XCode: CPU heavy or disk heavy?

[AltecXP]

I'm debating a 13in Pro or 13in Air. I like both, prefer the resolution of the Air, but the ports/optical of the Pro. Neither are a make/break though.

Really what it comes down to is that I use XCode as one of my main apps. When compiling is it more CPU intensive or disk? And if i was to get an Air would I really notice the difference vs the CUP in the 13in?

As a side note I am looking at the i7 in both models.

[PyX]

I would think compiling is more CPU-intensive because each time you compile, it has to convert your code to something else understood by Mac OS X.

I don?t think the hard drive would really make a difference because many files in an application are very small, and OSes are all bad when it comes to managing small files.

I am not an expert though?

[the evn show]

It depends on the nature of projects you build and how you build them. Start with a Linux source tree and compile: you've got 45 minutes of disk thrashing ahead of you. You notice a cery large difference doung a build with an SSD drive instead of a 5400 rpm laptop drive. For the test - change - compile loop of development you typically only touch a small part of the source tree. While that reduces the gains of fast drives it also reduces the gains of many cored processors.

For my money, as a typical desktop app developer (more like iTunes, less like Photoshop) I'd want a few very fast cores (instead of many slower ones), as much ram as possible, and the fastest hard drive I can find. By far the slowest part of compiling is when you have to hit the disk : reducing that makes the whole process more responsive. Go build "hello world" and compare the amount of time the system spends waiting on disk access vs the time spent compiling or linking in gcc/Icc/etc. the choice is obvious in my opinion.

[AltecXP]

It sounds like a 13in Pro with 8GB and an SSD would be the best option then, but dang i hate that 12800x800 resolution.

[cooky560 Veteran]

Connect the pro to an external monitor when your at home and you can have a better resolution.

[Shadrack]

Have you considered adding an SSD to your current MBP? You could even have 2 drives if you get a conversion kit for the optical drive slot.

Adding an SSD to my mid 2009 15" Mbp made a lot of difference in terms of porformance.

[AltecXP]

It had one... but I dropped it and it no longer works, so I have to buy a new Mac.

[Shadrack]

  On 05/11/2011 at 02:44, Epic0range said:

It had one... but I dropped it and it no longer works, so I have to buy a new Mac.

Oh that sucks :(. Missed that. I was just seeing you had a 15" MBP listed in your sig.