MBA Rev A 1.6 80Gb HDD vs. Rev B 1.6 120Gb HDD comparison

Hi all,

just received yesterday the Rev B 1.6 120Gb HDD (yes, no SSD) MBA. So, probably, you can burry your hopes of an free SSD upgrade (yes, I had them too ;-))
For all of you waiting for a review, I thought I'll share my first thoughts on the new one. I've seen a lot of rave for the new MBA with SSD, but what about the base one? Most people compared the REV A MBA with HDD against the new one with SDD. Pretty unfair in my opinion, but that was all it was available at the time. So let's see how it compares to my old MBA.

I have a perfect functioning Rev A base MBA (80Gb HDD, 1.6) which gives me a lot of joy. I've been using it 3 weeks this year in very hot climates (Miami, St. Lucia, and Dubai) and it had no problems. Yes, it got very hot, but so was the air outside, and it still worked. I've played HD 720p films on the plane many times, and besides getting hot and skipping some frames, everything worked fine. And after installing Flash 10, it got much cooler and smoother. Yesterday i migrated everything on my new MBA, so they have a pretty similar setup.

I had today both on my desktop, and here are my findings:

MBA Rev A 1.6, 80GB HDD vs. MBA Rev B, 1.6, 120GB HDD

Screen: identical, after calibrating.

Startup time: huge difference! The new one gains 10 seconds until the wheel starts spinning. Until it's full functional, there is a huge 35 seconds gain! I suppose it has something to do with initializing RAM (1066 vs 667 Mhz) and the board. Or maybe my old MBA has a sistem problem but I doubt that.

Performance launching applications: allmost identical. Word takes 5 second LESS ON THE OLD MBA! Excel/Powerpoint: identical. Entourage same. Safari: 0,5 sec faster on Rev B. Browsing: identical.

Temperature: IDENTICAL!!!!! I had 3 You Tube Videos running, both MBAs got hot (into 75 Grad C) then got pretty fast cool again.

Noise: Rev B a little bit quieter (they are both identical noisy when fans spin but the Rev B tends to be more often at less RPM). But this are nuances! If you look 10 seconds later, both fans are at similar RPMs. Both very quiet and much more so then my Sony Vaio Z11.

The tests were conducted with 10.5.5, I just updated both to 10.5.6 but the times didn't change.

So this are my conclusions: if you have a perfect MBA Rev A like me, there is no sense in updating for a REV B HDD model. Besides of the start-up time, you won't gain much. .
The new one still has its "thinking moments", keyboard/display are identical (if you get lucky from what I read) so there is not much difference here either. Oh, and you have to spend on the adapters which came free with the old one
If you have or had a lemon-Rev A, then the new one will make you happy.
I can't comment on the SSD one, tests look promising but then again, that's a huge amount of money taking in count what you loose selling your old one and buying the new expensive one, so that is a completely other math.

P.S. 4 fingers gestures worked on REV B from the beginning (and still work under 10.5.6)

 

isnt the new MBA SATA vs the old PATA?

I think that and the video card are the main differences I worth noting.

 

HD changed from PATA to SATA
Memory changed from DDR2 to DDR3
Video Card changed

 

The 4200 rpm PATA HDD in the Rev A MBA was a drag because of how laggy and how slow the data transfer rates were. The new MBA has new, 120GB, 5400 rpm SATA HDD, which is quite faster and more resourceful. It also beat the 4200 rpm in the data transfer category also.

The switch to DDR3 RAM from DDR2 Ram was a nice change also. The DDR3 RAM is significently faster than the DDR2 RAM. Although it is faster, it's also more pricey. You can pick up 4GB of DDR2 RAM from Crucial for about $65 shipped, or you can get 4GB of the faster DDR3 RAM from your local BestBuy for about $200.

I also like the updated GPU. Although it's a nice addition, most MBA users will not need the upgrade to a more intensive 9400M Integrated graphics chip, because the MBA is a VERY portable notebook and is not expected to do gaming on. Although I have to say, It is very crisp and clear and exceeded my expectations.

I would go with the Rev B if you have the money, because of the RAM and the HDD upgrade. It'll be worth it.

 

The drive is not as bad as you're making it out to be.

 

... and the new one ist still 4200