MB Air Question

[Mobius 1]

Hey guys. I need a new mac laptop. Mine is still ok but outdated.

I'm looking only for the Flash ability of the MBA


Well, i heard from my friend who purchased the MBA 13" Base (2010) last year and the Flash broke in 3 months. Why? And the keyboard scratches the screen (permanent).

I sometimes overclock my 2.0 GhZ C2D to 2.8 is this OK for MBA's? Also my GPU.

Is it ok to buy refurbished ones from apple?


EDIT: flash= SSD

 

[MarkMS]

Hey guys. I need a new mac laptop. Mine is still ok but outdated.

I'm looking only for the Flash ability of the MBA


Well, i heard from my friend who purchased the MBA 13" Base (2010) last year and the Flash broke in 3 months. Why? And the keyboard scratches the screen (permanent).

I sometimes overclock my 2.0 GhZ C2D to 2.8 is this OK for MBA's? Also my GPU.

Is it ok to buy refurbished ones from apple?

1. By Flash, do you mean SSD? Solid State Drive? Yeah, worth the money if you can buy it. I have one on my MacBook Pro. And if you have a first gen MBA, then you will definitely notice some improvements. As for SSDs failing within 3 months, it's possible but rare unless you buy cheap drives from third parties without doing any research. Since you'll be getting this from Apple, you'll be fine. Don't listen to your friend about that.

2. About the scratches. I'm not sure. I don't own an MB Air so I can't help you there. I will say that Apple would not ship an MB Air that scratches the screen on purpose. So unless he was holding it and squeezing the LCD onto the keyboard, I'm going to have to say don't listen to your friend here either. IF you are worried, you can always get a keyboard protector or cloth that would make a barrier between the LCD and keyboard.

3. I don't overclock my laptops, so I'm going to get someone else to answer this one.

4. Refurb is always great from Apple. Read Apple's FAQs about refurbished. They come with a 1 year warranty and are inspected before they are deemed resale-worthy. http://store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/apple_certified.html

 

[RealScience]

Just to add--if something on your Apple laptop breaks within three months, they will fix it at no charge unless you've been seriously abusing the machine (giving it your 1-year-old to teethe on, driving over it in your H3, using it as a frisbee...) The only refurb I've gotten from Apple was an iMac my parents got a while back, I think they might have had some initial problems with it that got fixed at an Apple Store and it's been going great ever since (4+ years now). I wouldn't worry about buy refurb, but I wouldn't get it from anyone other than Apple.

Oh, the box you'll get will be less shiny than the new boxes. If you care

Edit: I would check whether overclocking voids the warranty. These machines are built with pretty tight tolerances in order to be so small and light, and I personally wouldn't want to overclock anything for fear of overheating. What would you want to do with it that would require overclocking?

 

[Mobius 1]

Black Ops, and Battlefield 3 [<-- TBA] porter of course!

ya and some final cut pro edits

 

[2IS]

I wouldn't bother overclocking becuase neither Black Ops or BF3 is going to run well on the MBA regardless of clock speed.

 

[Mobius 1]

how bout' the GPU. is it safe?

 

[MarkMS]

Overclocking anything past its specifications voids the warranty and hence "not safe".

Have you looked into the Alienware M11x?
http://www.alienware.com/Landings/m11x.aspx#LearnMore

 

[Mobius 1]

didn't apple underclock their processor and GPU by 20% ?

 

[Mobius 1]

1. By Flash, do you mean SSD? Solid State Drive? Yeah, worth the money if you can buy it. I have one on my MacBook Pro. And if you have a first gen MBA, then you will definitely notice some improvements. As for SSDs failing within 3 months, it's possible but rare unless you buy cheap drives from third parties without doing any research. Since you'll be getting this from Apple, you'll be fine. Don't listen to your friend about that.

warranty?

if a hardware failed, the computer have to be taken to singapore

(i'm living in a hellhole called indoneshit)

 

[steadysignal]

Is it ok to buy refurbished ones from apple?

absolutely.

i am on my third refurb. never an issue.

 

[Mobius 1]

anyone have link to 13" refurb uMBA with SM- revision SSD?

 

[jdl57]

I have the last generation MBA before the current 13.3"/11" model. I would not buy another.

One of my hinges broke, they are very fragile. Apple has a quiet, free repair program. They know it was a problem and have redesigned the hinges on the new models.

It only has three outputs and one of mine is now useless, the audio out. I get internal audio about once every 30 boots and have to use a usb speaker for sound. This becomes a problem when I am using my cell phone as a modem. It only has one usb port. I understand replacing a $50 ribbon wire inside will fix it. It is another common problem.

Don't even think about overclocking the MBA, it overheats at it's specified speed.

That all said, I travel almost constantly and I really like the thinness and especially the light weight of the Air. I don't have the SSD. I too like buying refurbs (my Air was new). With a refurb, someone has actually looked at and tested your computer.