MBA 13" Core i7 or i5?

[Stevie04]

Hello,
I am going to buy the new 13" Macbook Air but I can't decide if I should choose the i7 or the i5.
Do you think it's worth to buy an i7 for 100$? I am afraid the fan gets too loud and the CPU produces too much heat.
Can you help me?

BTW: Sorry for my English. I am from Germany

 

[Hellhammer]

Unless you do something CPU intensive, there is absolutely no need to go for the i7.

 

[ZBoater]

No one ever complains about their computer being too fast.

If you can afford it, go for it.

 

[Typswif2fingers]

Hello,
I am going to buy the new 13" Macbook Air but I can't decide if I should choose the i7 or the i5.
Do you think it's worth to buy an i7 for 100$? I am afraid the fan gets too loud and the CPU produces too much heat.
Can you help me?

BTW: Sorry for my English. I am from Germany

Not that I wish to contradict the demigod Hellhammer, may he be praised ... but if you can afford the i7... why worry to much and have a doubt later... this way you get top of the range... and thats it..

My policy is spend money first... spend more later... (if you don't, your gf/wife/mother in law will)


Ah yes.. you really have to work on your English.. it is terrible (just kidding mate... its superb, got nothing to worry about.. If my german was 1% as good I'd be glad).

 

[Stevie04]

Ah yes.. you really have to work on your English.. it is terrible (just kidding mate... its superb, got nothing to worry about.. If my german was 1% as good I'd be glad).

thanks mate I will spend a half year in Florida this year(student exchange) Hope it will help improving my English.

Okay, then I will go for the i7 if there is enough money etc. Otherwise I will go for the i5. I think this is a good CPU too.

 

[Typswif2fingers]

thanks mate I will spend a half year in Florida this year(student exchange) Hope it will help improving my English.

Okay, then I will go for the i7 if there is enough money etc. Otherwise I will go for the i5. I think this is a good CPU too.

You lucky man.. Enjoy Florida as I am sure you will..

Good luck with your purchase too.

 

[Stevie04]

You lucky man.. Enjoy Florida as I am sure you will..

Good luck with your purchase too.

thank you yeah it will be awesome

this is my first mac and I hope it won't disappoint me but I don't think so The MBA is the best laptop for me I think... thin, light, it has a lot of power...
I will be very happy when I'll get it

So, thank you for your help

 

[CHSeifert]

Hello,
I am going to buy the new 13" Macbook Air but I can't decide if I should choose the i7 or the i5.
Do you think it's worth to buy an i7 for 100$? I am afraid the fan gets too loud and the CPU produces too much heat.
Can you help me?

BTW: Sorry for my English. I am from Germany

I'm in the same situation as you.
Got the money to burn on either a MBA 11 or 13 Ultimate, but worry a bit about whether the i7 might lead to increased fan noise.....

And YES! - your english is as terrible as mine Just kidding, I think it's excellent (this coming from a Great Dane, so take it for what it is worth)

 

[Stevie04]

I'm in the same situation as you.
Got the money to burn on either a MBA 11 or 13 Ultimate, but worry a bit about whether the i7 might lead to increased fan noise.....

And YES! - your english is as terrible as mine Just kidding, I think it's excellent (this coming from a Great Dane, so take it for what it is worth)

yea but an i7 with 1.8 Ghz has not to lead to an increased fan noise. The i7 has the same TDP as the i5 (17 watts). Furthermore some people with i7 report that they are happy with their laptops.
I think go for the i7 and when you are disappointed send it back to Apple. Thats your right

If there is enough money, I'll go for the i7 too

 

[Apple Expert]

yea but an i7 with 1.8 Ghz has not to lead to an increased fan noise. The i7 has the same TDP as the i5 (17 watts). Furthermore some people with i7 report that they are happy with their laptops.
I think go for the i7 and when you are disappointed send it back to Apple. Thats your right

If there is enough money, I'll go for the i7 too

Do you own it? Because I can tell you that the fan does indeed spin louder here.

 

[thewalkman]

If you are buying from Germany, I wouldnt go for the i7. It costs an insane 150€ (~$215!) here. For whatever reason, Apple chose to increase its price here. Funny thing is, it only costs so much in the larger european countries (Germany, France, Spain etc.). In the smaller ones like Austria or the Netherlands it costs 100€ (which is still more than $100 btw.).

 

[fa.ce]

yea but an i7 with 1.8 Ghz has not to lead to an increased fan noise. The i7 has the same TDP as the i5 (17 watts). Furthermore some people with i7 report that they are happy with their laptops.

Are you absolutely sure about that ???
Many users (also on this board) are complaining hot / fan on i7.
Never read 1 user complaining about that using the new MBA i5.
Where's the truth ?

 

[Stevie04]

If you are buying from Germany, I wouldnt go for the i7. It costs an insane 150€ (~$215!) here. For whatever reason, Apple chose to increase its price here. Funny thing is, it only costs so much in the larger european countries (Germany, France, Spain etc.). In the smaller ones like Austria or the Netherlands it costs 100€ (which is still more than $100 btw.).

I'd pay around 1500€ for the MBA 13" 256 with Core i7. Student discount
So its cheaper for me.

 

[Typswif2fingers]

Well.. not sure.. I just opened every bloody app and utility I have and after some 10 mins the temperature was hovering about 90degreesC with activity monitor reporting 30% use of the CPU by user, 60 idling and the remainder was used by the system.

The fans were going between 4800 and 5500 rpms...

I could hear them.. and that was the first time ever.. and I mean, ever, on a Mac...

Of course, I obviously don't develop 60GB images of galaxy M905, whist making 3D movies, engrave on a titanium plate my power user insignia and shoot other power users on some fancy you-beaut game, or whatever else people do... neither do I have more that 5 apps open at any given time... maybe also a utility or two...

So for a man like me... She's apples..

 

[Stevie04]

you have the i7, right? so you mean that we shouldn't choose it, don't you?

 

[OrlandoTragic]

Hello,
I am going to buy the new 13" Macbook Air but I can't decide if I should choose the i7 or the i5.
Do you think it's worth to buy an i7 for 100$? I am afraid the fan gets too loud and the CPU produces too much heat.
Can you help me?

BTW: Sorry for my English. I am from Germany

Your English is better than most Americans, ha. And I was in the same boat as you, and decided to just go with the i5. There's pretty much no need to upgrade to the i7 unless you do video editing or some other processor intensive activity on a regular basis.

Plus, I've heard the i7 makes the computer run hotter.

 

[Apple Expert]

Your English is better than most Americans, ha. And I was in the same boat as you, and decided to just go with the i5. There's pretty much no need to upgrade to the i7 unless you do video editing or some other processor intensive activity on a regular basis.

Plus, I've heard the i7 makes the computer run hotter.

My wife has the i5 and I haven't been able to tell a speed difference. Everything seems pretty much the same as the i7. Boot up times are the same. Maybe a few milliseconds faster on the i7. Safari runs the same speed. Haven't really seen a huge benefit in having i7. Wondering if it's all smoke and mirrors by having the i7 in the MBA.

 

[Stevie04]

My wife has the i5 and I haven't been able to tell a speed difference. Everything seems pretty much the same as the i7. Boot up times are the same. Maybe a few milliseconds faster on the i7. Safari runs the same speed. Haven't really seen a huge benefit in having i7. Wondering if it's all smoke and mirrors by having the i7 in the MBA.

And why does the i7 run hotter then?

 

[activ8]

My wife has the i5 and I haven't been able to tell a speed difference. Everything seems pretty much the same as the i7. Boot up times are the same. Maybe a few milliseconds faster on the i7. Safari runs the same speed. Haven't really seen a huge benefit in having i7. Wondering if it's all smoke and mirrors by having the i7 in the MBA.

How does your i7 battery life compare to her i5?

 

[El3ctronics]

My wife has the i5 and I haven't been able to tell a speed difference. Everything seems pretty much the same as the i7. Boot up times are the same. Maybe a few milliseconds faster on the i7. Safari runs the same speed. Haven't really seen a huge benefit in having i7. Wondering if it's all smoke and mirrors by having the i7 in the MBA.

The processor will have little to no effect on the tasks you mentioned so you obviously wouldn't notice any discernible difference.

 

[cpnotebook80]

My wife has the i5 and I haven't been able to tell a speed difference. Everything seems pretty much the same as the i7. Boot up times are the same. Maybe a few milliseconds faster on the i7. Safari runs the same speed. Haven't really seen a huge benefit in having i7. Wondering if it's all smoke and mirrors by having the i7 in the MBA.

I was reading up on cor i5 vs core i7 and saw this

"As you may have guessed, paying about $80 more for the 100 MHz clock speed increase between the fastest i5 and the i7 isn't a great deal. The main reason to pay this additional cash for a i7 is hyper-threading, but this advantage will only be evident if you frequently use programs that can actually make use of 8 threads.

Read more: http://www.brighthub.com/computing/hardware/articles/48391.aspx
"

They talk about hyperthreading and wondering if any mac apps make use it?
esp video editing iphoto and other heavy intensive tasks.


i also found this link
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3659/apples-15inch-core-i5-macbook-pro-the-one-to-get/3

that shows i7 perform better in heavy tasks than i5 like video editing etc.

 

[Apple Expert]

I was reading up on cor i5 vs core i7 and saw this

"As you may have guessed, paying about $80 more for the 100 MHz clock speed increase between the fastest i5 and the i7 isn't a great deal. The main reason to pay this additional cash for a i7 is hyper-threading, but this advantage will only be evident if you frequently use programs that can actually make use of 8 threads.

Read more: http://www.brighthub.com/computing/hardware/articles/48391.aspx
"

They talk about hyperthreading and wondering if any mac apps make use it?
esp video editing iphoto and other heavy intensive tasks.


i also found this link
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3659/apples-15inch-core-i5-macbook-pro-the-one-to-get/3

that shows i7 perform better in heavy tasks than i5 like video editing etc.

Very interesting. I would imagine it being true as Apple seems to lag in terms of software taking advantage of the new hardware. Look how long it took iTunes to be 64-bit.

 

[Apple Expert]

How does your i7 battery life compare to her i5?

Well it seems like the i7 does indeed go drain faster. Right now I have Safari (10 tabs), Mail, iCal, iTunes (playing in background), PS and twitter going. Just finished doing a full charge and it's saying about 4:38 minutes.

 

[Scott6666]

Are you absolutely sure about that ???
Many users (also on this board) are complaining hot / fan on i7.
Never read 1 user complaining about that using the new MBA i5.
Where's the truth ?

That's what Intel quotes on their processor description pages. Search around the forums and you can find comparisons.

But then again this is the max the chips should generate. Can't really know how much power is being used in real life below the max. At max TDP either processor would be fan-orrific.

Perhaps the hyperthreading and extra cache and higher clockspeed and turbo boost speed all make the i7 run a lot hotter than the i5.

Remember the 2010 Mac had a processor with a 10W max (although they had to cool a graphics chip as well as the processor).

 

[thewalkman]

I was reading up on cor i5 vs core i7 and saw this

"As you may have guessed, paying about $80 more for the 100 MHz clock speed increase between the fastest i5 and the i7 isn't a great deal. The main reason to pay this additional cash for a i7 is hyper-threading, but this advantage will only be evident if you frequently use programs that can actually make use of 8 threads.

Read more: http://www.brighthub.com/computing/hardware/articles/48391.aspx
"

They talk about hyperthreading and wondering if any mac apps make use it?
esp video editing iphoto and other heavy intensive tasks.


i also found this link
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3659/apples-15inch-core-i5-macbook-pro-the-one-to-get/3

that shows i7 perform better in heavy tasks than i5 like video editing etc.

Thats for the desktop version. The i5 in the Air also supports HyperThreading.

I'd pay around 1500€ for the MBA 13" 256 with Core i7. Student discount
So its cheaper for me.

That doesnt change anything. The difference to other countries is still the same.