transfer data between mbp's - AirDrop or Dropbox?

Why not just turn on File Sharing in the Sharing preferences pane, and then copy the files across the WiFi?

 

Would probably be the same speed actually. Fastest way would be to hook up the machines via Ethernet cable if possible!

 

Connect a network cable to each of your mbp's

 

Does with a dongle

 

You can also enable LAN Sync in Dropbox if both computers are on the same network. The files will still try to sync to Dropbox, but you should see faster transfer speeds.

 

In this case you might have better luck by sharing the entire HDD of the old MBP and accessing it on the new MBP in order to move files over. May take a while but may be faster than Dropbox syncing!

 

I have no personal experience with it yet, but Mavericks supports networking over Thunderbolt.

A.

 

I guess I'm hopelessly old-fashioned, but to me the "fastest, easiest" way to transfer 20gb of data between two MacBooks would be a USB flashdrive.

If you just have a smaller-sized one (say, 16gb or 8gb), do "multiple passes" as required.

Probably as easy as messing around with anything else!

 

Was going to suggest this too, since 20gb is a relatively small amount of data to move. Not sure it meets the OP's request for fastest in terms of transfer rate, but for only 20gb I'd go with the easiest option. The time difference is trivial.