11.6 inch MacBook Air 1.4GHz or 1.6GHz ?

[maflynn]

Yes, you're wrong. Machines sold since about 2000 have been grossly overpowered for most tasks users do.

I'd agree with that statement but for me, it still bothers me to pay so much money for older prior generation technology.

I'm running a quad core i7 desktop and I can easily say that I don't need all that power, but it was fun building and its great when I want to run a windows VM, a ubuntu VM, and have Aperture up and running.

The lack of ram is probably the weakest part that bothers me the most however. 4gb is the minimum that this puppy needs.

 

[KnightWRX]

I'd agree with that statement but for me, it still bothers me to pay so much money for older prior generation technology.

I'm happy Apple decided to go C2D for this. I bought mine immediately when I saw the words "C2D - nVidia". A Core i3 with an Intel X4500 would have forced me to wait for a 13" MBP.

You see older prior generation technology, I see a processor that works. My Pentium II is still chugging along, and I haven't run into any software yet that says "You absolutely need SSE3 for this to run!". Until Apple sorts out the IGPs for Core iX, C2Ds are a very good choice.

Seriously, people that "absolutely need Core iX" need to tell me what assembly instruction is required for their university course work that Intel introduced in the newer architecture.

I'm running a quad core i7 desktop and I can easily say that I don't need all that power, but it was fun building and its great when I want to run a windows VM, a ubuntu VM, and have Aperture up and running.

Just last weekend I was working on my website while doing some patches for work systems. I hooked up my Windows VM to the VPN at work so it wouldn't destroy my home net access (the work VPN blocks out a lot of traffic to certain websites) so Outlook, Internet Explorer, 3 dozen putty windows, had Illustrator CS5 up and running as I was doing my site logo, had my Slackware VM running, about 5 terminal windows, iTunes for the background noise and the machine was barely sweating. That's not even counting all the other crap that is just running in the background like MSN, Skype and Transmission at all times. This isn't some quad core beast, just my Macbook 2.0 ghz with 4 GB of RAM. It used to do the same with 2 GB but 2 VMs was of course impossible, Windows barely chugs along with 512 MB of RAM.

Again. People are grossly overestimating their computing needs nowadays.

 

[hleewell]

It all boils down to what you really need. Macbook Air seems to target multimedia user, internet blogger, traveling execs, light productivity etc. Recent PC Mag review of the 11.6" says that the ultraportable can actually play Crysis at low settings while the Asus & Acer can't even play this game..at all. It should be able to handle 720p movies well especially those purchased from iTunes store. However the MBAs will be a poor choice if you do a lot of heavy duty Photoshopping or media encoding. I am seriously considering replacing my base model MacBook Pro 13" with the 13" MBA.

 

[drummerlondonw3]

i used to have a 1.86 and 2.13 macbook air and i would have stayed with them if they could have handled imovie better, but unfortunately i ultimately had to take a MBP 13", but i miss the MBA alot.

might be poignant for the OP to know what the problems were??

I had a rev A MBA and aside from it being a total pain in the A$$ and having to really thermally manage it, hands down the best computer I have ever owned.

Amazing stuff really, absolutely ideal for a laptop. If these new ones are like the old ones but without the issues I will be seriously lusting after one!

 

[sheltem]

I'm happy Apple decided to go C2D for this. I bought mine immediately when I saw the words "C2D - nVidia". A Core i3 with an Intel X4500 would have forced me to wait for a 13" MBP.

You see older prior generation technology, I see a processor that works. My Pentium II is still chugging along, and I haven't run into any software yet that says "You absolutely need SSE3 for this to run!". Until Apple sorts out the IGPs for Core iX, C2Ds are a very good choice.

Exactly. The Geforce 320M is by far the best entry level graphics card you can get in a laptop; the 48 shaders is key. It smokes the 310M and beats any of ATI's equivalent offerings.

Arstechnica gives an excellent explanation as to why Apple went with the older C2D. This explanation also applies to the new Macbook Pro 13 as well.

If you still aren't convinced, then I encourage you to look at the differences between an Alienware M11x r1 and r2. The r1 uses C2D ULV processor, while the newer r2 uses Core i5 / i7 ULV. Bottom line is you actually take a bit of a battery life hit with the Core i5 / i7 ULV processors and the performance difference is not too great from a gaming perspective. Anandtech has an excellent article comparing the two different revisions.