MacBook Air's - Plenty of grunt it seems - Page 3
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  1. #21
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    I've ordered mine, with the 256GB SSD and 1.7GHz i5 (I don't see $99 value in the 1.8GHz i7 upgrade). My digital music collection isn't too large and fits (takes up less then half of) my old 120GB MacBook Pro, so that's not a concern for me. I personally prefer the smaller 13" laptops for portability; on airplane flights is a big one... is next to impossible fully opening anything larger then a 13" laptop if the guy in front of you decides to lean back. I was considering the MBP's when they were launched earlier this year... but the lack of screen resolution upgrade (from 1280x800) was a big disappointment. Now the 13" MacBook Air (still) has 1440x900. That extra resolution hopefully will make it possible for me (in Traktor Pro 2) to use 2 full decks + 2 sample decks, and still just enough room to see a good 5-8 rows of my library. Really looking forward to having it arrive next week... I will be back to post my thoughts.

  2. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by djfil007 View Post
    That extra resolution hopefully will make it possible for me (in Traktor Pro 2) to use 2 full decks + 2 sample decks, and still just enough room to see a good 5-8 rows of my library.
    Congrats on your purchase! It's a wish come true, this new MBAirs

    the 13" mbp with the lower resolution allows your desired layout configuration, but the sample decks have to be in slim mode - it's all OK. The 1440x900 will give even bigger screen estate, which is all welcome.

    to be honest, I'm using the sample decks without having them visible on the screen. With a proper mapping on a backlit controller, there's no much value in seeing them on screen ...

  3. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by loop View Post
    please let me know, if you find out the exact model of the i7.
    it's probably this one:
    http://ark.intel.com/products/54617/...Cache-1_70-GHz)

    there might be some mistake though, as the model name says it's 1.7Ghz, but the spec sheet says 1.8Ghz ...

    It's definitely a TurboBoost model and is worth the upgrade cost, for sure.

  4. #24
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    Apple Inc. Mac-742912EFDBEE19B3 MacBookAir4,2
    Intel Core i7-2677M @ 1.80 GHz (1 processor, 2 cores, 4 threads)

    Found using the GeekBench Result Browser. There is a MacBookAir4,1, but that is the 11" models... the 4,2 is the 13" models.
    http://browse.geekbench.ca/geekbench...acBookAir4%2C2

    Actually does look like the 1.8ghz i7's are getting almost 15% better benchmark results on average when compared against the 1.7ghz i5's. Maybe it would had been worth the $99 to upgrade... but I'm not going to complain since I doubt I'll really be pushing the hardware that far. I never had performance issues on my 2006 Black (2GHz Core2Duo) MacBook... and the MBA I picked has almost 50% better results on the benchmarks. I think I'll be plenty happy.

  5. #25
    Tech Guru djproben's Avatar
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    Yeah I'm sure you'll be happy either way, but I bet if you really wanted to you could call Apple and sweet talk them into changing your order ... but in my experience you rarely perceive the difference in speed between the high end and the extra high end, unless maybe you're running traktor and ableton and logic and must.eat.birds while rendering a 50 gig photoshop file...

    But the new processor numbers confuse me; the last generation of computers was at 2 and 3 ghz standard and now we're back to 1.7, but these are supposedly faster, heh.
    "Art is what you can get away with." - Marshall McLuhan

  6. #26
    Tech Guru keeb's Avatar
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    You all do realize that the MacBook air has 2 USB ports _just_ like the MacBook Pro, right?

  7. #27
    sebastiannz
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    very tempting to upgrade my 2010 13" mbp for a 13" mba now. only thing stopping me is the 3 hour battery capacity difference. i use my mbp at work and if i'm using it all day i run out of battery by the end of the day. that means if i was using a mba i'd need to bring my charger to work

  8. #28
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    I travelled to australia and used the air 11" for djing (it was the previous model to the new i5 i7)... It was alright.. the idea of TB is great just have to wait for some more companies to get on board with it i did find when playing a tack and loading a new track the cpu spiked hard and somtimes ended up making a "pop". just my two cents and experience djing with it.

  9. #29
    Tech Guru DJZILCH's Avatar
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    im sure the 2011 mba (especially 13 inch i7 ones) will handle almost anything you throw at it, if the benchmarks showed it is on par with 2010's top of the line i7 15 inch MBP, then it will cut through traktor/serato like a hot knife thru butter

    plus the screen looks DOPE - 1440x900 on 13 inch is really AWESOME! Makes the 13 inch macbook pro sad in comparison (1280x800)

    only problem is the 256gb ssd
    I am also an audio engineering students and i work with a lot of large wave files, currently my mbp (750GB hdd) can handle both djing and school stuff with no problem (hard drive maxed out) but if i dont think i can compress down to 250GB! lol
    Setup:

    Traktor Pro 2 / S2 MK2 / X1 MK2 / Audio6 / Pioneer HDJ2000 / Westone UM3X / rMBP 13 inch 2014 (2.8 GHz) / Focal Alpha 50

  10. #30
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    Zilch, the ideal in your case is to have an external repository with thunderbolt interface, right?
    Maybe this repository could have a cloud account where you could temporary p2p download your file in progress when you are at scholl and at home use a direct connect with thunderbolt to full access at high speed :P
    The hard is when you can't handle even your DJing library on 250gb hehe

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