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Upgrade Processor or Memory?

B

backtothefuture

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 8, 2007
38
0
After seven years of worthy service, I'm finally putting my 12" Powerbook to pasture and getting a fresh MBA for my birthday.
I'm getting a 13inch, 256, and will have a bit of money left over to upgrade.

Should I go with the 1.7 i7 processor upgrade or the 8 ram of memory upgrade?

I will mainly be using it to write/draft stuff in Pages, surf the web, watch stuff on Netflix, and play iTunes.

Thanks!

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As a follow up, I plan on having this MBA for quite a long time (5 years or so), so I guess the real question is which upgrade will provide the best benefit in the long run.
 
backtothefuture said:
After seven years of worthy service, I'm finally putting my 12" Powerbook to pasture and getting a fresh MBA for my birthday.
I'm getting a 13inch, 256, and will have a bit of money left over to upgrade.

Should I go with the 1.7 i7 processor upgrade or the 8 ram of memory upgrade?

I will mainly be using it to write/draft stuff in Pages, surf the web, watch stuff on Netflix, and play iTunes.

Thanks!

----------

As a follow up, I plan on having this MBA for quite a long time (5 years or so), so I guess the real question is which upgrade will provide the best benefit in the long run.
Click to expand...

Memory, memory every single time. Even SSD before processor.
 
I'm with ZBoater - you don't need either upgrade to the machine for that usage.

Excuse lazy question here and not searching but I heard drive and RAM upgrades on Air were difficult as they were soldered in so not as switchable as on other macs
 
ZBoater said:
Well, my answer would be both. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Well, me, too, but I'd rather not deal with a certain poster who started an i7 jihad. :D

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Jambalaya said:
Excuse lazy question here and not searching but I heard drive and RAM upgrades on Air were difficult as they were soldered in so not as switchable as on other macs
Click to expand...

If you don't know the correct answer, don't guess.

CPU & RAM - You cannot change once purchased.
SSD - Replaceable but no one is selling them yet.
 
Neither for your planned usage. If you are able to qualify for educational pricing, the cMBP would be more than enough for your needs.
 
Tarrou8 said:
Neither for your planned usage. If you are able to qualify for educational pricing, the cMBP would be more than enough for your needs.
Click to expand...

cMBP is more expensive, has a less powerful GPU, a lower res screen and no SSD. Why would he want to buy this? :p

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Jambalaya said:
I'm with ZBoater - you don't need either upgrade to the machine for that usage.

Excuse lazy question here and not searching but I heard drive and RAM upgrades on Air were difficult as they were soldered in so not as switchable as on other macs
Click to expand...

RAM is soldered on and not able to be upgraded after purchase, hence why so many people recommend upgrading it. The SSD is not soldered on and is technically user replaceable, but ATM there is no third party way to get a replacement/upgrade part for the 2013 air, but there will be soon!

OP: Upgrade the RAM if you're going to have it for a long time. The sweet spot for the Air as a main computer is the i5/8/256.
 
mattferg said:
The sweet spot for the Air as a main computer is the i5/8/256.
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For your budget and usage pattern, perhaps. There are other people that can afford $450 more and need all the processing power and SSD space they can get. Learn to accept them. They are fellow Mac users too... :rolleyes:
 
ZBoater said:
For your budget and usage pattern, perhaps. There are other people that can afford $450 more and need all the processing power and SSD space they can get. Learn to accept them. They are fellow Mac users too... :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Yawn, if you read through the forums and see what most people are buying, this seems to be it. It's the sweet spot for most people. Again proving you don't read anything people write and just recommend for them to spend more money than they need to.
 
mattferg said:
Yawn, if you read through the forums and see what most people are buying, this seems to be it. It's the sweet spot for most people. Again proving you don't read anything people write and just recommend for them to spend more money than they need to.
Click to expand...

Funny, I must have missed the poll or study that arrived at those numbers for you to be so definitive about it. Because the forums are sooooo representative of the Apple customer base...

Yawn indeed! :rolleyes:
 
ZBoater said:
Funny, I must have missed the poll or study that arrived at those numbers for you to be so definitive about it. Because the forums are sooooo representative of the Apple customer base...

Yawn indeed! :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I missed the study where most people spend the full amount and get the ultimate, too? Can you link me to that? Or the study that says most people will even use the extra power?
 
mattferg said:
cMBP is more expensive, has a less powerful GPU, a lower res screen and no SSD. Why would he want to buy this? :p
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Wrong. The 2.5GHz base cMBP with a 500GB hard-drive is $999 with educational pricing. Aftermarket SSD's and RAM upgrades are cheap and with both, it would be quite comparable in processing power to the current airs. True the screen real estate is lower on the cMBP but the colors and depth quality are better. I personally much prefer the air, but for his stated usage patterns, the cMBP offers expanded upgradability options that down the road could prove quite useful.
Click to expand...
 
Tarrou8 said:
mattferg said:
cMBP is more expensive, has a less powerful GPU, a lower res screen and no SSD. Why would he want to buy this? :p
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Wrong. The 2.5GHz base cMBP with a 500GB hard-drive is $999 with educational pricing. Aftermarket SSD's and RAM upgrades are cheap and with both, it would be quite comparable in processing power to the current airs. True the screen real estate is lower on the cMBP but the colors and depth quality are better. I personally much prefer the air, but for his stated usage patterns, the cMBP offers expanded upgradability options that down the road could prove quite useful.
Click to expand...


No, you're wrong. The MBA had a price drop at WWDC so is now lower than the cMBP. MBA in the UK with education pricing is £816 vs. the cMBP which is £859.20. So more expensive, and it's the same story in the US. I can't access the US education site but the regular prices are $1099 for the MBA and $1199 for the cMBP.

And as for processing, I'm talking about the GPU being far superior, not the CPU. The 5000 series graphics easily trumps the 4000. It still doesn't come with an SSD and Apple's RAM upgrades pricing with education discount match DDR3 pricing on Amazon here in the UK.

So in future please don't call me out when you're wrong.
Click to expand...
 
mattferg said:
I missed the study where most people spend the full amount and get the ultimate, too? Can you link me to that? Or the study that says most people will even use the extra power?
Click to expand...

I'm not the one going around saying my configuration is the "sweet spot" that will satisfy almost everyone. If you can afford the extra power, get it. If you can't afford it, make do without it. It is as simple as that. All this hot air about heat, battery life, etc. is just myths and superstitions that help make some more comfortable with their purchase while confusing others into making bad purchasing decisions. Be happy with your i5 purchase. It's not THAT big of a deal you didn't get the i7. You are only running 20% slower. Not something to get this worked up about. :rolleyes:
 
coldjeanzzz said:
He said he is going to keep the MBA for 5 years, there is absolutely no reason to not get the 8 GB RAM.
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That. 4 gigs in 5 years time will be really crappy (it will be tight within 3 years, even). 8 gigs in 5 years time won't be great either, but it will be a lot better than 4.



edit:
And anyone thinking that we've finally gotten to the point where computers come with enough RAM, i would point you to the last 70 years of computing where others have repeatedly made similar assertions and been proven wrong.
 
mattferg said:
Tarrou8 said:
No, you're wrong. The MBA had a price drop at WWDC so is now lower than the cMBP. MBA in the UK with education pricing is £816 vs. the cMBP which is £859.20. So more expensive, and it's the same story in the US. I can't access the US education site but the regular prices are $1099 for the MBA and $1199 for the cMBP.

And as for processing, I'm talking about the GPU being far superior, not the CPU. The 5000 series graphics easily trumps the 4000. It still doesn't come with an SSD and Apple's RAM upgrades pricing with education discount match DDR3 pricing on Amazon here in the UK.

So in future please don't call me out when you're wrong.
Click to expand...

True the 11" base Air is slightly cheaper but there is a $200 educational discount on the 13" base cMBP here in the States so it starts at $999. The 2013 Haswell Airs really are quite incredible (minus the screen) and I'd highly recommend them to almost anyone. It's just that given that the poster seems to hold onto his laptops for a long time, there are certain advantages to getting a non-air. Thanks for the lesson though Mom!
Click to expand...
 
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