need advise to buy MBA

[omardeneo]

I have MBP Mid 2010 Core 2 Duo 2.4 with 8 GB RAM and upgraded HD 640 GB

I use it for internet, office, some photo editing and I use Parallel desktop with windows 7 for some stock analysis programs like metastock

my question is


I would like to buy the latest MBA with 4 GB Ram and 128 GB SSD

is it good performance and as I noticed most people say it will not be a big different

by the way the storage is not a matter for me
can you share your opinion

 

[KylePowers]

It'll be hard going from 8GB to 4GB if you consistently use more than 4GB simultaneously, so I'd be weary there.

But the SSD makes a world of a difference. Sometimes I hate using my 2011 quad-core iMac with 8GB of RAM as it's horrendously slow compared to my 2011 MBA because it only has the stock 1TB standard HDD. I'll probably get an SSD for it later this year to be honest.

If you're looking for a performance increase more so than a size/weight difference, consider maybe changing the hard drive in your MBP to a SSD one? It'd be cheaper and you'd imaginably see increased performance.

Tough call though. I'd typically say a Sandy Bridge CPU would out perform a C2D in any task, but to the extent at which it does depends on what you're doing. As I don't have much experience with photo editing or Parallels, I can't really say.

I do run VirtualBox on my MBA, but only Windows XP. It runs very well for what it's worth.

 

[jmoore5196]

I have a 15" i7 MBP which I use for what I euphemistically refer to as "heavy lifting." I mainly keep it around for the 500GB hard drive.

I actually prefer to use my 11.6" MBA with the i5 processor. To my mind, performance is much snappier. I do notice some slowdown when I dock the MBA to an Apple Cinema Display, but not enough to dissuade me from using it with the external monitor.

If there were a 500GB SSD option for the MBA, I'd buy it and sell my MBP. That's how strongly I feel about the performance of the machine. Geekbench results aside, I think almost everything you're doing will feel considerably faster on the MBA.

 

[anirudh]

I went from the same MBP you had (albeit with 4gb of RAM) to the new 2011 13" Base Air. For the tasks you have mentioned, you'll see similar if not better performance with the Air. Plus, the portability and style factor is a class apart! Really, all in all, you'll be very happy with the change

Oh and you haven't mentioned whether you had the 13" MBP or the 15". If its the latter you might miss the extra screen real estate.

 

[omardeneo]

I went from the same MBP you had (albeit with 4gb of RAM) to the new 2011 13" Base Air. For the tasks you have mentioned, you'll see similar if not better performance with the Air. Plus, the portability and style factor is a class apart! Really, all in all, you'll be very happy with the change

Oh and you haven't mentioned whether you had the 13" MBP or the 15". If its the latter you might miss the extra screen real estate.

I think this is the answer I was looking for I really looking for the style and weight of the MBA and afraid to lose the performance

yes I missed some info my MBP is 13"