(tested today) MacBook Air faster than a MBP :O

[mhnajjar]

Earlier today, I did a comparison between:

• MBA
• 1.8 GHz
• 2 GB ram
• 64 GB SSD

• MBP 15"
• 2.5 GHz
• 3 GB ram
• 200 GB HDD

Opening the following softwares:

• Word 08
• Excel 08
• PowerPoint 08
• Numbers
• Pages
• PS C3
• Numbers
• KeyNote
• iTunes
• Safari
• almost 90% of the sofwares installed as demo in the Apple store

To my surprise, the MBA opened 8/10 softwares faster than the MBP by 1-2 seconds. The only reason I am thinking of is the SSD in the MBA.

How much faster is the 1.8 MBA compared to the 1.6? I already read some benchmarks but I would like to know from your personal experience since benchmarks are just numbers that are hard to be translated to human time

BTW, if I buy a MBA from eBay, is it possible to replace it by Apple if it had any problems? For some reason, they are much cheaper in eBay

Thanks guys.

 

[David G.]

Out of curiosity, which of those programs were opened by the MBP sooner?

 

[mhnajjar]

Out of curiosity, which of those programs were opened by the MBP sooner?

Word 08 was one and the other I think was Safari. However, I am still shocked. Even the Apple specialist did not believe me till I showed him.
<--- that was him!

 

[fuzzielitlpanda]

i think the SSD has a lot to do with it. if you get a chance, please compare the mbp with a mba that has a normal hd in it.

 

[ntrigue]

That is exactly an example of where the SSD is beneficial. Everything else is much slower. I imagine you recover those 2 seconds in the first 2 minutes of anything that uses the GPU.

 

[mhnajjar]

i think the SSD has a lot to do with it. if you get a chance, please compare the mbp with a mba that has a normal hd in it.

For some reason, the store removed all their HDD MBAs Even the guys there did not know why?

 

[mhnajjar]

Even if the reason was the SSD, I still do not think that its cost is justified!

I am planning to get a 1.6 MBA (third attepmt), but I am afradi of the HDD after reading that its life span is two years only Am I going to have to replace it in two years I am just buying this machine to surf the net and do little tasks while away from my iMac so it should last more than 2 years ...

 

[Azurael]

For some reason, the store removed all their HDD MBAs Even the guys there did not know why?

Probably because 1.8" HDDs are so slow, they're worried they'll put people off MBAs if they get to play with them first...

 

[NC MacGuy]

Personal experience, my 1.6 HDD is slow opening programs for the first time after a reset, 7-15 bounces usually. After opened once, 2-4 bounces. If you're referring to running the programs, the MBP will blow both away. The MBA 200MHz proc. speed increase in the 1.8 is barely noticeable in real world usage. The SSD is fast opening programs but it would seem right now the small speed increase can't justify the price and loss of 20G in storage real estate. At least from my wallet.

 

[aussieinrome]

Personal experience, my 1.6 HDD is slow opening programs for the first time after a reset, 7-15 bounces usually. After opened once, 2-4 bounces. If you're referring to running the programs, the MBP will blow both away. The MBA 200MHz proc. speed increase in the 1.8 is barely noticeable in real world usage. The SSD is fast opening programs but it would seem right now the small speed increase can't justify the price and loss of 20G in storage real estate. At least from my wallet.

I get no bounces, you mean the icons actually bounce? That's one of the problems of having the SSD - no bouncing icons...

 

[jonswan]

Considering the MBA is a 1st gen machine (and considering its price) it would not be wise to avoid Applecare, and hence if it does break down after 2 years you're covered. Anyway, where the hell did you hear that '2 years and kaput' anyway? Why would they do something so silly in a top priced machine? It's nonsense, in other words. Think of the public relations, for example.

My MBA 1.6 is a little slow opening things - Word '04 maybe after 6-8 bounces, others 3-6.

 

[Tallest Skil]

Oh! I thought you meant the CPU! I see...

Of course the SSD is faster than an HDD. Now do a real test and use Final Cut Pro on both of them.

 

[NC MacGuy]

I get no bounces, you mean the icons actually bounce? That's one of the problems of having the SSD - no bouncing icons...

Awe shucks.... Can't have you missing those. Out of the kindness of my heart, wanna' trade.?

 

[ayeying]

i think the SSD has a lot to do with it. if you get a chance, please compare the mbp with a mba that has a normal hd in it.

I agree. If anyone uses Joost here, you can easily tell if your hard drive is bottlenecking on performance. Joost apparently write cache data to the disk, not ram. Open up joost, play some tv show or whatever and try to run something like a virtual machine. You'll see a MAJOR lag because the disk cannot keep up with the speed. The SSD would most likely not suffer from this lag.

For some reason, the store removed all their HDD MBAs Even the guys there did not know why?

The Apple Store here at Emeryville, CA has only HDD models... one of them is pretty nice with its monitor folded nearly 90deg. lol

 

[bart rijksen]

Earlier today, I did a comparison between:

• MBA
• 1.8 GHz
• 2 GB ram
• 64 GB SSD

• MBP 15"
• 2.5 GHz
• 3 GB ram
• 200 GB HDD

Opening the following softwares:

• Word 08
• Excel 08
• PowerPoint 08
• Numbers
• Pages
• PS C3
• Numbers
• KeyNote
• iTunes
• Safari
• almost 90% of the sofwares installed as demo in the Apple store

To my surprise, the MBA opened 8/10 softwares faster than the MBP by 1-2 seconds. The only reason I am thinking of is the SSD in the MBA.

How much faster is the 1.8 MBA compared to the 1.6? I already read some benchmarks but I would like to know from your personal experience since benchmarks are just numbers that are hard to be translated to human time

BTW, if I buy a MBA from eBay, is it possible to replace it by Apple if it had any problems? For some reason, they are much cheaper in eBay

Thanks guys.

Did the macbook pro have 3 gb ram? that's strange. normally they have either 2 or 4. Anyway, the macbook air with the ssd reads 3 times faster than the macbook air with the normal harddrive. However, it writes a bit slower than the normal hard drive.

 

[bigjnyc]

lol of course the SSD is going to be much faster than the HDD, this has nothing to do with processing power or RAM. why else do you think its $1,000 more to get SSD with less storage? cause its sounds cooler?

 

[7031]

Did the macbook pro have 3 gb ram? that's strange. normally they have either 2 or 4.

I'm assuming they had a 2GB Macbook Pro, but they replaced one of the 1GB sticks with a 2GB . Trust me, it is possible to have 3GB, but Apple recommends that you have equal amounts of RAM on both.