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Is there a big difference between 1.4GHz and 1.6GHz?
- Thread starter mloffa
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go the 1.6ghz - will be much more beneficial initially and will give you added years for longevity.
the difference is not going to add years of longevity to the computer
As soon as 1.4ghz is too slow for your tasks so will 1.6ghz. It's about an 8% increase in overall MSRP for a 14% in CPU clockspeed which is only one of many parts of the performance puzzle.
Anyway, I don't think it represents value in price/performance, but if $100 isn't much to you then you might as well go for it with an otherwise fully loaded machine.
Personally, I feel that upgrading to a new machine 8% sooner would represent a greater value than that of a 0.2ghz performance increase over the life of the computer.
As soon as 1.4ghz is too slow for your tasks so will 1.6ghz. It's about an 8% increase in overall MSRP for a 14% in CPU clockspeed which is only one of many parts of the performance puzzle.
Anyway, I don't think it represents value in price/performance, but if $100 isn't much to you then you might as well go for it with an otherwise fully loaded machine.
Personally, I feel that upgrading to a new machine 8% sooner would represent a greater value than that of a 0.2ghz performance increase over the life of the computer.
for 100 $, it's definitely worth the upgrade if you can afford it, despite the various CPU percentages that are being thrown around.
i agree. i also agree that it will give higher resale value later on in life (if you wish to sell it) as its the "top of the line".
If you were gonna go for 128GB SSD model with 4GB RAM, why not?
If you were gonna go with 64GB SSD model with 2 or 4GB, mmm, really worth it?
I'm totally happy with $1099 1.4GHz 4GB Air. I don't think I'll get $300+ extra back from maxed out $1399 Air when I sell it, and I don't need 0.2GHz of extra CPU power.
If you were gonna go with 64GB SSD model with 2 or 4GB, mmm, really worth it?
I'm totally happy with $1099 1.4GHz 4GB Air. I don't think I'll get $300+ extra back from maxed out $1399 Air when I sell it, and I don't need 0.2GHz of extra CPU power.
In 6 months if someone offered you a speed bump on your beloved MBA for just $100 I bet you'd take it.
As a percentage of your purchase price, $100 is minimal. Hopefully, that $100 isn't going to burst your budget (because if that is the case you should really look at the importance of purchasing the Air in the greater context of your finances).
Clicktoflash is your best friend.
A 1.6 will be just as burdened by this problem as a 1.4. It's much less the CPU's problem and much more flash on OSX which just plain sucks. I shouldn't need a core i7 just to look at ads on the internet, Adobe.
Personally, by the time the 1.4 becomes 'so slow that I just cant use it', the 1.6 will be at the 'so slow I wouldn't want to use it' stage.
Both of which are likely to be long after I've given it away to someone else or dropped it under a bus anyway, assuming of course that the lazy slackers at UPS round here actually deliver it this side of OSX11
The only reason I'd have for buying the 1.6 is for worst case scenario where I unboxed the machine turned it on and thought 'ughhh gawd this is too slow for me'. At least with the 1.6 you'd know you gave it your best shot and it just cant deliver what you need, whereas with the 1.4 you'd always be wondering if that teeny increase in performance would have been just enough to see you through.
Both of which are likely to be long after I've given it away to someone else or dropped it under a bus anyway, assuming of course that the lazy slackers at UPS round here actually deliver it this side of OSX11
The only reason I'd have for buying the 1.6 is for worst case scenario where I unboxed the machine turned it on and thought 'ughhh gawd this is too slow for me'. At least with the 1.6 you'd know you gave it your best shot and it just cant deliver what you need, whereas with the 1.4 you'd always be wondering if that teeny increase in performance would have been just enough to see you through.
I agree with many of the comments, for $100 bucks a 14% boost in CPU power seems like a pretty good deal. The thing to think about is what your using your MBA for?
Reason I say this is, if your not going to use your MBA for CPU intensive tasks such as video encoding, photoshop processing, number crunching etc... you will never see the benefit of the 14% speed. Unless both cores are running at MAX you won't really notice a difference. Daily tasks such as web, youtube, playing a movie from the drive or streaming from Hulu, Netflix etc... They simply don't even tax the CPU to 100%. They rely heavily on the GPU, which is a decent one. This is no different that those people that buy a quad core iMac and then do nothing more than web, email, FB and a few games. Rarely if ever even using the full power or all the cores of the CPU. The ram and solid state storage will be the biggest noticeable factors that let you "feel" the speed in the UI, switching tasks, having multiple programs running etc...
The first upgrade I would do is ram, bar none will be the best 100 bucks spent on the 11" MBA, CPU is one of those, if you can afford it why not. Either way it's 1.4 or 1.6Ghz, it's not breaking any speed records decoding or converting something in Handbrake lol. It is what is it.
Reason I say this is, if your not going to use your MBA for CPU intensive tasks such as video encoding, photoshop processing, number crunching etc... you will never see the benefit of the 14% speed. Unless both cores are running at MAX you won't really notice a difference. Daily tasks such as web, youtube, playing a movie from the drive or streaming from Hulu, Netflix etc... They simply don't even tax the CPU to 100%. They rely heavily on the GPU, which is a decent one. This is no different that those people that buy a quad core iMac and then do nothing more than web, email, FB and a few games. Rarely if ever even using the full power or all the cores of the CPU. The ram and solid state storage will be the biggest noticeable factors that let you "feel" the speed in the UI, switching tasks, having multiple programs running etc...
The first upgrade I would do is ram, bar none will be the best 100 bucks spent on the 11" MBA, CPU is one of those, if you can afford it why not. Either way it's 1.4 or 1.6Ghz, it's not breaking any speed records decoding or converting something in Handbrake lol. It is what is it.
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This is a personal choice. FWIW I did it and am happy I did!
This is a personal choice. FWIW I did it and am happy I did!
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This statement is not accurate!
AppleGoddess said:
This statement is not accurate!
