MBA Handbrake test

[KeithJenner]

Hi,

I got a 13" i5 MBA yesterday. I've been waiting for the spec to become a significant step up from my current 2009 MBP 13" and this looked like it did the job.

Anyway, I've done a few small tests to see how it compares. Firstly, I just opened up some documents in iWork and found that it opens significantly quicker. Usually a lot less than half the time.

I'm just running a test where I'm converting an AVI file to MP4 using Handbrake (High Profile preset). As a comparison, I'm running it on:

New MBA 13" i5 1.7ghz
2009 MBP 13" Core 2 Duo 2.26ghz
2010 iMac i3 3.2ghz

I was expecting the Air to beat the Pro, and the iMac to comfortably beat them both.

The iMac has just finished encoding. It took just over 45 minutes at an average fps of 58. Meanwhile, the Pro still has about 40 mins to go and is running at 31 fps.

The Air has just over 5 minutes to go and is at 52fps. That is a lot better than I was expecting.

The fan has been going like the clappers as you'd expect and I doubt the battery would last long if it wasn't plugged in, but I'm quite impressed.

 

[WhoDatWayne]

Thanks for the info.

 

[KeithJenner]

I hadn't thought about it when running the test, but the Pro has just 2gb. I'm not sure how much difference that makes.

 

[Roman2K~]

Thanks for the test. The i5 has been working like a charm for me for too.

Nothing super intensive yet, but I'm about to give it a run for its money... downscaling 1080p videos to ~720p (to fit DVD-Rs) using HandBrake, all while watching other 1080p videos on a TV .

 

[clactonlad]

What size avi are you converting? Have you tried converting any 700mb avi's to the apple tv preset yet using handbrake and If so how long did it take?

Thanks!

 

[KeithJenner]

I've only done this one conversion so far. The AVI was about 1.5gb and, whilst I haven't tested it, I have never noticed a huge difference in conversion times between ATV2 and High Profile presents.

So, I'd say that a 700mb AVI should take something like 20-25 minutes on the Air.

 

[clactonlad]

I've only done this one conversion so far. The AVI was about 1.5gb and, whilst I haven't tested it, I have never noticed a huge difference in conversion times between ATV2 and High Profile presents.

So, I'd say that a 700mb AVI should take something like 20-25 minutes on the Air.

Thanks for the info Keith!