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    MBA with SSD Performance Ideas.

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by Niqui, Jan 31, 2008.

  1. Niqui

    Niqui Notebook Evangelist

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    hello,
    i have been reading about the mba and its sub-par (for apple+price) performance, however, i read that the ssd version of the air seems to be quite speedy and powerful, not graphics though. can anyone confirm this...ie bootup time with the ssd and application launching and basic use.
    thanks a lot
     
    Niqui, Jan 31, 2008
    #1
  2. Lithus

    Lithus NBR Janitor

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    Who said it has subpar performance? Why does everyone keep saying it has subpar performance?
     
    Lithus, Jan 31, 2008
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  3. Niqui

    Niqui Notebook Evangelist

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    Sorry, i know for the thinness its impressive, but the power of the base version isnt great, thats what i mean.
    i understand that it is easily the slowest mac in the line-up by far.
     
    Niqui, Jan 31, 2008
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  4. taelrak

    taelrak Lost

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    It's not designed to be compared performance for performance with the other Mac laptops - it's designed to be more portable ... sortta (I didn't get the whole reasoning behind keeping it 13" other than the thinness wouldn't be quite as impressive on a 12"? :p)...

    But in any case, it's not meant to be a performance powerhouse, although as mentioned above, it's not quite clear what it's meant to be after all.

    As for the SSD drive - yes SSD is great, but people shouldn't expect it to boost performance by all that much in comparison to the other performance trade-offs the MBA gave up to be that slim.
     
    taelrak, Jan 31, 2008
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  5. Niqui

    Niqui Notebook Evangelist

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    hi .
    thanks
    yes i understand design came first and that the perfomrance was not meant to be near that of a pro or something, but i am wonderinf if with an ssd the air would bootup and launch basic apps and run just as well as a mbp.
    no gaming or real grpahics work...web typing, fast bootup and multitasking.
    thanks a lot
     
    Niqui, Jan 31, 2008
    #5
  6. scyzoryk_o4

    scyzoryk_o4 Notebook Enthusiast

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    think of the mba as an anorexic girl, she may be small but shes weak
     
    scyzoryk_o4, Jan 31, 2008
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  7. Lithus

    Lithus NBR Janitor

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    1.6-1.8 GHz Core 2 Duo and 2 GB of RAM is not weak guys. Stop comparing it to a gaming laptop.
     
    Lithus, Jan 31, 2008
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  8. Arquis

    Arquis Kojima Worshiper

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    Yeah it's not weak in those areas. However the standard drive slows things down a bit, but the SSD should resolve that.
     
    Arquis, Jan 31, 2008
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  9. Niqui

    Niqui Notebook Evangelist

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    ok but do you think the ssd will make bootup comparable to that of a mbp with a t7700 opr something and 4gb of ram, will i be able to tell the idfference between the systems, for basic web and music tasks

    thanks a lot
     
    Niqui, Feb 2, 2008
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  10. ez2remember

    ez2remember Notebook Evangelist

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    Just read the SSD threads and reviews by Flemenko. Since the hard drive is the SLOWEST component in any computer using an SSD will drastically improve performance. Your computer is only fast as the slowest component... Some people say it's more of a jump from HDD to SSD than it is going from a single core to dual core.

    I doubt this MBA is slow with SSD. I've read somewhere they use the Samsung 64GB SSD which is about middle of the road in terms of SSD performance but still faster than HDD due to the lightning access time.
     
    ez2remember, Feb 2, 2008
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  11. HLdan

    HLdan Notebook Virtuoso

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    The boot times should be the least of your concerns unless you shut down your Mac everyday and even then it's not like the 4200 rpm drive would take more than 30 seconds to boot Leopard.
     
    HLdan, Feb 2, 2008
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  12. Moonflown

    Moonflown Notebook Enthusiast

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    I heard that we can swap the HDD with a SSD in the future, is that possible?
     
    Moonflown, Feb 2, 2008
    #12