MacBook Air vs. low end 13" MacBook Pro

[Spacekatgal]

Is there any memory option that can realistically last for -- as long as a first battery and the replacment battery?

I was able to get a few minutes with the program's IT advisor. She said -1-everyone there has Macs, -2- nobody has an Air, but -3- a new Air will suffice (this, before the faster Toshiba SSD arrived) and -4- for sure make it the biggest-SSD version. And -5- the school & publishers accept nothing but Word; so get Office 4 Mac, no need for full Windows. (If iWork's so close to a refresh I may wait for that.)

Since I'm reading of at least misc. little things being better on the 2.13 Air, I've dropped consideration of the $1349 refurb one.

I've read about "writing and rewriting" to an SSD. I don't know if I'll do much deleting & writing over... at least not consciously. What goes into my archive stays there... though if I go w/ the 2.13, to live with that 128gb SSD capacity I may have some older archival text + pix material that exists only in the mirrored g-tech/hitachi? backup unit seen @ B&H Photo, not in the notebook. (Reading about "mirroring" in backups, it seemed essential. True?)

I need whatever amount of storage it takes for scanning my existing books & many article clippings ... plus new material... in my field I tend to need a few pages of each of the the many new books being published; buying so many books is impossible $ and spacewise. I've been using my phone's sharp-enough camera for book/mag pages that I may need to quote or use as research leads, later. Esp. for that daily essay requirement! Apple salespeople say that if I tag all that stuff enough, it's searchable, with no outside software.

Thank you for bearing with all this... but where you could perhaps advise me is, the last thing in my previous post. Now that the Air HAS the faster type Toshiba SSD (and I searched last nite: apparently the current BTO MBPs have it too), is there an Apple-Certified warranty-preserving SSD vendor-installer who can boost an Air to 256gb , or boost a 13" MBP to 256/beyond at a big savings over Apple's prices?

And then to be safe, I don't get a replacement battery, but get a new laptop every time the battery's finished? Or does the mirrored backup mean I CAN push my luck (and value economics) with using that 2nd battery as long as it lasts?

Thanks for your advice

Sweetie, this is my honest opinion. You're seriously overthinking it. Your computer will break or not break. Worry about other things, and keep it factory. As some point over grad school, you'll be able to pick up a second Macbook on the cheap for backup.

MLC is the cheaper class of SSDs. SLCs are faster and can be written to more, but MLCs are much cheaper. All the Apple HDDs are MLC, as I understand it.

It's been my experience that Apple certified repair centers can only put the same BTO parts in your machine that Apple would put there. You will pay a lot of money for them.

 

[thinkdesign]

spacekatgal:

Yeah, so 100% from Apple, all under warranty, is for me.

So what do you think of that mirrored backup thing? I read a scary article pointing out that everything has finite life, even backup tech.

So unless I replace the backup before the day it fails... mirroring is what saves the day. Esp. if I don't have 2 computers backing each other up... and my sole computer's at risk for bumps and even theft if it's being carried around constantly.

My preferred leaning / intuition on backup is similar to my thought on laptop selection in one way: A higher price up front for a good one can be the best value, long term, if it's amortised over a longish span of years. As someone with limited time, resources and aptitude for relearning new gadgets... the idea of a laptop and backup that I keep for as many years as possible, could incidentally mean fewer demands for me to re-learn new computer details. So I could focus more on my work.

But most backups I see are not mirrored. If mirroring's so essential, why isn't it a common feature? This does not compute! I saw the little I think it was G-Tech(hitachi) mirrored one. For under $500. what's the best brand/model for this? Best in terms of reliability and easy operation.

 

[Spacekatgal]

Yeah, so 100% from Apple, all under warranty, is for me.

So what do you think of that mirrored backup thing? I read a scary article pointing out that everything has finite life, even backup tech.

So unless I replace the backup before the day it fails... mirroring is what saves the day. Esp. if I don't have 2 computers backing each other up... and my sole computer's at risk for bumps and even theft if it's being carried around constantly.

My preferred leaning / intuition on backup is similar to my thought on laptop selection in one way: A higher price up front for a good one can be the best value, long term, if it's amortised over a longish span of years. As someone with limited time, resources and aptitude for relearning new gadgets... the idea of a laptop and backup that I keep for as many years as possible, could incidentally mean fewer demands for me to re-learn new computer details. So I could focus more on my work.

But most backups I see are not mirrored. If mirroring's so essential, why isn't it a common feature? This does not compute! I saw the little I think it was G-Tech(hitachi) mirrored one. For under $500. what's the best brand/model for this? Best in terms of reliability and easy operation.

Of course backup tech has a limited life. Furthermore, a mirrored solution isn't even a complete one. What if your house burned down or was robbed? Off-site backup is a must. My prefered solution is to have a Time Capsule for local backup. I also have a Drobo that we keep at my husband's office. That's in a Raid 1 array, meaning mirrored.

 

[thinkdesign]

Yeah, off-site...

The days of backing up with floppies in a little safe... are already so old that some readers of this are now thinking "Huh?"

The last piece of my memory palace is -- what to use when travelling away from home. I imaging a USB key memory... I haven't calculated size or seen a comparative article on them lately... maybe the LaCie one that looks like a key on a keychain? Priorities being ease of use, reliable/tuff/waterproof.

In one travel day I can write dozens of pages, take 200 10mp pictures, scan a few clippings, have a few emails per day needing saving, hear a radio interview and want to grab the mp3 version quick before the public radio station site takes it down... and save the some of my new web surfing discoveries. How many GB of data a month of all that could add up to, I can't guess. Care to hazard a guess as to what size USB key I need? Best brand/model?

And if the travel includes a lecturing gig, I have in mind having my slide lecture on one of those very tiniest USB drives. Yay, no more Carousel tray! (Dating myself, again.)