MBA 13" Core i7 or i5?

[Geotrash]

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.

That's a useful post, thank you. VMware Fusion can take advantage of hyperthreading and if you use it a lot as I do, there may be advantages with the i7. It's running happily on mine with much snappier performance than my old Core 2 Duo had.

Best,
Dave

 

[ozthegweat]

Just to clarify: the TDP is not a measure of how much power the chip uses, but of how much heat it dissipates (although it may even go higher than that). It is used to determine with how much heat (17W in the case of the Air's processor) the cooling system of the laptop has to be able to cope with.

So if you don't run CPU intensive tasks regularly, you won't notice any difference between an i5 and an i7 performance-wise. But you will almost certainly notice shorter battery life, louder fan noise and that it runs hotter (and the reports on this forum seem to suggest that this is indeed the case), in addition to less money in your pocket and a longer delivery time (if the i7 is the only BTO option you choose). OK, only two additional days, but hey, every second counts when it comes to an Apple product!

Ach, und mach dir keine Gedanken, dein Englisch ist schon sehr gut, und in Florida wirst du es dann noch perfektionieren können. Ausser du liegst die ganze Zeit nur saufend am Strand rum

 

[skcrane]

yeah I just went ahead and ordered an macbook air 13 i5 256gb from powermax should get to me by late next week. looking very much forward to it replacing my 13 inch mba ultimate 2010 with it . My wife is keeping her 2010 13 mba ultimate which she really likes and does every thing she needs it to. Loved the air from 2010 great machine. So far both our 2010 airs are running lion just fine. I seem to have more problems with safari not sure if it is the air or connection.

 

[Typswif2fingers]

OK, only two additional days, but hey, every second counts when it comes to an Apple product!

Not sure who's got an Apple store in their area, but it seem that they guys have stacked the stores reasonably well..

I've read somewhere when it comes to different specs stores generally hold "standard" configurations. But, guys here had all MBAs in the store the day it was released... and today also...

Worth calling and asking.

 

[Stevie04]

Just to clarify: the TDP is not a measure of how much power the chip uses, but of how much heat it dissipates (although it may even go higher than that). It is used to determine with how much heat (17W in the case of the Air's processor) the cooling system of the laptop has to be able to cope with.

So if you don't run CPU intensive tasks regularly, you won't notice any difference between an i5 and an i7 performance-wise. But you will almost certainly notice shorter battery life, louder fan noise and that it runs hotter (and the reports on this forum seem to suggest that this is indeed the case), in addition to less money in your pocket and a longer delivery time (if the i7 is the only BTO option you choose). OK, only two additional days, but hey, every second counts when it comes to an Apple product!

Ach, und mach dir keine Gedanken, dein Englisch ist schon sehr gut, und in Florida wirst du es dann noch perfektionieren können. Ausser du liegst die ganze Zeit nur saufend am Strand rum

So you mean I should go for the i5?

ja danke. Ne werd ich nich machen darf ich außerdem gar nich, bin ja noch keine 21

 

[JD92]

That's a useful post, thank you. VMware Fusion can take advantage of hyperthreading and if you use it a lot as I do, there may be advantages with the i7. It's running happily on mine with much snappier performance than my old Core 2 Duo had.

Best,
Dave

The mobile i5 chips, including the one in the MacBook Air, also support hyperthreading. It's only the desktop i3 and i5 chips which do not support it.

 

[activ8]

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.

I'm using Xcode on my macbook air 13 inch i7. That's probably why my laptop drains fast.