This Gen or Beefed Up Last?

[theturtle]

Hey guys,

In a real pickle right now. Sold my MBP to get a air and these are the deals i see on craigslist (save some money that way). I found a couple of current gen 11" with 4 gigs of ram and 128gb hard drive going for roughly 950-1050. The 13" goes for about 1100-1150. (thats one of the pickles, can't decide if 11 is too small)

but anyways

than theres this one ad for a 2 month old last gen macbook air (the guy bought it refurbished from apple). its a 13", 2.13 processor speed, 2gb ram, 128 hard drive(SSD), apple care and a super drive.

which the current gen worth it? does it blow it out the water? and is the small size actually noticeable in the newer ones compared to the older ones or not really?

edit:
or should i gamble and keep looking.

 

[duky]

2 GB RAM was a huge bottleneck on my old Air and I'd recommend the new MBA purely based on that and the change in fan design. My MBA heats up far less frequently and I don't have to be so cautious about where I use it and place the fan vents. Other than that the rest aren't huge deals but I think are worth considering based on your use: better trackpad, better battery life, better graphics card, extra USB port. I'd say you should go ahead and get the latest gen. By smaller size I'm not sure if you mean thinness? If so, then no the new one for me is not that much thinner. But having said that, I like the design a lot better and think that it's overall a much, much better product.

 

[BENJMNS]

anyone who recommends the last gen to ya... doesn't like u very much.

 

[theturtle]

yeah...im leaning towards the recent gen.

off topic question

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1777

do we need the sharing update for both windows7 and mac or does it come already updated now? it says those were posted back in 08 so i wasn't sure..

 

[cleric]

anyone who recommends the last gen to ya... Doesn't like u very much.

qft

 

[alecgold]

My previous was a MBP 13" because the MBA 13" wasn't up to it. I bought a MBA last week as my MBP dropped on a concrete floor and was damaged, but this last generation is really up to daily office use (large word docs, email, large excel files, ocr-ing pdf-files, but no video-editing or photo's and I don't watch much video on it, although even flash video's work perfect, I installed click-to-flash. Saves me from a lot of annoying blinking adds on some sites! (it's just that the battery takes a big hit with flash but that was the same on my MBP, be it perhaps a little less)

So the bottom line: if you can afford it in any way, even if it means eating bread and water and cold beans for three weeks, buy the latest gen with 4Gb. That way the computer will last 3-4 years and give a lot of pleasure working with it, instead of perhaps 2 years with a lot of beach balls.

 

[alecgold]

qft

Quantum Field Theory?