Haswell and FileVault Performance/Battery

[mbastudent2015]

I just ordered my 2013 MBA 13"/i7/8GB/256GB and I am looking for some advice from the wise users in this forum. I think it's always a good practice to use endpoint encryption so I'm planning on using FileVault when my computer arrives. For those of you using FileVault on the 2013 MBA, what kinds of hits have you noticed to either battery life or other performance stats (i.e. read/write speed)?

If it drags the battery life down from 12 hours (i7) to, I dunno, 4 or 5 hours it may not be worth enabling. If that's the case I may just alter my usage patterns and protect my files that way.

Any advice/anecdotes/geekbench scores would be much appreciated

 

[TheRealDamager]

The performance and battery affect is very small. Instead of thinking 12 hours to 5 hours, think 12 hours to 11 hours and 45 mins.

There is almost no performance or battery life reason not to use FV.

 

[Bear]

Filevault full disk encryption has very little overhead and is not noticeable during use.

You won't lose that much battery life with Filevault enabled maybe a few minutes.

Remember it takes time to encrypt the disk, so wait until the disk is fully encrypted before you try measuring anything.

 

[flynz4]

Turning on FV2 is one of the first things that I do when I get a new computer. Also set a firmware password for your computer.

Since I always do it... I cannot give you a before/after opinion. However, worse case is that it scales with the better HSW battery life on the 2013... hence it is an improvement over my 2012 MBA.

/Jim

 

[Weaselboy]

When FV2 first came out there was this test that showed a small disk performance hit, but that said, I have had FV2 on with my 2012 MBA and now my 2013 MBA and never noticed any disk performance hit at all and zero battery life difference.

There really is no a good reason not to use FV2 if you are at all concerned about the security of your data. It is pretty transparent on operation.

 

[helix142]

FV2 Difference

Just enabled FileVault on mine yesterday, attached are before and after screen shots of blackmagic disk test. My setup i5/8/256. Actually had an increase in write speed. No info to share on battery life yet.

 

[scaredpoet]

I have FileVault enabled on mine, and haven't noticed any difference in battery life. I can easily hit 12-13 hours of battery on my 2013 13"/i7/8GB/512 MBA.

 

[mbastudent2015]

Just enabled FileVault on mine yesterday, attached are before and after screen shots of blackmagic disk test. My setup i5/8/256. Actually had an increase in write speed. No info to share on battery life yet.

Awesome! Thanks so much. This is tangentially related: do you also back up with Time Machine? I heard Time Machine can be quirky with FileVault

 

[TheRealDamager]

Yes, I use Time Machine - no issues.

 

[flynz4]

I also use Time Machine with no issues at all. For TM... I encrypt the backups. I do not like having unencrypted data in the wild.

/Jim

 

[Bear]

Awesome! Thanks so much. This is tangentially related: do you also back up with Time Machine? I heard Time Machine can be quirky with FileVault

It's quirky with Filevault 1 with snow leopard. With filevault 2 on Lion and Mountain Lion, it's fine

 

[flynz4]

It's quirky with Failevault 1 with snow leopard. With filevault 2 on Lion and Mountain Lion, it's fine

Oh yes... I remember now. I'm still foggy on the details but it was some horrible combination such as: You must be powered on... but you cannot be logged into the account that you wanted to back up... or something equally as wanky.

FV2 was a huge improvement.

/Jim

 

[Weaselboy]

I also use Time Machine with no issues at all. For TM... I encrypt the backups.

Same here with a Time Capsule. No issues.

 

[gnasher729]

Awesome! Thanks so much. This is tangentially related: do you also back up with Time Machine? I heard Time Machine can be quirky with FileVault

No issues at all with FileVault2 which is what you are using. Time Machine didn't work with FileVault which is outdated for a few years. Of course if your hard drive is encrypted, make sure that your backup is encrypted as well, otherwise a thief stealing your Time Machine will have all your data.