Macbook Air vs. Pro speeds

Hi All: Long time lurker, just officially joined to ask for input before I buy a new Macbook Air or Pro...

Macbook Air 13: i7, 1.8Ghz, 4 RAM, 256 SSD vs. Macbook Pro 15: 2.4 Ghz, 8 Ram, 750Gb @7200 (Service: 10 Mbps download, 1 Mbps upload speed):

Which computer would be faster with web surfing, iPhotos, iMovies, iTunes? Currently I have about 90 GB on my PC hard drive. I am looking for pure speed and either one would do I would think...

On the Macbook Pro, of the 3 parameters: microprocessor of 2.2 or 2.4 Ghz and 4 or 8 gig RAM and HDD speed of 5400 vs. 7200, which of the 3 would speed up the laptop most noticably followed by what next?

Would I gain much noticeable laptop speed by ordering faster Internet service by going to 20 Mbps download/2.2 upload?

I searched the forum and did not find old postings on this specific comparison

Thank you in advance for any input offered...

JPH675 said:

On the Macbook Pro, of the 3 parameters: microprocessor of 2.2 or 2.4 Ghz and 4 or 8 gig RAM and HDD speed of 5400 vs. 7200, which of the 3 would speed up the laptop most noticably followed by what next?
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Hello, and welcome.

This depends on the process.

If you are compressing or straining the CPU alot (lots of tasks running, video encoding or rendering) a hgher cpu clock will yield faster results.

8GB RAM is good for lots (and I mean lots) of multitasking. If you were to run Windows and OSX in unison via vurtualisation, with a bunch of apps open on each, this would be a real benefit.

having a 7200 rpm drive over a 5400 basically means your boot times and app loading will be slightly quicker. everything will seem a bit more "nippy". the difference between the two is not massive, but with an SSD, boot speed and app loading will be significantly faster.

As a personal preference all of my boot drives are either 7200rpm, or SSDs - including anything where I am constantly accessing files. 5400 rpm is more of a storage/low power speed for me.

oh and as to which one you get - the Macbook Pro 15 is a massively faster machine; but you probably wont notice the difference for the tasks you state - apart from maybe iMovie.

JPH675 said:

Hi All: Long time lurker, just officially joined to ask for input before I buy a new Macbook Air or Pro...

Macbook Air 13: i7, 1.8Ghz, 4 RAM, 256 SSD vs. Macbook Pro 15: 2.4 Ghz, 8 Ram, 750Gb @7200 (Service: 10 Mbps download, 1 Mbps upload speed):

Which computer would be faster with web surfing, iPhotos, iMovies, iTunes? Currently I have about 90 GB on my PC hard drive. I am looking for pure speed and either one would do I would think...

On the Macbook Pro, of the 3 parameters: microprocessor of 2.2 or 2.4 Ghz and 4 or 8 gig RAM and HDD speed of 5400 vs. 7200, which of the 3 would speed up the laptop most noticably followed by what next?

Would I gain much noticeable laptop speed by ordering faster Internet service by going to 20 Mbps download/2.2 upload?

I searched the forum and did not find old postings on this specific comparison

Thank you in advance for any input offered...

Click to expand...

Surfing the web will not be much different between the 2. Boot up and opening programs will be faster with the Air due to the SSD.

Thanks!

I appreciate the comments!

like rob said, the MBP is much faster- for super heavy multitasking. The only time I have ever lagged was running after effects, dreamweaver, and photoshop at the same time... oops.

For basic tasks and running one heavy program at a time, I doubt you'd notice a difference.

The SSD is marginally faster for starting apps and significantly faster for booting.

The internet speed will speed up downloads/uploads, not the computer itself. As far as web surfing goes, the connection speed to your ISp will have more of an impact than hardware specs...