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Would you do this?

drchipinski

drchipinski

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 12, 2007
320
1
My company has offered me the following:

Instead of my current tower (DELL PC) they are willing to give me 7 $200 monthly payments towards a new Air.

Would you do this?

I still need to purchase Office, but that would be about it. My end cost would be about $500 total. (After I get the funds back)

I have until Thursday to decide.
 
Yes.

I know a couple of people with MacBook Air's and they love them. You need to understand the limitations of it though. The people I know do complain about the lack of built-in Ethernet and the small number of USB ports. Any Dell with have more Ethernet and USB than the Air. I'd still make the switch though. What's a couple of dollars for a USB hub?

Good luck.

<edit>
Woo-hoo, this post put me at 6502!
</edit>
 
vanmacguy said:
Yes.

I know a couple of people with MacBook Air's and they love them. You need to understand the limitations of it though. The people I know do complain about the lack of built-in Ethernet and the small number of USB ports. Any Dell with have more Ethernet and USB than the Air. I'd still make the switch though. What's a couple of dollars for a USB hub?

Good luck.
Click to expand...

I thought the air didn't support a hub?
 
I think you can't power the superdrive through a hub (the MBA USB port provides extra power to run the superdrive). For normal USB connections, a hub should work.
 
BTW, to answer your original question...

For myself, I would not replace a desktop machine with an Air, unless you had another machine around to be your primary machine. I love my Air, tons, but I would not want to use it as my only computer. That's really not the profile it was built for.

If you *do* have another machine to be your primary, then I'd take the cash ;)
 
MBA does support any USB hub, and you can get a USB adapter for (wired) ethernet.

While the MBA will cost you more, it will have much better resale value than the Dell. Search eBay for old 12" Powerbooks and you'll know what I mean.

One more point, if you are comparing MBA (laptop) with a Dell (desktop), don't expect the same performance. But you get portability instead. You need to decided whether this suits your need.

By the way, you may want to consider Parallel or VMW Fusion to run Windows simultaneously as OS X.
 
I have another desktop at home...so that is not a concern. I am in sales and travel locally everyday, so the Air is great for my needs.

My Dell is currently 5 years old so it is no screamer....

I really only use my database (clients) Word, Excel, and of course the internet.
 
i'd do it if i were in your shoes. my company is not nearly as generous (though i have no complaints about their reimbursement program that offers 20% back on a computer with peripherals and software you purchase for personal use once every 3 years), and i'm still going to go ahead and buy one...
 
drchipinski said:
I have another desktop at home...so that is not a concern. I am in sales and travel locally everyday, so the Air is great for my needs.

My Dell is currently 5 years old so it is no screamer....

I really only use my database (clients) Word, Excel, and of course the internet.
Click to expand...

If those are your needs, the MBA should suit them very well. I use mine as my "portable office" and just love it.
 
the airs superdrive requires extra power for it to run. it might run with a powered USB hub but I'm not 100% sure. a USB hub will work on the air. Ive tried it before. Youll run into problems when you try to plug in a lot of USB devices at once... youll run out of power on a non powered USB hub, but beyond that, you won't have any problems
 
drchipinski said:
My company has offered me the following:

Instead of my current tower (DELL PC) they are willing to give me 7 $200 monthly payments towards a new Air.

Would you do this?

I still need to purchase Office, but that would be about it. My end cost would be about $500 total. (After I get the funds back)

I have until Thursday to decide.
Click to expand...

YES! :D

I get a DELL or LENEVO supplied to me and I said no thanks, went out and bought an Air with my own dime.

I have a very old, company supplied, DELL laptop that sits in the back of a desk drawer just in case.
 
This is an easy one, I would definitely get the air, especially after hearing you have a nice desktop at home..
 
drchipinski said:
My company has offered me the following:

Instead of my current tower (DELL PC) they are willing to give me 7 $200 monthly payments towards a new Air.

Would you do this?

I still need to purchase Office, but that would be about it. My end cost would be about $500 total. (After I get the funds back)

I have until Thursday to decide.
Click to expand...

Would I do this? In a heartbeat! :)

The MBA is an excellent traveler's companion and will do what you need while on the road or sitting out in the back yard enjoying a nice evening.... It's really best as a supplement to another computer in the household, and since you do have that I'd say, "what are you waiting for?"
 
You need to check if you will also have to pay for a Windows licence for any apps you may use. Of course, if you're buying Office 2008 that's not an issue as such as long as you don't want to use Access.

If it's just a travel machine the Air is fine.
 
No ,
I would put the cash toward the mid range Macbook ...more connection options etc etc , especially for a work environment , if you had the Macbook you would have less items to carry around as there all built in

just my opinion :)
 
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