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I must decide

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DevMcLin

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 16, 2010
15
0
Hi,

I got 2 MacBooks from my boss, and I have to decide which one I want keep.

There is ontime the White MacBook Mid2010 and the 13" MacBook Air base (2GB, 128GB)

So I tested both but I can't decide so if you give me pros and cons it will be nice.

Regards Christopher.
 
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NicoleRichie

macrumors 6502
Jun 30, 2007
435
1
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New mb air?
 
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NicoleRichie

macrumors 6502
Jun 30, 2007
435
1
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148a Safari/6533.18.5)

If it's the most recent air that would be my choice if not then then 2010 MacBook.
 
K

KPOM

macrumors P6
Oct 23, 2010
18,311
8,324
DevMcLin said:
Hi,

I got 2 MacBooks from my boss, and I have to decide which one I want keep.

There is ontime the White MacBook Mid2010 and the 13" MacBook Air base (2GB, 128GB)

So I tested both but I can't decide so if you give me pros and cons it will be nice.

Regards Christopher.
Click to expand...

Definitely the Air if you don't need more than 120GB of storage space and don't need the ability to expand RAM. The Air has a slower CPU, but the SSD is significantly faster than the hard drive in the base MacBook and will make the system boot up and applications load much more quickly.

Both models have identical graphics processors. The Air has a higher resolution display. Above all, it is much lighter and thinner. The downsides of the Air are that RAM can't be expanded beyond what it ships with, the optical drive is optional and external, and storage space is more limited.

The base MacBook includes the DVD drive, uses a faster processor, and the RAM can be expanded to 4GB. However, the hard drive is slower (albeit with twice the storage space), and it is much heavier (about 5 lbs vs 3 lbs) and thicker.
 
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DevMcLin

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 16, 2010
15
0
Thx for the replies, the only think that disturb is that I cant upgrade the RAM:( I will work with xCode and don't know how much that need.

My movie collection did I have on my extern 2.5 320GB HDD...
I play also older games like San Andreas and CSS...

So if you could tell me that the Air fits perfect on my user profile then I can keep the Air.
 
lilcosco08

lilcosco08

macrumors 65816
May 27, 2010
1,224
22
Dayton
I would NEVER buy a 2gb air, but that's just my opinion.

Anyways can you deal with being stuck with 2gb RAM?
With less storage?
With less battery?
With a slower cpu?
 
K

KPOM

macrumors P6
Oct 23, 2010
18,311
8,324
lilcosco08 said:
I would NEVER buy a 2gb air, but that's just my opinion.

Anyways can you deal with being stuck with 2gb RAM?
With less storage?
With less battery?
With a slower cpu?
Click to expand...

To be fair, someone else is paying for it. It's a matter of which "freebie" is better. The Air weighs much less than the base MacBook. While the MacBook's CPU is about 25% faster, the Air's SSD is about 300% faster than the MacBook's hard drive. If it's for corporate use, 125GB (the actual usable space of the 128GB) is probably plenty. Plus it seems like the OP has an external hard drive.
 
Thiol

Thiol

macrumors 6502a
Jan 26, 2008
693
0
KPOM said:
To be fair, someone else is paying for it. It's a matter of which "freebie" is better. The Air weighs much less than the base MacBook. While the MacBook's CPU is about 25% faster, the Air's SSD is about 300% faster than the MacBook's hard drive. If it's for corporate use, 125GB (the actual usable space of the 128GB) is probably plenty. Plus it seems like the OP has an external hard drive.
Click to expand...

Perhaps a good question to ask is, what is the chance that the OP will upgrade the hard drive (to an SSD) or the RAM on the MacBook? If likely, then maybe the MacBook is the best freebie. If not, then I'd say the Air is better as given.
 
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DevMcLin

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 16, 2010
15
0
This is what I was thinking about, I paid for MB nothing and if I spend 300 - 400 bucks on top for SSD and 4 GB ram then the machine would be the best...

But: I use no DVD drive since last 2 years I take every day my MB or MBA with me to work and home, and customers... So the Air would be the best for traveling, on other side I drive with my car so what?

I dont know what for a machine I should keep...
 
Z

zstar

macrumors member
Nov 10, 2010
71
0
DevMcLin said:
This is what I was thinking about, I paid for MB nothing and if I spend 300 - 400 bucks on top for SSD and 4 GB ram then the machine would be the best...

But: I use no DVD drive since last 2 years I take every day my MB or MBA with me to work and home, and customers... So the Air would be the best for traveling, on other side I drive with my car so what?

I dont know what for a machine I should keep...
Click to expand...

Well, I was just pondering upon a solution that would be the best of both worlds. If you love the form factor and portability of the Air, yet want performance with the SSD and RAM, why not just get the air, sell it, top up a little of your own cash to get a brand new Air with the upgraded RAM? (All air's already have a SSD)

In this way, you get the air with the performance you desire in your Macbook, minus the slight processor clock speed difference. Voila!
 
revelated

revelated

macrumors 6502a
Jun 30, 2010
994
2
DevMcLin said:
This is what I was thinking about, I paid for MB nothing and if I spend 300 - 400 bucks on top for SSD and 4 GB ram then the machine would be the best...

But: I use no DVD drive since last 2 years I take every day my MB or MBA with me to work and home, and customers... So the Air would be the best for traveling, on other side I drive with my car so what?

I dont know what for a machine I should keep...
Click to expand...

I say the MacBook. Why? Upgrade. If you need more RAM you can add it. If you need a SSD you can add that too. Total control of the situation. The Air has none.

if you're doing xCode and think you might need the horsepower, go for the MacBook JUST FOR the fact that you can upgrade it IF you need to.
 
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DevMcLin

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 16, 2010
15
0
On this test the CPU power is not so good, the question is if I need the horsepower or if the Air enough.

I work a week with the Air 2GB and have always 1GB free minimum was 800MB free...

But what is in the future... Lion system requirement? I don't know...
 
S

size100

macrumors regular
Dec 18, 2010
113
0
revelated said:
I say the MacBook. Why? Upgrade. If you need more RAM you can add it. If you need a SSD you can add that too. Total control of the situation. The Air has none.

if you're doing xCode and think you might need the horsepower, go for the MacBook JUST FOR the fact that you can upgrade it IF you need to.
Click to expand...

MBA already has an SSD and upgrading ram for macbook pro is only important if he'd see a lot out 8gb instead of 4gb. So there are really two things to upgrade, one the MBA already has and the second is a rare case for most people.
 
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DevMcLin

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 16, 2010
15
0
Keeping the Air, and mybe I sell it for 4GB upgrade but just maybe... At moment it have enough power for my tasks...
 
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