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Windows 8.1 performance on MBA 13 i5

joshlalonde

joshlalonde

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 12, 2014
422
0
Canada
All of you who bootcamp Windows 8.1 on your MacBook Air 2014 13" for whatever reason, please tell me how it performs?

I will need to bootcamp for class courses and I want to know how the MBA performs battery-wise, mostly, but also on other factors. In theory, the MBA should run just like any other ultrabook except without the latest and greatest drivers.

I will be running Visual Studio and Office 2013 in Windows 8.1 Pro on my Mac.

Thanks!
 
joshlalonde said:
All of you who bootcamp Windows 8.1 on your MacBook Air 2014 13" for whatever reason, please tell me how it performs?

I will need to bootcamp for class courses and I want to know how the MBA performs battery-wise, mostly, but also on other factors. In theory, the MBA should run just like any other ultrabook except without the latest and greatest drivers.

I will be running Visual Studio and Office 2013 in Windows 8.1 Pro on my Mac.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

You know there's a mac version of Office?
 
joshlalonde said:
I will be running Visual Studio and Office 2013 in Windows 8.1 Pro on my Mac.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

AppleFanatic10 said:
You know there's a mac version of Office?
Click to expand...
But there's no Visual Studio, plus the windows version of office is so much better then Mac Office.

Newtons Apple said:
I would respectfully suggest you install Win7 Pro instead of Win8. It runs very fast on my MBA and I get over 8 hours of battery use with power to spare.
Click to expand...
Why? Win8 isn't bad, if you don't like the tiles, there are many apps to re-add these start menu.

I'm rocking with win8 and its great, fast stable and its not due to lose support like win7 is 2015
 
Newtons Apple said:
That will be a sad day for many Windows users.

I am willing to bet that MS extends it's support for Win7 well past 2015.
Click to expand...

I doubt it, they don't want a repeat of the ever extending deadline of XP. Win8 isn't bad as I mentioned.
 
Not to sound rude, but the software mentioned is not negotiable for multiple reasons. IE. Visual studio 2014 only runs on W8.1, I don't have Office for Mac so I'm not buying it.

I want to know if any of you who already bootcamp are able to get through a day just running Windows. This would be just on days when I can only udd Windows and not stay in Mac OS X
 
maflynn said:
I doubt it, they don't want a repeat of the ever extending deadline of XP. Win8 isn't bad as I mentioned.
Click to expand...

XP was not worth saving when it was introduced:p

Watch and see. TOO many corp concerns using Win7 and they will be slow to switch to 8;)

----------
joshlalonde said:
Not to sound rude, but the software mentioned is not negotiable for multiple reasons. IE. Visual studio 2014 only runs on W8.1, I don't have Office for Mac so I'm not buying it.

I want to know if any of you who already bootcamp are able to get through a day just running Windows. This would be just on days when I can only udd Windows and not stay in Mac OS X
Click to expand...

I have run nothing BUT WIndows on BootCamp on the MBA and both 27" iMacs (home and office on network). It really works quite well.

I do reboot into Mavericks on Sunday to talk FaceTime family all of the country.

In my world Windows is still how works gets done, even though I love Apple hardware!
 
Thanks for your reply.
How would you describe battery life; what do you usually get (on OS X) and what do you get on Windows?
 
joshlalonde said:
Thanks for your reply.
How would you describe battery life; what do you usually get (on OS X) and what do you get on Windows?
Click to expand...

Anandtech reviewed the battery life (you can see their recent surface i3 vs i5 review) and the conclusions were:

Best battery life: Macbook Air.
Second best: Macbook Air with Windows 8.1.

You should be fine, it will run as good as Windows can.
 
What is the windows key on the mac keyboard on bootcamp?

----------

Just realised it's probably the Command key.
 
brilliantthings said:
What is the windows key on the mac keyboard on bootcamp?

----------

Just realised it's probably the Command key.
Click to expand...

the apple key (cmd). Not that big of a suprise.

I'm running Win 8.1 on my MBA 2010 4gb (C2D) and it works like a charm. I also use it for Visual Studio which works perfect. So the 2014 i5 should really do fine.
 
Newtons Apple said:
I would respectfully suggest you install Win7 Pro instead of Win8. It runs very fast on my MBA and I get over 8 hours of battery use with power to spare.
Click to expand...

Windows 8.1 is apparently less resource intensive than Windows 7 and runs faster. It's also an impressive update once you get passed the different interface.
 
Newtons Apple said:
I, respectfully, maintain my belief and will leave 8.1 to the touch screen users.
Click to expand...
I will promise you that you won't be dissappointed with 8.1. Since the update you can almost completely remove the "metro" interface if you want to, and the regular desktop has had a lot of great new features and upgrades compared to windows 7.
 
If you want to start a Windows 8 vs. Its predecessors thread, do so, but that's not what this thread is for. I was hoping for any negative input that would let me know what I would expect. Like, maybe theres thermal/cooling issues because of missing drivers.

I am running Windows 8.1 and that's that. I prefer it, and my software is not compatible with 7. So shush, nobody cares.
 
joshlalonde said:
If you want to start a Windows 8 vs. Its predecessors thread, do so, but that's not what this thread is for. I was hoping for any negative input that would let me know what I would expect. Like, maybe theres thermal/cooling issues because of missing drivers.

I am running Windows 8.1 and that's that. I prefer it, and my software is not compatible with 7. So shush, nobody cares.
Click to expand...

Shush? LOL!

Sorry to have rained on your little parade!
 
flash storage minimum?

Newtons Apple said:
I would respectfully suggest you install Win7 Pro instead of Win8. It runs very fast on my MBA and I get over 8 hours of battery use with power to spare.
Click to expand...

If I might ask? How much flash storage do you have or the minimum recommended? I am considering adding Windows 7 as well but have only a 128GB MBA.
 
canuckRus said:
If I might ask? How much flash storage do you have or the minimum recommended? I am considering adding Windows 7 as well but have only a 128GB MBA.
Click to expand...

I have the 512GB model, but you can do nicely with 128, just got to be careful. I am having to carry a lot of AutoCad files with me, in the field and my MBA is dedicated to mainly windows only. I made a small partition for Mavericks but only use it once or twice a week for FaceTime.
 
Newtons Apple said:
I have the 512GB model, but you can do nicely with 128, just got to be careful. I am having to carry a lot of AutoCad files with me, in the field and my MBA is dedicated to mainly windows only. I made a small partition for Mavericks but only use it once or twice a week for FaceTime.
Click to expand...


Thank you.
Sounds as though you have both worlds well covered.
Sweet!
 
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