base 2gb air 11" fast enough? about to buy a second hand 11".

[Funkymonk]

I'm coming from a 6 yr old dell inspiron 1501 with an archaic 1.something ghz processor and on ubuntu that was usable but a bit sluggish. I moved on to the hp dm1z which blew me away on performance with its amd fusion cpu. It also came 3gigs of ram. My sister just took the dm1z today since she also loved it and now im left with nothing but the old dell. I just talked to a guy from craigslist today and he's offering me a base mba 11" for $700. Will it be sufficient enough for me? I think it will but I just wanted to go by you guys first before I buy the thing. My uses are

A lot of web browsing.
I watch a lot of videos. Hours and hours of youtube and flash videos too. Does he air have trouble with flash?
4+ tabs open at all times. Multiple flash videos possibly
I also download a lot of torrents so a lot of music and movies
I will also download a torrent for office because I use word and excel a lot.
I don't game but wanted to try batman arkham asylum too

One more thing, since apple has a one year warranty with their laptops does that mean if I have a propblem I can bring it into a apple store even though I didn't buy it from them?

 

[0007776]

It should do fine, I notice occasional slowdowns on my air that I assume to be from the 2 gb of RAM, but I think it will handle your needs well enough. As far as the warranty goes, as long as the used computer you buy still has some warranty left you can take it in to get fixed, you can even buy the 3 year AppleCare if you want it.

 

[mellofello]

If you do a lot of torrenting then 64 gb will get claustrophobic pretty fast.

 

[Funkymonk]

It should do fine, I notice occasional slowdowns on my air that I assume to be from the 2 gb of RAM, but I think it will handle your needs well enough. As far as the warranty goes, as long as the used computer you buy still has some warranty left you can take it in to get fixed, you can even buy the 3 year AppleCare if you want it.

Well the air just came out 4months ago so it should have coverage left, no?


If I have problems and take it to an apple store do I have to give them proof of purchase? What will they say if I tell them I bought it second hand?

 

[rkaufmann87]

Personally I'd look for one with 4GB of RAM and if you're OK with 64GB of total storage then sure it should be a nice little machine for:

1. Web browsing, no problem you should be quite happy.
2. Videos again shouldn't be an issue, if you watch flash content then download Flash.
3. You may run low on RAM running 4 tabs of video simultaneously which of course will affect temperature and performance.
4. I won't comment on torrents. I'd suggest speaking to your probation officer about that.
5. I'm not a gamer either but many people have posted good results. I'd recommend looking at some Youtube videos of people doing the same.

As for the warranty, there shouldn't be any problem because the warranty follows the serial number not the person.

 

[Funkymonk]

If you do a lot of torrenting then 64 gb will get claustrophobic pretty fast.

I watch movies once and delete. I put songs on my phone and delete off my computer as well. My 6yr old dell came with only 80gb and I've only used 30 in all these years.

 

[Funkymonk]

Oh and btw this will probably be my primary machine until I either make a custom beast of a desktop or unless apple really wows me with their new 13" mbp and I wanna trade up.

Anyone use the air 11 as their primary computer? Is it too small? My old ass dell I mentioned earlier is 15.4" buy its resolution. Is also lower than the mba 11".

 

[alflavor]

The base air is plenty fast enough, it's the one I have and I love it. Not quite my main machine, but almost.........

 

[Funkymonk]

interesting video I found. I think I'll stick with 2g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvQJ-Rx5FtM&feature=related

 

[AppleScruff1]

interesting video I found. I think I'll stick with 2g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvQJ-Rx5FtM&feature=related

That video is only a boot comparison, it won't show the difference in performance between 2 and 4gb.