SB MBA upgrade thought...

[Monkey194545]

Aside from getting either LV or ULV SB chips, does anyone think apple may up the other specs of the MBAs?

My predictions:
1. Thunderbolt (duh)
2. 4gb of ram standard on both models
3. 128gb standard on the 11 (maybe..hopefully)
4. HD facetime cameras

And maybe but probably not a SD card slot on the 11.

Any thoughts?

 

[alust2013]

I'd say that's pretty solid and reasonable. The only thing I'm pretty sure won't happen is the SD card slot, I think the 11" is just too small for it

 

[KPOM]

I'd put Thunderbolt as a 50/50. Remember, the MacBook Air lacks a Firewire port, and Thunderbolt requires a separate chip, so perhaps Apple will conclude it's a "pro" feature. I don't think we'll see an SD card slot in the 11" model (again, for space reasons). 128GB might become standard if SSD prices fall, and we might see a 256GB option in the 11".

 

[Hellhammer]

1. Quite obvious though there is a possibility that TB will be MBP only feature, considering that it requires a discrete chip (space is an issue in MBA).

2. I think low-end models will stick with 2GB of RAM while high-end models will have 4GB as standard.

3. Possible but I doubt there will be 512GB SSD. Wouldn't be surprised if SSDs stayed the same (Apple wants there to be a difference between 11" and 13" and 128GB in base 11" would mean 256GB in high-end 11").

 

[iDisk]

Aside from getting either LV or ULV SB chips, does anyone think apple may up the other specs of the MBAs?

My predictions:
1. Thunderbolt (duh)
2. 4gb of ram standard on both models
3. 128gb standard on the 11 (maybe..hopefully)
4. HD facetime cameras

And maybe but probably not a SD card slot on the 11.

Any thoughts?

SB in the Air is such a Lame move....why??? cause of the HD, the Intel HD3000 graphics... Wait till Ivy Bridge man, and SB Air would plain suck IMO.... I'm glad I got the C2D 4gb Ram 256SSD model with NVIDIA 320 now.... Just buy now, if you can

 

[Hellhammer]

SB in the Air is such a Lame move....why??? cause of the HD, the Intel HD3000 graphics... Wait till Ivy Bridge man, and SB Air would plain suck IMO.... I'm glad I got the C2D 4gb Ram 256SSD model with NVIDIA 320 now.... Just buy now, if you can

You could say the same about C2D CPU. MBA has had the pretty much same CPU since it was introduced. For the group of people that the MBA is targeted at, Intel IGP will be more than fine, just like the C2D is now.

Ivy Bridge won't make miracles. Sure, the IGP will be better but it will still suck compared to discrete solutions.

 

[iDisk]

You could say the same about C2D CPU. MBA has had the pretty much same CPU since it was introduced. For the group of people that the MBA is targeted at, Intel IGP will be more than fine, just like the C2D is now.

Ivy Bridge won't make miracles. Sure, the IGP will be better but it will still suck compared to discrete solutions.

yea dude you make a good point.... It sucks though that we the consumers have to pay for petty squabbles between mega tech nerds and there greed (referring to Intel vs Nvidia).... the tech community, was built on community not petty squabbles

 

[57004]

SB in the Air is such a Lame move....why??? cause of the HD, the Intel HD3000 graphics... Wait till Ivy Bridge man, and SB Air would plain suck IMO.... I'm glad I got the C2D 4gb Ram 256SSD model with NVIDIA 320 now.... Just buy now, if you can

The benchmark of the HD3000 on the MBP showed them to be roughly equal to the 320M under OS X (and a bit faster on Boot Camp-Windows). I really don't think this will be a big deal for most people. Sandy Bridge will bring a huge CPU improvement, just like it has for the MBP's. The top-range MBP is now faster than the current 2.8 Ghz Mac Pro on Geekbench.

I really think the CPU boost benefits people much more than the 320M video, unless you're gaming a lot on Windows in which case you'd be much better of going for an AlienWare laptop.

 

[impulse462]

The benchmark of the HD3000 on the MBP showed them to be roughly equal to the 320M under OS X (and a bit faster on Boot Camp-Windows). I really don't think this will be a big deal for most people. Sandy Bridge will bring a huge CPU improvement, just like it has for the MBP's. The top-range MBP is now faster than the current 2.8 Ghz Mac Pro on Geekbench.

I really think the CPU boost benefits people much more than the 320M video, unless you're gaming a lot on Windows in which case you'd be much better of going for an AlienWare laptop.

The HD 3000 marginally performs better than the 320M in OS X, in windows, the 320M gives more FPS in pretty much every game tested.

I agree though, for the type of people the Air is aimed for, the GPU/CPU doesn't really matter. However, for applications that utilize the GPU (would this include 720p videos in iTunes?) the more powerful GPU would be beneficial.

 

[Hellhammer]

However, for applications that utilize the GPU (would this include 720p videos in iTunes?) the more powerful GPU would be beneficial.

AFAIK video playback can be hardware accelerated by the GPU but most if it is still done by the CPU. Especially if audio has to be decoded when playing (I think this happens when it has to be passed through the MDP port). Sandy Bridge packs the most powerful video decoding hardware though. It's even more powerful than the high-end desktop GPUs. You just need a software with QuickSync support.

 

[Hands Sandon]

1-yes
2-no
3-no
4-no

 

[Monkey194545]

AFAIK video playback can be hardware accelerated by the GPU but most if it is still done by the CPU. Especially if audio has to be decoded when playing (I think this happens when it has to be passed through the MDP port). Sandy Bridge packs the most powerful video decoding hardware though. It's even more powerful than the high-end desktop GPUs. You just need a software with QuickSync support.

The only problem I see with the intel graphics (3000) is that they have been benchmarked (mostly) with quad core CPUs where they did perform better that the 320/330. But when we compared to the i5/i7 dual cores in the 13 MBP, they are about equal and even below in some tests. We all know this is because the intel GPUs work in hand with the new SB processors (Dont know all the tech speak.) I'm afraid that this will have a substantial negative impact when paired with a ULV CPU in the future MBA.

 

[Mac767]

To wait or not to wait... that´s my problem, is it really worth waiting the next update of macbook air? any of you guys knows when that´s gonna be or what is the most likely boost up it´s gonna have?
See, i´m thinking of buying a MBA 11.6, but I don´t want to buy it just to see next month a new macbook air with SB i5, thunderbolt, longer battery life and backlit keyboard cause that's going be a total bummer!! I dont want to wait much longer too... but if you tell me that there´s going to be just a boost in processor, i think i´ll just buy it now...

any advice?

 

[leftyMac]

To wait or not to wait... that´s my problem, is it really worth waiting the next update of macbook air? any of you guys knows when that´s gonna be or what is the most likely boost up it´s gonna have?
See, i´m thinking of buying a MBA 11.6, but I don´t want to buy it just to see next month a new macbook air with SB i5, thunderbolt, longer battery life and backlit keyboard cause that's going be a total bummer!! I dont want to wait much longer too... but if you tell me that there´s going to be just a boost in processor, i think i´ll just buy it now...

any advice?

I'm dying to be wrong, but a new MBA won't be out at least until June. I want to be wrong and get the new one before June!

 

[zinka]

3G is coming for sure.