Macbook/Air buying advice

MikeHiow

MikeHiow

MikeHiow

Permabanned
Joined
26 Oct 2004
Posts
7,540
Location
Isle of Wight
I'm currently speccing up my computer system for my new job and I just wanted a bit of advice on the mac side.

How much difference do the Sandybridge processors make on the macs? I had a 2008 C2D MBP before and I was really unimpressed with the performance. Also, how well threaded is OSX/Applications in general? Is HT on an i7 going to make much odds?

I think a quad core 15" MBP is what is needed performance wise, but I cannot ignore the sheer portability of the air. How does the air perform?

If I went for the slightly cheaper air, then I could probably match it up with a Thunderbolt display. I doubt that'll be a possibility with the MBP - can they support dual monitors at 1920x1200 yet? (My 2008 MBP couldn't :/)

It'll be mostly used for day to day tasks and application development, so nothing too strenuous, but it'll have to last me a good few years!
 
Can you still fit third party SSDs to Macbooks? I have a feeling I read something that suggested that you couldn't?
 
Well sandybridge is supposed to be something like a 40% increase over c2d (helped on by having twice as many cores too) which will solve the performance viewpoint (in fairness I'm finding my c2d to be a bit sluggish too but thats because it is a 5-6 year old design)

The air iv got my eyes on, its a 1.7ghz sb dual core (no ht) so it'll be fast but not the fastest possible (compared to the quads in the pro).

For dual monitors you'll need 2 thunderbolt displays but only the pros can do that, the air has a cut down chip that only can do one external display.

All macbook pros can take any SSD, there's just supposed to be problems running at full sata3 speeds. Not 100% sure what the deal is with them because I couldn't be bothered to read it all up properly.
 
If it's of any interest to anyone, I went for a 2GHz SB i7 MBP, two 27" Thunderbolt displays as well as a magic mouse, full-size keyboard, 256GB Vertex 3 SSD and 8GB of ram.

I'm looking forward to getting that little shipment of goodies :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom