5 dealbreaking questions re MBA

[sir. mac]

Here are some questions re MBA I consider dealbreakers. I haven´t seen this adressed anywhere else so far (with the exception of no. 3):

1. If you choose the PATA drive will you be able to upgrade this later yourself for either a 160gb PATA or, eventually a cheaper, SSD? Or is the drive likely to be soldered on, like the memory?

2. Will the MBA 1.6 CPU with PATA drive be able to muster 1080P in x264 format? Will the 1.8 with SSD?

3. Is it correct that this machine will not be able to connect to a 40" LCD television set (with a maximum of 23")?

4. Will the heat for this thing most likely be similar to the MBP? I don´t see any reason not, considering MBA got at Merom CPU and not Penryn or low voltage ones.

5. Is the 1.6 CPU likely to be a underclocked 1.8 cpu? And how easy, or probable, will it be to o/c the 1.6 up to 1.8 for OSX (It will be easy in Windows-mode, right?)?

Thanks for any input on this baby!

 

[qpid]

1. The MBA looks to be non-user upgradeable, so apple will not support any user upgrades, with that being said I've never heard of an hd soldered to any computer so it may be difficult but still possible to upgrade

2. I reckon so since a mac mini 1.8 core duo can

3. It will connect to a tv since a tv has a lower resolution than a 30" cinema display. Apple even sells the video adapters

4. Overclocking is usually done at the bios level and the mba has efi and not a bios

 

[ray648]

3. Is it correct that this machine will not be able to connect to a 40" LCD television set (with a maximum of 23")?

You should be able to plug in any external display up to a resolution on 1920x1200. The limit is on the resolution not the physical size. 23" is the size of the apple cinema display with this resolution and therefore is the largest apple screen you can use, other makes should work fine as long as the resolution isn't too high.

 

[.Andy]

1. If you choose the PATA drive will you be able to upgrade this later yourself for either a 160gb PATA or, eventually a cheaper, SSD? Or is the drive likely to be soldered on, like the memory?

I have no idea. I think we'll have to wait two weeks and we'll see plenty of Macbook air deconstructions. iFixit.com are usually pretty quick to pull stuff apart. I don't see any reason why the HDD won't be replaceable although apple has been heading in the direction of less user serviceable parts (see imac and MBA battery). They are at least making it increasingly difficult. As for swapping between a platter and SSD, again I have no idea if the engineering will be any different.

2. Will the MBA 1.6 CPU with PATA drive be able to muster 1080P in x264 format? Will the 1.8 with SSD?

Resolution specs of the GPU are below and are available on Apple's site.

3. Is it correct that this machine will not be able to connect to a 40" LCD television set (with a maximum of 23")?

You should be able to connect just fine but it's the resolution that's the kicker. From apple's site:

Supported resolutions: 1280 by 800 (native), 1152 by 720, 1024 by 768, 800 by 600, 800 by 500, 720 by 480 and 640 by 480 pixels at 16:10 aspect ratio; 1024 by 768, 800 by 600 and 640 by 480 pixels at 4:3 aspect ratio; 720 by 480 pixels at 3:2 aspect ratio

edit: this was wrong. ^^^^^^And Ray nailed it anyway .

4. Will the heat for this thing most likely be similar to the MBP? I don´t see any reason not, considering MBA got at Merom CPU and not Penryn or low voltage ones.

I believe Jobs said that it was a special custom CPU from intel that they used in the MBA? So again who knows the exact specs. Perhaps in a few days we'll have some more info from intel or schiller or someone who gets interviewed . But it'll likely be when we get some real world reviews and specs. Seeing as about a decades worth of laptops have been running hot I don't see why Apple would change now.

5. Is the 1.6 CPU likely to be a underclocked 1.8 cpu? And how easy, or probable, will it be to o/c the 1.6 up to 1.8 for OSX (It will be easy in Windows-mode, right?)?

As above. I'm not sure we have exact information of the chip as of yet to know if this is even possible. Either way you're likely to burn your reproductive organs .

 

[netdog]

You should be able to plug in any external display up to a resolution on 1920x1200. The limit is on the resolution not the physical size. 23" is the size of the apple cinema display with this resolution and therefore is the largest apple screen you can use, other makes should work fine as long as the resolution isn't too high.

No. Without dual-link DVI, a 30" computer monitor like the ACD 30 can only be driven up to 1280x800. As for a TV, you should have no problems driving it up to 1080p.

 

[.Andy]

No. Without dual-link DVI, a 30" computer monitor like the ACD 30 can only be driven up to 1280x800.

edit: forget it I think I understand. You can run the 23" native res at 1920 x 1200, but if you were to try and run the 30", because it shares the out put through the dual DVI you'd be stuck at half res. Gotcha. Ignore me down here....

 

[masse]

can you even put windows on it?

 

[rhyx]

No. Without dual-link DVI, a 30" computer monitor like the ACD 30 can only be driven up to 1280x800. As for a TV, you should have no problems driving it up to 1080p.

Wrong. Single link DVI can drive up to 1920x1200.

 

[netdog]

Wrong. Single link DVI can drive up to 1920x1200.

Not on a 30" dual-link monitor. You are just wrong. 1280x800 is the max that you will get. Period!

 

[sir. mac]

Thanks for the input, this answers most of my questions. Will be exciting to see iFixit rip this thing apart, probably soon!

Although, I am not convinced that the MBA will drive 1080p material decent. The C2D Mini, which someone mentioned in comparison, can only manage 1080i, and has to boot up Win (because of poor VLC mac support) to play 1080p. Hopefully this will be fixed in the next VLC build, and the MBA 1.8 will be able to support 1080p from OSX.

In that case I´m getting rid of my cumbersome MBP, just need to be sure that I can upgrade the measly 80GB PATA