Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

i5/8/256 ..... Hows it working for you so far?

D

DblEGT

macrumors member
Original poster
Have mine on order, and it arrives this Tuesday. For those of you with this configuration, how has it been so far? Any regrets? Is it speedy enough for your uses?

Basically, with this configuration: i5/8/256 ..... Hows it working for you so far?

Thanks,
 
I'm not the response you are looking for as I don't have a 2013 model yet but that spec is very capable.

With 8gb it won't choke with 99% of the things you throw at it.

You might need to wait a little longer for the very intensive CPU tasks that take minutes into the 10's.

I predict it will exceed your expectations and you will be thoroughly satisfied with the speed. I personally think you have picked the best specification.
 
bp1000 said:
I'm not the response you are looking for as I don't have a 2013 model yet but that spec is very capable.

With 8gb it won't choke with 99% of the things you throw at it.

You might need to wait a little longer for the very intensive CPU tasks that take minutes into the 10's.

I predict it will exceed your expectations and you will be thoroughly satisfied with the speed. I personally think you have picked the best specification.
Click to expand...


Thanks for your reply! Exactly what I was thinking too. I was able to zero in on the "best spec" as a result of all the great input from people on this great forum!!
 
DblEGT said:
Thanks for your reply! Exactly what I was thinking too. I was able to zero in on the "best spec" as a result of all the great input from people on this great forum!!
Click to expand...

I'm on the i5/4/2256 and I absolutely love this thing.

Good battery, extremely fast, cold and running all kinds of software.

You will love yours, enjoy.
 
curtoise said:
I'm on the i5/4/2256 and I absolutely love this thing.

Good battery, extremely fast, cold and running all kinds of software.

You will love yours, enjoy.
Click to expand...

Thank you! You were definitely one of my influencers in my decision. My first Mac, and so I decided to educate myself first as to what I really "need". I found that ultimate power is nice, however not at the expense of it running hot and consuming more power. Most of my activities are generally "light duty" anyway (as Im sure most others are too) and so why would I need the i7? Seems too many forum members with the i5 are plenty happy, as you are too.

----------

i5/8/256 just seems like the ultimate sweetspot for this machine. Best balance between power and battery life!!!
 
DblEGT said:
Thank you! You were definitely one of my influencers in my decision. My first Mac, and so I decided to educate myself first as to what I really "need". I found that ultimate power is nice, however not at the expense of it running hot and consuming more power. Most of my activities are generally "light duty" anyway (as Im sure most others are too) and so why would I need the i7? Seems too many forum members with the i5 are plenty happy, as you are too.

----------

i5/8/256 just seems like the ultimate sweetspot for this machine. Best balance between power and battery life!!!
Click to expand...

Great to hear, you will be very happy 🙂
 
Really nice, had a 2011 Air but this one has in audible fans at 1200 rpm which don't spin up as much
 
Last edited:
I have had my 11/i5/8/256 for less than 24 hours, so I've really not have the opportunity to put it through the paces, let alone a typical week of work (just wait!), just so far, it is performing just as I had hope this config would. Fast, quiet, and smooth. Good-bye windows, hello mac.
 
Im also curious about this. I know i want the 256gb SSD and the 8gb of ram but im still tossing up if i should get the i7.
 
torana355 said:
Im also curious about this. I know i want the 256gb SSD and the 8gb of ram but im still tossing up if i should get the i7.
Click to expand...

Depends what you see yourself doing with it. If you are ok with something more intensive taking a few more seconds, then stick with the i5. I decided I mostly will surf the net and do some other relatively light duty work, and wanted a machine cool to the touch without fans blaring.
 
i5/4/128 base model coming from a 2012 pro with 8/256ssd... the drive speed on the air is a hell of a lot faster. Im still debating my choice on 4gb though, my gf took over my pro and Im beginning to wonder if I should have gotten the 8gb ha. IT guy problems lol
 
DblEGT said:
Depends what you see yourself doing with it. If you are ok with something more intensive taking a few more seconds, then stick with the i5. I decided I mostly will surf the net and do some other relatively light duty work, and wanted a machine cool to the touch without fans blaring.
Click to expand...

Its mainly web browsing that i do but i cant help myself when it comes to upgrades lol. If im smart i will get the i5 and enjoy the extra battery life.
 
biglipps66 said:
i5/4/128 base model coming from a 2012 pro with 8/256ssd... the drive speed on the air is a hell of a lot faster. Im still debating my choice on 4gb though, my gf took over my pro and Im beginning to wonder if I should have gotten the 8gb ha. IT guy problems lol
Click to expand...

I just thought it would be wise to get the 8 GB RAM for my MBA to never worry about it again. 😉

----------
torana355 said:
Its mainly web browsing that i do but i cant help myself when it comes to upgrades lol. If im smart i will get the i5 and enjoy the extra battery life.
Click to expand...

Im the same way with the upgrades, but determined no i7 CPU for me. I wanted the SICK battery life too much. And c'mon, the i5 will do everything you want amazingly fast enough!! Plus, the reported heat/fan issues of the i7 made me think twice. Go with the i5 !!
 
I ordered the some config on thursday night. Lots of great reviews about this years Air. Very excited. I have some games on my iMac I plan to try on the air.
 
I'm about to order this configuration, I think. I'm on the fence about the 256 GB SSD, since so much of my workflow is in the cloud these days (I sync <10 GB of stuff in Dropbox/SkyDrive, including photos, and all my video and music is streaming), but I may want to install Windows and I don't want to regret having too little space down the road.

JMountainDew said:
Good-bye windows, hello mac.
Click to expand...

Literally cannot wait to say this. I'm on a fairly decent Windows machine, but the thought of having a laptop that I can throw in my bag without worrying about a charger, or even noticing it's there, is incredibly enticing. So is Mountain Lion, coming from Windows 8. And Haswell i5 + 8 GB RAM + Intel HD 5000 can handle some occasional gaming, right? Firing up Steam is rare enough for me that this isn't a huge concern, I'm just wondering what kind of frame rates I can expect when I want to play Skyrim every couple months.
 
My 11" i5/8/256 arrives on the 26th. After all the research on the board, I've come to the conclusion that this is the ideal configuration that balances cost, power and battery stamina.

I'll be upgrading from a 2011 13" i7/4/256. Turns out that the 13" was just too big for me when I travel (my first Air was a 2010 11") I also regretted getting the i7 as it did run pretty hot and it does not recover the additional cost when you go to sell it. I've also been using cloud services quite a lot and additional storage is not something that is so important anymore.
 
mknightretke said:
I'm on the fence about the 256 GB SSD... I don't want to regret having too little space down the road.
Click to expand...

There you go! Don't scrimp now and regret doing so later. As long as you are making the big purchase, do make sure to anticipate all that you may actually need.
 
I could've probably gotten away with the 128 without too much trouble. But a year down the road I know that I will have regretted not spending the $200 to upgrade
 
Been using the 13 i5/8/256 for a few days, and also installed Bootcamp and Win7 Ultimate. Have 3 partitions: main, test, and Bootcamp. Test is for trying OS X 10.9 and other beta releases.

No regrets.

Didn't go for the i7, since didn't expect any real advantage over everyday use. Went with the 8GB RAM since MBA is not user upgradeable. Thought 256GB SSD was enough since this is not primary laptop for now, and have a Seagate Wireless for media if I need it. Home network has new TC for backups.

Wife likes it, though she wanted me to get the 11 because it is "cuter".

Initially had slow wake from sleep with the menu bar not appearing right away. Problem seems to have cleared up all by itself, so wak is just a few seconds.

Will be installing a few Adobe CC apps.

Could not try the new Apple cloud apps as my developer ID has a space in it.
 
I have this exact setup with my new 13" MBA.

So far it's working out very well for me.

I use VMWare Fusion 5 to run a Win 7 64 bit system in addition to my OSX.

My MBA runs cool, quiet, and for a long time (over 12 hrs and upwards of 13 to 14, depending on what is running and how often I let the system sleep). No issues at all with too little CPU but then again I'm not doing anything super heavy with it. Thrilled with the battery life and the smoothness of everything. I have yet to hear any fan noise, which I so appreciate. This is my first Macbook product in 20 yrs.

I'm glad I went for the 8GB RAM and 256GB drive. That is the sweet spot for me. 😛
 
DblEGT said:
Have mine on order, and it arrives this Tuesday. For those of you with this configuration, how has it been so far? Any regrets? Is it speedy enough for your uses?

Basically, with this configuration: i5/8/256 ..... Hows it working for you so far?

Thanks,
Click to expand...

Same configuration. One question was yours delayed a day by Fedex? Mine comes tomorrow. According to Apple support a big batch of mac airs coming in with mine got delayed.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back