Which 11.6 version to get?

[KPOM]

It's like we all have this hardon for cpu numbers, and its a habit formed years ago when it really mattered a lot more - back in the days when cpu's were 300mhz, then 500mhz, etc. Nowadays cpu speeds far far exceed most peoples needs. And more important is gpu numbers and hard drive numbers. But old habits are hard to break and we still look at cpu numbers and get a hardon.

I recall how excited I was when I purchased a 90MHz Pentium PC to replace a 16MHz 386 (which I was equally excited with when it replaced an 8MHz 286).

The 90MHz Pentium was replaced with an 800MHz Athlon, then a 1.3GHz Pentium M (which ran Windows XP as fast as a 2.0GHz P4). Since I switched to Mac, I've had a 1.8GHz C2D, a 1.86GHz C2D, and now am getting a 2.13GHz C2D. The pace of CPU speed increase has definitely slowed down now that we are more interested in CPU cores, GPU, RAM, etc.

 

[JPSensei]

I went with Option 2: 1099 - for 4GB ram and 64GB storage. You can get an usb memory, external hard drive, access files online -cloud-, but you can't do anything when it comes to ram, 4gb means you can use your computer to do more stuff -tasks- and well down the road in a few years 4gb will be pretty much a standard requirement for some programs to run smoothly.

As a said not an issue with the HD, as you can use the cloud, external hard drives, etc. to suit your needs.

 

[KPOM]

I went with Option 2: 1099 - for 4GB ram and 64GB storage. You can get an usb memory, external hard drive, access files online -cloud-, but you can't do anything when it comes to ram, 4gb means you can use your computer to do more stuff -tasks- and well down the road in a few years 4gb will be pretty much a standard requirement for some programs to run smoothly.

As a said not an issue with the HD, as you can use the cloud, external hard drives, etc. to suit your needs.

I agree. If it comes down to saving money on space vs. RAM, save money on space and get the 4GB. External storage or even a Time Capsule/Airport+HD are cheap and can be added later.

 

[robeddie]

I agree. If it comes down to saving money on space vs. RAM, save money on space and get the 4GB. External storage or even a Time Capsule/Airport+HD are cheap and can be added later.

Hmm, but the whole point of the MBA is to be the ultimate portable mac. Kind of defeats the purpose if you get such a small hard drive that you're forced into carrying around a backup drive a few months from now when you find out the internal 64gigs is too small.

 

[ozreth]

Just don't forget that you can NEVER, EVER increase the ram or memory on this thing. If you want to still feel good about it a few years down the line then do yourself a favor and droped a hundred or two more. When yo uare spending over a grand a hundred or two isnt THAT big of a deal, especially considering how much more power you are getting for it.

When you get home with the machine you will have forgotten about the extra money you spent because you will be so happy with it. Otherwise you may spend every minute with it wondering if you should have got the extra power, but will never be able to do anything about it.

 

[potdude]

Hmm, but the whole point of the MBA is to be the ultimate portable mac. Kind of defeats the purpose if you get such a small hard drive that you're forced into carrying around a backup drive a few months from now when you find out the internal 64gigs is too small.

Everybody uses a computer for different things. For every person who stores a bunch of porn or a bunch of Star Wars movies on their machines, there's somebody who doesn't need a lot of space or store a lot of stuff on their machines and instead back things up to an external drive when they are home.

That's why these types of threads are pretty pointless as you have one person who uses a computer one way, asking the opinions of a bunch of people who use computers in completely different ways.

All of this talk about never being able to upgrade and being stuck with a underpowered machine for years isn't that big of a deal, as you may find yourself wanting to sell and upgrade your MBA when Apple releases future revisions with keyboard backlighting and other new bells or whistles that were left out.

My advice to the OP: Buy whatever model you think fits your needs the best and that you can afford!

 

[robeddie]

Just don't forget that you can NEVER, EVER increase the ram or memory on this thing. If you want to still feel good about it a few years down the line then do yourself a favor and droped a hundred or two more. When yo uare spending over a grand a hundred or two isnt THAT big of a deal, especially considering how much more power you are getting for it.

A few years down the road, an even more incredible macbook air will be out, and I'll probably sell this 11.6 on craigslist and buy the new one.

I'm buying my laptop today for what I do with it today. NOT for some imaginary program that I may need 1.5 years from now that will demand 4 gigs of ram.

 

[coelacanth]

+1 for get RAM, save space.

Went with $1099 route. I have plenty of ways to get my data on to MBA. (Dropbox, bunch of cloud-based services I use, own file server, etc)

I think having 4GB of RAM will give MBA more product life-span compared to CPU or storage bumps. (of course nothing wrong with maxing it out, but for the money, $1099 setup is the best deal IMHO.)

 

[briansolomon]

I wouldn't buy a brand new computer today with anything less than 4GB. It just doesn't make sense to have anything less, especially with Lion so close in the future.

 

[Jaro65]

Do you know who makes this?

It is made by elago.

http://www.amazon.com/elago-Mobile-...1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1288050649&sr=8-1-fkmr0

Already have one in my basket.

 

[Dammit Cubs]

Hey guys,

thanks for the input. The problem is I don't know if 64GB is alot of memory. I can make it by since I will have another computer where my itunes music, pictures ...etc etc are all stored. Not to mention portable hard drives.

Of the course of several years, I wonder how much space I would have after putting applications on there: Office, Ilife, Adobe Lightroom, torrenting apps. Chrome, firefox, and some MKV files for the road.

Since its graphically a decent comptuer, i wouldn't mind place SC2 or some other games on it (i haven't played computer games in years, but its nice to have the option).

The extra 64GB of SSD space for 200 seems like its way too much. For people who have 64GB of space, how much is left after all the default apple programs are installed.

 

[Tankfantry]

the wife is giving her White MacBook to our daughter for Christmas and she has hinted, and by that I mean DEMANDED, the 4GB v 128GB SSD MacBook Air because it's pretty. Got to love her mode of thinking.

 

[KPOM]

Hey guys,

thanks for the input. The problem is I don't know if 64GB is alot of memory. I can make it by since I will have another computer where my itunes music, pictures ...etc etc are all stored. Not to mention portable hard drives.

Of the course of several years, I wonder how much space I would have after putting applications on there: Office, Ilife, Adobe Lightroom, torrenting apps. Chrome, firefox, and some MKV files for the road.

Since its graphically a decent comptuer, i wouldn't mind place SC2 or some other games on it (i haven't played computer games in years, but its nice to have the option).

64GB goes by pretty quickly. I have Office, iLife, about 10GB of iTunes material and a handful of small programs and have about 53GB used up on my Mac partition (I have a 128GB SSD on my Rev B with about 40GB devoted to Boot Camp).

 

[dccorona]

However, the NAND Flash might just be offered by third-party suppliers in the future. Figure a Runcore or Photofast company could do this, but if it ends up in all Macs, as it should, the list of suppliers will grow. Even if it's a proprietary port, I believe we will see others replicate it, and offer faster controllers and larger storage options.

the flash storage in the macbook air is much different than normal flash, and can't be altered without removing the logic board and modding it, a very risky hack

the flash chips aren't housed in a container, they're soldered right onto the logic board. No port that they can be popped in and out of

 

[ccsicecoke]

the flash storage in the macbook air is much different than normal flash, and can't be altered without removing the logic board and modding it, a very risky hack

the flash chips aren't housed in a container, they're soldered right onto the logic board. No port that they can be popped in and out of

WRONG

 

[J&JPolangin]

the flash storage in the macbook air is much different than normal flash, and can't be altered without removing the logic board and modding it, a very risky hack

the flash chips aren't housed in a container, they're soldered right onto the logic board. No port that they can be popped in and out of

WRONG

...not soldered but not in a container either...
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook-Air-11-Inch-Model-A1370-Teardown/3745/1

 

[dccorona]

WRONG

ok so i was wrong in saying theyre soldered to the board

theyre still attached in a way that nobody but apple is getting at them, or upgrading them

 

[falconeight]

This is what I think. I think once you get it you will start using it more than any other piece of tech that you have. get the base with the 128 HD.

 

[Poochi]

Hey guys,

thanks for the input. The problem is I don't know if 64GB is alot of memory. I can make it by since I will have another computer where my itunes music, pictures ...etc etc are all stored. Not to mention portable hard drives.

Of the course of several years, I wonder how much space I would have after putting applications on there: Office, Ilife, Adobe Lightroom, torrenting apps. Chrome, firefox, and some MKV files for the road.

Since its graphically a decent comptuer, i wouldn't mind place SC2 or some other games on it (i haven't played computer games in years, but its nice to have the option).

The extra 64GB of SSD space for 200 seems like its way too much. For people who have 64GB of space, how much is left after all the default apple programs are installed.

I'd suggest going with the $1099 model, base 11" 64GB with 4GB RAM.

It would be complete with an external HD (I saw 320GB for like $60 nowadays, WD USB, pretty small and cute size).

Idea is that if you were to pay that extra $200, you should really be getting the 13" base model with 4GB RAM. $200 for 64GB is just not worth it.

You may even be buying a new Macbook Air upon next refresh in a year time, and the resale value of that extra $200 you add to get the 128GB RAM is probably mostly lost and won't add much value.

If you decide to go with the 11"/64/4GB route, just keep in mind you won't be keeping everything on your macbook and it would be a great idea to keep media you have done watching on your external drive. problem solved.

cheers.

 

[Dammit Cubs]

I'd suggest going with the $1099 model, base 11" 64GB with 4GB RAM.

It would be complete with an external HD (I saw 320GB for like $60 nowadays, WD USB, pretty small and cute size).

Idea is that if you were to pay that extra $200, you should really be getting the 13" base model with 4GB RAM. $200 for 64GB is just not worth it.

You may even be buying a new Macbook Air upon next refresh in a year time, and the resale value of that extra $200 you add to get the 128GB RAM is probably mostly lost and won't add much value.

If you decide to go with the 11"/64/4GB route, just keep in mind you won't be keeping everything on your macbook and it would be a great idea to keep media you have done watching on your external drive. problem solved.

cheers.

At the end of the day. I want to browse the internet. Watch 1080p MKV's. Have access to microsoft Office for mac. Run Dropbox to sync between computers and some light ilife editing.

if I can do that with 64GB. then I'm sold. there will be times when I want to extract video files from my iphone to the MBA and put together a movie.

oh and I like to program. so I would need terminal with perl support since I work with it often for work.

 

[Dammit Cubs]

I found some interesting pricing:

If i used education discount + 50 dollar Apple gift card

Macbook 11.6 4GB + 64GB Flash = 1087 out the door
Macbook 11.6 4GB + 128GB Flash = 1300 out the door
Macbook 13.3 4GB + 128GB Flash = 1410 out the door

From macmall:

Macbook 11.6 4GB + 64GB Flash = 1079 out the door
Macbook 11.6 4GB + 128GB Flash = 1269 out the door
Macbook 13.3 4GB + 128GB Flash = 1349 out the door

Assuming that I won't get charged Tax from macmall and I get to keep my Apple gift card

 

[falconeight]

I found some interesting pricing:

If i used education discount + 50 dollar Apple gift card

Macbook 11.6 4GB + 64GB Flash = 1087 out the door
Macbook 11.6 4GB + 128GB Flash = 1300 out the door
Macbook 13.3 4GB + 128GB Flash = 1410 out the door

From macmall:

Macbook 11.6 4GB + 64GB Flash = 1079 out the door
Macbook 11.6 4GB + 128GB Flash = 1269 out the door
Macbook 13.3 4GB + 128GB Flash = 1349 out the door

Assuming that I won't get charged Tax from macmall and I get to keep my Apple gift card

Why do you get charged $187 in tax for the base 11.6?

 

[Gen]

More ram should be your first concern.
Then HD size.

 

[falconeight]

More ram should be your first concern.
Then HD size.

Why

 

[bb147]

It is made by elago.

http://www.amazon.com/elago-Mobile-...1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1288050649&sr=8-1-fkmr0

Already have one in my basket.

WOW!

NICE!

Just ordered one!!! Gonna store all my music and movies on that.

Thanks a billion!