How is the performance of using a Macbook Air for local Drupal development?

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jemond's picture
Posted by jemond on January 10, 2012 at 9:06pm

I'm thinking about getting a Macbook Air. For any Air users out there, how is the performance of developing locally? Any problems with slow performance when working with complex Drupal sites?

Comments

I expect no trouble.

Posted by GerbenW on January 11, 2012 at 9:19pm
GerbenW's picture

Hi jemond,

I think the Macbook Air can handle local dev very well. It has a fast processor (i5) and comes with a ssd and 4gb ram. So I think you don't have to worry about it. Maybe if you are going to run the full Drupal test-suite it will take some time, but as I have read so have the testbots( I am new to Drupal dev).

BTW: I am not telling this out of experience, but I am actually in the same stage of thinking about an Air as you are.

I use an MBP 13" for a few

Posted by michaelscappa on January 11, 2012 at 9:36pm
michaelscappa's picture

I use an MBP 13" for a few years, and just picked up an 11" MBA i5/4gb. The 13" is a core2duo, which is significantly slower... I see no reason the air can't handle local dev absolutely fine.

Thanks. Looking at this

Posted by jemond on January 11, 2012 at 10:15pm
jemond's picture

Thanks. Looking at this chart, it looks like both models are i5s, yes?
http://www.apple.com/macbookair/specs.html

And both can be upgraded to

Posted by jamesrward on January 11, 2012 at 10:22pm
jamesrward's picture

And both can be upgraded to the i7. I'm running the 11" with the i7 and it's great for Drupal dev... and just about anything else I throw at it. Happy shopping!

Thanks!

Posted by jemond on January 11, 2012 at 10:44pm
jemond's picture

Thanks!

A new MBA is better than my old 5 year-old MBP!

Posted by john franklin on January 11, 2012 at 9:54pm
john franklin's picture

I've used a 3GB Core 2 Duo MBP from 5 years ago for heavy Drupal development, which would be less powerful than a new MBA. I was using VMWare Fusion and Ubuntu as the server software running on the MBP, allotting a half-gig of RAM to the VMs, using netatalk to access the code in the VM via AFP and Textmate as my editor. I could run one VM easily, two if I shut down most other apps. Safari (until recently) was such a memory hoarder that I would have to shut it down at least once a day to reclaim the memory and swap, but otherwise I had few problems. I've since upgraded to a new Core i7 MBP.

Awesome, thanks all! MBA here

Posted by jemond on January 11, 2012 at 10:14pm
jemond's picture

Awesome, thanks all!

MBA here I come...

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