01-14-2011, 02:00 PM

Hi all
Please help
I am considering purchasing a Macbook air 13inch will the following spec
13-inch : 256GB
• 1.86GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor
• 2GB memory
• 256GB flash storage1
• NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics
My current laptop is a dell inspiron 1525 3GB 1.8GHz intel core 2 duo processor and 200GB hard drive. I have had it 2 years and it is slow and lumbering.
In the apple shop it is possible to upgrade to a 2.1GHz processor (for £80) and 4GB (for £80).
I feel a little silly purchasing a mac which is a lesser spec than my own laptop. Do people recommend upgrading the processor and the RAM, Or just the RAM. I am wondering if it is a waste of time increasing the RAM if the processor is 1.8GHz.
I will be using it for word processing, surfing the net, playing movies and some smaller games.

01-14-2011, 02:18 PM

The processor upgrade is not going to give much bang for your £. Upgrade the memory to the maximum which is 4 GB. The new "Air" machines are in fact much faster than what you would suspect given that the CPU speeds are nothing to write home about.

However, they make up for that with an extremely fast flash hard drive and the great video response and resolution. The machine boots up so fast that it seems like it's almost immediate. Go to an Apple store and test drive one for yourself.

01-14-2011, 02:28 PM

As comparison. I use a quad q9550 overclocked to 3.6ghz with a gtx260 1 gig video card and 3 250gig 7200rpm drives in a raid0 with dual monitors PC as my desktop.. and I still rather use my Macbook Pro 15" 2.4ghz C2D. Its faster more responsive and is just way more fun to use than any windows machine i've used.

01-14-2011, 02:28 PM

Another consideration. You can't simply compare the gigahertz speed of a Windows computer to a Macintosh computer, and if the cpu gigahertz speed is the same or close...come to the conclusion that they are the same in terms of speed. You're dealing with different hardware designs & WAY DIFFERENT operating systems to come to that conclusion.

Like "chscag" advised...the MacBook Air's SSD drive makes the computer "feel" much faster...and going to an Apple Store and giving one a try (hopefully you have a nearby Apple Store)...may also help convince you one way or the other.

Good luck,

- Nick