Upgrade time: which MB to consider?

[fahadchaudhry]

Hi,

I own a MacBook White (Late 2008) and want to upgrade since its performance has slowed down. Plus, cracks have started appearing in body (I have already got the body replaced by Apple once, back in 2011), otherwise would have definitely considered upgrading the RAM to 4gb and replacing the HDD with SSD and could use it for another year or so.

My daily usage involves, Mail, Safari (often 8 or more tabs at a time), Evernote (I am heavily dependant on that), VUZE (Torrent client), Microsoft Word, Excel, Skype, iPhoto, Calendar, iTunes.

So, want a machine that can run all the above mentioned programs smoothly. Budget is not a constraint.

Want to try 13" MacBook Air but fear whether i5 (1.3GHz)/4GB shall be able to handle all programs effortlessly in long run - 1.3GHz, kind of seems slow. Considering me being with MacBook White for 5 years, I definitely plan to use my new machine for at least 4 to 5 years. So, is default configuration PERFECT (and I don't need to worry) or should I configure it to i7/8GB?

Or, should I consider MBP / rMBP because of its processing power?

 

[cheesyappleuser]

Hi,

I own a MacBook White (Late 2008) and want to upgrade since its performance has slowed down. Plus, cracks have started appearing in body (I have already got the body replaced by Apple once, back in 2011), otherwise would have definitely considered upgrading the RAM to 4gb and replacing the HDD with SSD and could use it for another year or so.

My daily usage involves, Mail, Safari (often 8 or more tabs at a time), Evernote (I am heavily dependant on that), VUZE (Torrent client), Microsoft Word, Excel, Skype, iPhoto, Calendar, iTunes.

So, want a machine that can run all the above mentioned programs smoothly. Budget is not a constraint.

Want to try 13" MacBook Air but fear whether i5 (1.3GHz)/4GB shall be able to handle all programs effortlessly in long run - 1.3GHz, kind of seems slow. Considering me being with MacBook White for 5 years, I definitely plan to use my new machine for at least 4 to 5 years. So, is default configuration PERFECT (and I don't need to worry) or should I configure it to i7/8GB?

Or, should I consider MBP / rMBP because of its processing power?

If you are looking for a replacement I would recommend you to go for the i7/8GB MBA.
For what you use your computer it looks like that setup will do just fine. You can always get yourself a rMBP, but just because of the gorgeous display.

 

[cheesyappleuser]

On the other hand, if you really want to be future-proof, I'd wait for the rMBP 15" Haswell refresh and get the lower-priced model. That is quite a powerful machine.