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    Macbook air to replace my Dell xps 1330?

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by xgm541, May 1, 2011.

  1. xgm541

    xgm541 Notebook Enthusiast

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    I am looking to purchase a Macbook air to do some app development for iOS devices. I was wondering how well the macbook air 11 inch base model (1.4 ghz,2gb, 64gb) performed. In particular, I am interested in the gaming department. I currently own a dell xps 1330 with 2.4 ghz C2D, 4gb, geforce 8400. The macbook air comes with nvidia 320M. My question is, will this system compare to my current 3 year old dell? More specifically, I play world of warcraft as a hobby, will the performance be equal?
     
    xgm541, May 1, 2011
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  2. ronnieb

    ronnieb Representing the Canucks

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    Performance won't be equal I don't think, but wait till others chime in. WoW is very playable on the 320m, and buying a Mac is a great decision. I just got mine recently and love having such great build quality, and not hearing any creeks when picking my laptop up, and looking at the screen and seeing how good the colors are!
     
    ronnieb, May 1, 2011
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  3. CitizenPanda

    CitizenPanda Notebook Deity NBR Reviewer

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    WoW should be about the same (faster GPU, slower CPU), everything else will be slower (SSD advantage aside).
     
    CitizenPanda, May 1, 2011
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  4. masterchef341

    masterchef341 The guy from The Notebook

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    the 320m is probably twice as good as the 8400. The air's processor is about half as fast as the other.

    Hard to say. Probably somewhat worse off overall.
     
    masterchef341, May 1, 2011
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  5. Ollollo

    Ollollo Notebook Consultant

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    How about throtteling? Will the Air get hot and throttle down? I must admit, I have not checked up anything about the cooling of the MBA...
     
    Ollollo, May 2, 2011
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  6. snork

    snork Notebook Evangelist

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    I haven't done any gaming on a MBA, but I have used my sister's 13" MBA.

    In everyday tasks, it hands down is faster than my 2009 13" MBP due to the SSD. I was at their house and needed to get setup to their wireless printer (Lexmark). I downloaded the .dmg file from the internet, started setup about 3 minutes ahead of the MBA and it finished about 2 minutes BEFORE my MBP. That's anecdotal evidence of course, but the SSD makes a huge difference in daily usage, everything just loads on the spot when the HDD is the limiting factor. Gaming will obviously be more CPU/GPU limited.
     
    snork, May 2, 2011
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