his pictures, etc.
He said he'll be fine with less storage, but I care to disagree. On his classic PC, he had 4GB RAM, and an unspecified amount of hard drive space. However, he struggled with performance on three fronts most likely; CPU, Disk, and RAM. He probably had an old cpu like pentium. He probably had a hard drive, so it was a lot slower. And RAM doesn't go too far on Windows.
Generally, I've found that OS X handles resources more efficiently than Windows. Battery life, less heating problems, etc are examples of that. In fact, I think Windows actually increases the clock speed. I've never had my fan go off when I was idle, but not so when running Windows on this thing.
Well, I've kind of forgotten what my point was...
I've tried both. You can run all those apps on the 4gb without issues. The i7 would be noticeable if you were on skype and had a video playing in the corner of your screen while browsing a site in your browser (and had 4 other apps open). 8gb runs slightly smoother but not by much. If you have the money get the 8 and i7 - if I was forced to choose I would go with the 8gb because I don't do anything that would take advantage of the i7.
The number of apps you have open is completely irrelevant in terms of memory and CPU usage.
You could have 100 apps open. If they are all small and idle then they might as well not be open at all, it makes no difference.
Or you could have 1 app open that's doing video transcoding or 3-D rendering or somesuch and it will bring your computer to its knees.
It cracks me up that people think they do a lot of "multitasking" because they have iTunes and Word open at the same time, or a few different tabs in a browser. That is not multitasking in any useful sense of the word.
I'm just sharing my experience of having run both systems. In my example, the apps were being used simultaneously. It cracks me up when people jump to conclusions and don't actually read the message, they just want to talk about what multitasking is without talking about real world experience which may be more relevant to a prospective buyer instead of arguing what a CPU is designed to do in a lab.
Sorry, I shouldn't be rude.
The problem is that the things you listed can vary so widely in terms of CPU/memory usage that it doesn't really provide any useful information. I don't want to pick on you because many (most?) people are guilty of this.
But, as an example, when you say "playing a video," that could mean almost anything. If you're playing a DVD rip with QuickTime then it might take only a few megabytes of RAM and less than 10% of a CPU core, but if you're streaming HD video from a Flash player it might take hundreds of MB of RAM and almost an entire CPU core to play it.
Same thing with browsing web pages or "having tabs open" ... a web page can take anywhere between a couple megabytes of RAM to hundreds of megabytes, or even more than a gigabyte. And it might take almost zero CPU time, or, if it's full of animated Flash ads etc., it might again take almost 100% of a core.
So I don't have a problem at all with people posting about their personal experience, that's great, everybody should appreciate that. The problem is that the description of the experience does not have enough information to make it useful--it could mean almost anything.
Depends on your definition of "many".
Most folks I see using computers are fine with one of the macbooks from the standard lineup.
The cpu upgrade makes very rarely sense for anyone.
To a certain degree this goes for Ram as well.
You'll benefit far more from the 8GB than you will the i7.
You'll only notice the processor difference with CPU intensive tasks and calculations. For casual/office/photography work you'll notice a bigger difference from 8GB. If you ever plan on running another OS like Windows via virtualization 8GB is almost a requirement.
You'll only notice the processor difference with CPU intensive tasks and calculations. For casual/office/photography work you'll notice a bigger difference from 8GB. If you ever plan on running another OS like Windows via virtualization 8GB is almost a requirement.
Thank you so much! All of those answers really clear my mind.
On my PC I have an hard disk of 500GB and I'm using 80GB. This is because I store eveything in OneDrive. As a result I tought I do not need to upgrade my laptop.
Actually, it's not that I absolutely want to upgrade something.
I'm just saying that I'm buying a new laptop and I have no lots of money. So I would choose a good laptop which will run smoothly and that I can own for 5 or more years. I know that it can sound weird for some people but I'm thinking about doing an "investment". I just wanted to make sure to invest in the right thing
I will define my computer usage as standard. For example, now I have the following apps opened:
- outloook (send and receive e-mail and calendar) (I can replace it with thunderbird if you prefer)
- word
- excel
- SPSS (statistic)
- VLC media player (It will become iTunes on my Mac)
- Firefox (6 tabs)
- Skype
- Spotify
- avast (antivirus)
And, belive it or not, I'm worried that Firefox could crash, when I open word or excel I have to wait several minutes, if I receive an e-mail with lots of images outlook stops working and/or crashes, and sometimes, while I'm typing, the music stops.
I just do not want them to happen anymore
On my PC I have an hard disk of 500GB and I'm using 80GB. This is because I store eveything in OneDrive. As a result I tought I do not need to upgrade my laptop.
Actually, it's not that I absolutely want to upgrade something.
I'm just saying that I'm buying a new laptop and I have no lots of money. So I would choose a good laptop which will run smoothly and that I can own for 5 or more years. I know that it can sound weird for some people but I'm thinking about doing an "investment". I just wanted to make sure to invest in the right thing
I will define my computer usage as standard. For example, now I have the following apps opened:
- outloook (send and receive e-mail and calendar) (I can replace it with thunderbird if you prefer)
- word
- excel
- SPSS (statistic)
- VLC media player (It will become iTunes on my Mac)
- Firefox (6 tabs)
- Skype
- Spotify
- avast (antivirus)
And, belive it or not, I'm worried that Firefox could crash, when I open word or excel I have to wait several minutes, if I receive an e-mail with lots of images outlook stops working and/or crashes, and sometimes, while I'm typing, the music stops.
I just do not want them to happen anymore
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... Actually, it's not that I absolutely want to upgrade something.
I'm just saying that I'm buying a new laptop and I have no lots of money. So I would choose a good laptop which will run smoothly and that I can own for 5 or more years. I know that it can sound weird for some people but I'm thinking about doing an "investment". I just wanted to make sure to invest in the right thing
You probably have a "Windows mindset" that any computer you buy will be essentially worthless the second you take off the shrink wrap. Which isn't far from the truth.
The market for used Apple products is quite good and if you find that you need an upgrade, it's not out of the question to sell your computer and buy a different one. In fact, if you're patient and willing to buy used, you might be able to upgrade to a newer or better model without paying anything.
So, one less thing to stress out about.
I will define my computer usage as standard. For example, now I have the following apps opened:
- outloook (send and receive e-mail and calendar) (I can replace it with thunderbird if you prefer)
- word
- excel
- SPSS (statistic)
- VLC media player (It will become iTunes on my Mac)
- Firefox (6 tabs)
- Skype
- Spotify
- avast (antivirus)
And, belive it or not, I'm worried that Firefox could crash, when I open word or excel I have to wait several minutes, if I receive an e-mail with lots of images outlook stops working and/or crashes, and sometimes, while I'm typing, the music stops.
I just do not want them to happen anymore
That sounds horrible and you should get any Mac ASAP.
Outlook is a disaster and you will likely want to replace it with Apple's bundled Mail and Calendar applications. They have their own problems but they're not Outlook.
No reason to stop using VLC. It's an excellent piece of software and the Mac version works well.
I find that Chrome is better and faster than Firefox but every browser has its proponents so YMMV.
You might consider using Pages and Numbers instead of Word and Excel since you will be getting them for free with a new Mac. Or LibreOffice (which is what I use), or you could try Google Docs. Not to say that Microsoft Office for the Mac doesn't work well but you might as well explore free alternatives before investing.
No reason to use AV software on a Mac, so that's another pain point that won't exist anymore for you.
Anyway, your life will improve dramatically with any Mac, just go to a store and buy one. There's no reason anybody should be waiting minutes to open a Word file or a big email.
Sounds just like windows.Thank you so much! All of those answers really clear my mind.
On my PC I have an hard disk of 500GB and I'm using 80GB. This is because I store eveything in OneDrive. As a result I tought I do not need to upgrade my laptop.
Actually, it's not that I absolutely want to upgrade something.
I'm just saying that I'm buying a new laptop and I have no lots of money. So I would choose a good laptop which will run smoothly and that I can own for 5 or more years. I know that it can sound weird for some people but I'm thinking about doing an "investment". I just wanted to make sure to invest in the right thing
I will define my computer usage as standard. For example, now I have the following apps opened:
- outloook (send and receive e-mail and calendar) (I can replace it with thunderbird if you prefer)
- word
- excel
- SPSS (statistic)
- VLC media player (It will become iTunes on my Mac)
- Firefox (6 tabs)
- Skype
- Spotify
- avast (antivirus)
And, belive it or not, I'm worried that Firefox could crash, when I open word or excel I have to wait several minutes, if I receive an e-mail with lots of images outlook stops working and/or crashes, and sometimes, while I'm typing, the music stops.
I just do not want them to happen anymore
Get a macbook air asap!
Actually, I don't care about Office because my University gives me free office 365 so that I can use microsoft office for free.
I really like Outlook, and since my phone is a nokia lumia (and I love it!) I have the live calendar which works greatly on outlook.
I've used outlook on a mac and it's not that bad (better then windows though).
Just one things that came at my mind yesterday: is there a difference of performance among MBA and MBP? Because I thought they were the same (and my choice was on the MBA just for the portability) but do you think that a MBP 4gb RAM is better than a MBA 8gb RAM?
The amount of RAM only affects performance if you're doing stuff that needs more than 4GB of RAM. In your case you won't be, so the RAM will not make any difference at all, don't worry about it.
The CPU performance between a MBA and a rMBP is pretty close. 2.7GHz vs. 3.1GHz or something like that. Barely noticeable.
The rMBP has better graphics which matter e.g. if you're going to play 3-D games. Nothing that you do that you listed would benefit from a faster graphics chip.
So practically speaking, for your use, you will see no difference between a 4GB MBA and a 4GB rMBP.
But again, coming from the horrible computing experience that you describe, it's sort of like debating which is faster, a Lamborghini or a Ferrari, when what you have currently is a horse.
Just go get a base model Air and you will be happy. You can generally get them on sale from Best Buy for $50-$100 off.
I went i7 and 8GB...
I'm not a power user and, after a year of ownership, don't feel I needed either. I still wanted them and they both still put my mind at ease..
Get a base model and it'll do what you need. Or, get the RAM upgrade and it'll do it with a little less stress on itself...
I'm not a power user and, after a year of ownership, don't feel I needed either. I still wanted them and they both still put my mind at ease..
Get a base model and it'll do what you need. Or, get the RAM upgrade and it'll do it with a little less stress on itself...
I'm also probably buying an Air this week. I currently use a Windows laptop for work with 4gb RAM and never go over 2.5gb used. I've been reading some reviews and it seems as though springing for a 256gb ssd vs. 128gb is likely to show more performance gains compared 4gb vs. 8gb memory- for general and office work use. That may have been due to ssd manufacturer variance but most seem to say 256gb will read/write slightly faster than 128gb. I will be using the laptop for work- viewing PDF files and MS Office related work, web browsing. I plan to run Windows natively via Bootcamp rather than virtual so I don't need to worry about extra RAM I'm pretty sure. I do plan on keeping the laptop for at least 2-3 years and have no desire to upgrade to a Retina type display. So the current Air will be the one I will get, just need to decide once and for all 4gb vs. 8gb. Best Buy's deal later this week for the 13" 4gb/256ssd model at $1050 looks pretty tasty to me.
Neither are going to give you any practical performance gains. If you're opening a 10MB file, it doesn't matter if your drive can read 500 megabytes per second or 600 MB/s. Both drives will open that file in a tiny, tiny, tiny fraction of a second.
I would go with 8Gb, IMO, that will give you many years out of it. i5 is a mutli-core CPU and should work well for the most applications.
You need to make a decision on the disk space. I would consider 256gb, it has an SD slot which you can use it for extra-storage (I have considered it using it but then decided to go cloud way). Something like this, http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=electronics&field-keywords=TS128GJDL350
You can even go for a third party SSD upgrade upto 1TB. Depending upon the needs (or as they grow). Don't rush if you don't need the space as the prices will only come down.
Hope this helps.
You need to make a decision on the disk space. I would consider 256gb, it has an SD slot which you can use it for extra-storage (I have considered it using it but then decided to go cloud way). Something like this, http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=electronics&field-keywords=TS128GJDL350
You can even go for a third party SSD upgrade upto 1TB. Depending upon the needs (or as they grow). Don't rush if you don't need the space as the prices will only come down.
Hope this helps.