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Advice Needed On MBA 2008 Possible buy

M

Mae.Vie

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 7, 2016
4
0
Hi everyone!

I am new to the macbook world, though I have owned a few ipads and currently have an iphone 4s (i know, I know). I'm dipping into the waters of the macbook world though (mainly out of curiosity - I love my tech) and wanted to know what you guys thought.

I am currently bidding on a mba 2008 model (2gb, 80gb harddrive), and I wondered whether this would be suitable for what I need? I'm looking to do mostly word processing on the go and perhaps the odd youtube video if I'm bored! I know laptops slow down after a few years but I've been assured this has had a new harddrive put in, and the battery is apparently pretty good.

I just wanted to know what people thought - would a mba 2008 do the job for me? Or should I go for something a little newer?

Many thanks!
 
Mae.Vie said:
Hi everyone!

I am new to the macbook world, though I have owned a few ipads and currently have an iphone 4s (i know, I know). I'm dipping into the waters of the macbook world though (mainly out of curiosity - I love my tech) and wanted to know what you guys thought.

I am currently bidding on a mba 2008 model (2gb, 80gb harddrive), and I wondered whether this would be suitable for what I need? I'm looking to do mostly word processing on the go and perhaps the odd youtube video if I'm bored! I know laptops slow down after a few years but I've been assured this has had a new harddrive put in, and the battery is apparently pretty good.

I just wanted to know what people thought - would a mba 2008 do the job for me? Or should I go for something a little newer?

Many thanks!
Click to expand...
You're talking about purchasing a computer that is 8 YEARS OLD. Buying anything older than 5 get's into the "insanity" territory in my book, unless you are either spectacularly poor or a collector. 2gb ram and a slow 80gb spinning hdd would be unbearably slow to use in 2016.
 
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I must admit I hadn't thought about the slow HDD. 2gb ram I could just about work with, but I hadn't realised/thought that the hdd would be so slow. Of course 80gb would be filled up pretty quickly, I'm guessing?
[doublepost=1457401160][/doublepost]Out of interest, what would you guys recommend? I have a budget of about £500/600 and am looking for something portable-ish so I can take it when I have to go down to London (which is fairly irregular - generally once every couple of months). I currently use a Toshiba Windows 10 computer; which, whilst very good, is not quite as portable as I'd like it to be.

Any thoughts are appreciated!

(and I cancelled my bid! Thanks for the thoughts on the air 2008! I'm glad I didn't waste my money)
 
I had a 2008 MBA from when they were new until about 2012. It was a decent computer, but I wouldn't pay more than $50 or so for one today, so if you are getting it for really cheap it might be ok as long as you are switching from something older.

The first gen macbook air that you are looking at was really more of a proof of concept that Apple could go that thin, and to start getting people used to the optical drive being gone. It took a generation or two for it to become a really good computer, so I would recommend going for a newer generation, probably at least a 2012 if you can afford it.
 
Hi guys,

Thanks again for all your comments. The bidding on the macbook air I was going for was going up to £180 - and from the sounds of it that's way too much to pay for what it is. I get that the original was more a concept idea for apple, and for some reason I hadn't processed the fact that it would probably run very slowly in comparison to the newer models. (stupid as I work on Windows computers usually, and the same obviously applies as processors, chips, etc get updated so quickly now!)

I'm looking around at newer MBA's now, just trying to decide between 13.3 and 11 inches!
 
Mae.Vie said:
Hi guys,

Thanks again for all your comments. The bidding on the macbook air I was going for was going up to £180 - and from the sounds of it that's way too much to pay for what it is. I get that the original was more a concept idea for apple, and for some reason I hadn't processed the fact that it would probably run very slowly in comparison to the newer models. (stupid as I work on Windows computers usually, and the same obviously applies as processors, chips, etc get updated so quickly now!)

I'm looking around at newer MBA's now, just trying to decide between 13.3 and 11 inches!
Click to expand...
Yeah that sounds way to expensive for that model so I think you are making a good choice to skip it. As for the decision between 13.3" and 11" it really is a personal preference, I've had both, and prefer the 11". Either one would work fine for what you want though.
 
mrkramer said:
Yeah that sounds way to expensive for that model so I think you are making a good choice to skip it. As for the decision between 13.3" and 11" it really is a personal preference, I've had both, and prefer the 11". Either one would work fine for what you want though.
Click to expand...

Hi!

I was also thinking the 11 inch as I can see me having problems fitting the MBA 13.3 into a normalish bag. Although having said that, now I'm pondering the newer macbook (12inch) and wondering if I just should save up a bit more.... have you had any experience with it? I've heard it is limited to certain things, but then so is the MBA (they are not meant as powerhouses, after all!), and I'm just wondering which would be best fitted for what I want!

So many decisions....
 
Mae.Vie said:
Hi!

I was also thinking the 11 inch as I can see me having problems fitting the MBA 13.3 into a normalish bag. Although having said that, now I'm pondering the newer macbook (12inch) and wondering if I just should save up a bit more.... have you had any experience with it? I've heard it is limited to certain things, but then so is the MBA (they are not meant as powerhouses, after all!), and I'm just wondering which would be best fitted for what I want!

So many decisions....
Click to expand...
I think any of them would be good enough for what you stated you want to do (word processing and youtube). I don't have any experience with the 12" macbook outside of playing with them in the store. I will likely try one out as my next computer, although for the moment I think they are a bit overpriced for what they are. If you want to save up the money to try one out make sure that you are good with using wireless for almost everything including transferring files, with USB C only most USB drives won't work if you use those to share your word processing documents.
 
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