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Scienter posted:Last Thursday it was delivered and unboxed; arrived in perfect condition. It's been good times since with zero regrets. First Mac and best first impression of any computer purchase I've ever made. Many thanks to this thread for helping me wait for the right model and making the right decision. We accept payment/rewards in Apple hardware. Go ahead and mail a 13" MBA to me and we'll call it even  Seriously though, enjoy! What SSD did you get with yours, out of curiosity? (Look at the drive model from System Profile, would be SM256 for a Samsung, IIRC).
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Aug 2, 2011 14:19
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I'm torn between picking up the 13" MBA or waiting to see what Apple does with the MBP. I'm replacing my primary and only computer, a dying 5 year old ThinkPad T60. The GPU fan is shot and I figured rather than trying to get it replaced, I would just put that money towards a new computer. My girlfriend has been nice enough to let me use her computer in the meantime. My only concern with the MBA is the lack of upgradeability, but by that same token I've only upgraded my ThinkPad once and that was to bring it to 4GB of RAM. I've read the reviews around the web and posts on here and they all seem to be glowing. Help me make a decision SA!
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Aug 2, 2011 14:35
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movax posted:Seriously though, enjoy! What SSD did you get with yours, out of curiosity? (Look at the drive model from System Profile, would be SM256 for a Samsung, IIRC). It's been several days since I checked and I'm at work but I believe it's a Toshiba SSD. LG display as well. To be fair I was so dazzled I forgot to check for those two things at first. Was a little disappointed given the buzz at the time (was hoping Samsung/Samsung) but it's pretty easily forgotten. As someone said several pages ago it's still an awesome new Air and it's tough to diminish that. Way I see it, it still performs well (cold boot in 15 seconds flat, wake from sleep inside 2) and is exactly what i was looking for, I'm a relatively casual user that would normally not notice a bottleneck, and this definitely won't be the last computer I buy.
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Aug 2, 2011 14:41
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Boris the Blade posted:I'm torn between picking up the 13" MBA or waiting to see what Apple does with the MBP. Didn't see this when I did my other reply. Speaking as someone who just bought a 13" Air and loves it, if you can wait, wait; if you can't, go for it. If you want to have a gaming Mac laptop though I'd probably wait for the new MBP provided you're good for at least another 6 months of cooling your heels. I'm only a casual Mac gamer due to having a PS3 for home and both iPad and 2010 iPod Touch for on the go, so graphics/games performance was a total non-factor for me. I too never once upgraded any laptop I've owned, so yeah, non-issue.
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Aug 2, 2011 14:48
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Scienter posted:It's been several days since I checked and I'm at work but I believe it's a Toshiba SSD. LG display as well. To be fair I was so dazzled I forgot to check for those two things at first. Was a little disappointed given the buzz at the time (was hoping Samsung/Samsung) but it's pretty easily forgotten.  Not that it really matters: the LCDs aren't all that different and the SSD performance delta won't really be apparent in real world use.
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Aug 2, 2011 15:44
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Scienter posted:Didn't see this when I did my other reply. Speaking as someone who just bought a 13" Air and loves it, if you can wait, wait; if you can't, go for it. I have a 360 and a PS3, so gaming isn't a priority at all. That along with the fact that the rumored Pro refresh won't include Ivy Bridge, the Air is looking more appealing.
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Aug 2, 2011 16:01
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Boris the Blade posted:I have a 360 and a PS3, so gaming isn't a priority at all. Well if you want a small discount on a basically new 13" air, 256 gb with samsung SSD and samsung panel, let me know. I'm having a tough time adjusting to the smaller screen and find myself not replacing my old pro with the air. I bought on a whim, and if someone is interested I could part with it in a couple days (assuming I don't ruin my pro when I upgrade the hard drive). I'll likely be taking this one to the SA-mart...
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Aug 2, 2011 16:06
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You could return it.
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Aug 2, 2011 16:11
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jfreder posted:You could return it. Very good point. I assumed Amazon would charge me a significant restocking fee, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I guess if anyone really wanted to know they were getting the samsung/samsung combination I'd be willing to sell them mine if I hear before I return it, if only because I always get a lot of help from this forum.
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Aug 2, 2011 16:18
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Boris the Blade posted:I'm torn between picking up the 13" MBA or waiting to see what Apple does with the MBP. If you don't care about heavy gaming, aren't doing heavy VM stuff then I would absolutely go for it. The CPU/RAM performance alone is enough to dominate "normal" tasks like web browsing, e-mail, etc for a long time in the future, at least until the next Flash ruins the Internet even more. And is my usual posting style in this thread, the 13" MBP screen blows, the resolution on the MBA is just right for the screen size. If you do want a 15", be sure to get the high-res upgrade. Slight derail on CPUS: Ever since the Core 2 Duo/dual core A64s, CPUs are really shining in terms of getting poo poo done faster (video encoding, etc.) or pushing games further (looking at you GTA4/Crysis 2), but they haven't really opened any new doors for us (which I'm OK with, because now we're getting more cores/threads and lower power consumption). Even the first Core 2 Duos (E6600) will handle all the MS Office / Firefox /Chrome/etc you can throw at it with decent RAM; I had one all the way up until this January. The dually-ULV i5 in the MBA outperforms the last generation Nehalem 2.66GHz chip handily, which in turn made mincemeat out of the Core 2s, all at 17W or so. Progress! 
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Aug 2, 2011 16:32
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The i5's are really fast. Plus they turbo boost so 1.6GHz isn't as slow as you'd think.
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Aug 2, 2011 16:38
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So if I'm looking at getting a 15" MBP, they're going to be releasing a new one in about 6 months? I play games a little bit but my job will require that I watch a lot of tv too and so I'll be using it for that. I should probably wait, right?
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Aug 2, 2011 16:52
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Daric posted:I should probably wait, right?
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Aug 2, 2011 16:53
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Daric posted:So if I'm looking at getting a 15" MBP, they're going to be releasing a new one in about 6 months? I play games a little bit but my job will require that I watch a lot of tv too and so I'll be using it for that. I should probably wait, right? What would stop you from waiting another 6-10 months once the new ones come out? You can play this game forever. There's nothing wrong with the current MBPs.
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Aug 2, 2011 17:08
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Ok good points, I won't wait then.
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Aug 2, 2011 17:09
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Has anyone tried Lion on a base 2010 11" MBA? I'm eyeing the refurbs pretty heavily for a portable secondary machine this fall, but I'm hesitant to drop $750 + tax on one if it's going to be a dog out of the gate.
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Aug 2, 2011 17:17
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Scienter posted:Last Thursday it was delivered and unboxed; arrived in perfect condition. It's been good times since with zero regrets. First Mac and best first impression of any computer purchase I've ever made.
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Aug 2, 2011 17:26
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Lacie it's August where's my little big dick 
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Aug 2, 2011 17:28
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flyboi posted:Lacie it's August where's my little big dick  I didn't know they made those.
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Aug 2, 2011 17:37
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Space Racist posted:Has anyone tried Lion on a base 2010 11" MBA? I'm eyeing the refurbs pretty heavily for a portable secondary machine this fall, but I'm hesitant to drop $750 + tax on one if it's going to be a dog out of the gate. 2GB of RAM is unacceptable for Lion IMHO, get 4GB or don't bother. quote:While this isn't my first Mac, I feel exactly the same. I almost always end up with buyer's remorse for my large purchases, but my last two Macs have been absolutely perfect. I love my 27" iMac and the new 13" Air is faultless. The form factor is better than my old 15" i7 MBP, the screen resolution is still great, and I don't feel like I sacrificed much performance for my workflow (if any) going from a larger laptop with an i7 and Intel SSD to the Air's i7 and Samsung SSD. I couldn't be happier with it. Do you actually get to use your MBA at work, or is it your personal machine, out of curiosity? Daric posted:So if I'm looking at getting a 15" MBP, they're going to be releasing a new one in about 6 months? I play games a little bit but my job will require that I watch a lot of tv too and so I'll be using it for that. I should probably wait, right? Everyone is riding a wave of after the new Air launch when it comes to rumours, buy it now if you need it. I'd only start second-guessing purchasing a MBP as it approaches March of next year or so. If new ones do turn out to launch this year, you can sell it or if you're lucky return it and not be down too much money.
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Aug 2, 2011 17:47
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movax posted:Do you actually get to use your MBA at work, or is it your personal machine, out of curiosity? I don't imagine I'll use it at work since it's a Windows environment, though the Air works quite well with VPN and CoRD for remote work.
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Aug 2, 2011 17:55
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movax posted:2GB of RAM is unacceptable for Lion IMHO, get 4GB or don't bother. Out of curiosity, in what sense? Sandboxing in Safari would eat it up too quickly? Any other real-world scenarios? I'm not really needing a ton of performance out of the thing, it'd be a secondary computer to take to campus to type documents/spreadsheets, plus web browsing, email, the usual. Nothing really intensive, but ideally I'd want it to last at least 2-3 years if I'm going to drop that much money on it. My original plan was just to get a ~$400 netbook, but the 11.6" Lenovo X120e my campus store has for sale is $469 for an AMD single core, or $529 for the dual-core model, both with 2 GB of RAM and a standard HDD - if I'd be paying that much, I'd really rather just drop the money on a MBA and stay with Apple (provided my fall budget can afford it). I mean, sure, I could get a full-fledged PC notebook for that money, but the emphasis is on lightness and portability since this wouldn't be my primary machine.
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Aug 2, 2011 18:05
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I'm having some serious first world problems here. For whatever reason, I'm thinking of taking back this new iMac and going back to my gaming PC I built and getting a 13" Air. If I did that I would have pc upgrade money, and I could sell my iPad since the Air would cover everything I need in it. Has anyone else done the "windows box / air" combo and enjoyed it? I can't help but think jumping back and forth from OSs will be jarring and i'll miss the iMac.
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Aug 2, 2011 18:10
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I just grabbed a original 11" Air in SA-Mart. If the screen is too small or the 64GB/2GB is too limiting, I figure I can always just re-sell it for what I paid for it. I already have a 13" MBP so I'm not sure how smart of an idea that was. I don't plan on putting Lion on it and I'll pretty much use it for posturing wherever there is public wifi. 
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Aug 2, 2011 18:12
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Kilometers Davis posted:I'm having some serious first world problems here. For whatever reason, I'm thinking of taking back this new iMac and going back to my gaming PC I built and getting a 13" Air. If I did that I would have pc upgrade money, and I could sell my iPad since the Air would cover everything I need in it. Has anyone else done the "windows box / air" combo and enjoyed it? I can't help but think jumping back and forth from OSs will be jarring and i'll miss the iMac. I don't game, but after I got my MBP I basically never ever used my Windows or Linux desktops so I just sold them (and kept my big monitor)
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Aug 2, 2011 18:13
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Kilometers Davis posted:I'm having some serious first world problems here. For whatever reason, I'm thinking of taking back this new iMac and going back to my gaming PC I built and getting a 13" Air. If I did that I would have pc upgrade money, and I could sell my iPad since the Air would cover everything I need in it. Has anyone else done the "windows box / air" combo and enjoyed it? I can't help but think jumping back and forth from OSs will be jarring and i'll miss the iMac. I never owned an iMac so I don't know if your current set up is more ideal. But I have a PC desktop hooked up to a Dell U2311H IPS monitor and that's perfect for when I'm at home. Than I have my MBA 13" I recently acquired that I use as a Campus Warrior. I'm taking summer classes right now and it's a lot better to haul around than my old 13" MBP. The MBA 13" resolution is usable to develop on also, and I have a windows machine if I ever need the Windows environment for work/school like Microsoft OneNote or Visual Studio. I recently got MacDrive so I can share an external harddrive between the two machines. Along with Spideroak (like dropbox) I have my School folder synced between computers so it's easy to switch between computers to get work done.
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Aug 2, 2011 18:29
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Space Racist posted:Out of curiosity, in what sense? Sandboxing in Safari would eat it up too quickly? Any other real-world scenarios? movax posted:So I rebooted my MBP for the first time in ages, took an Activity Monitor screenshot to check RAM usage: After that post, I went to the Fruit Stand to play with the MBAs in person, a 13" MBA sat at 2GB free after a reboot, IIRC. Remember you lose 384MB to video memory too. quote:I'm not really needing a ton of performance out of the thing, it'd be a secondary computer to take to campus to type documents/spreadsheets, plus web browsing, email, the usual. Nothing really intensive, but ideally I'd want it to last at least 2-3 years if I'm going to drop that much money on it. I'd get the 13" base Air, personally, or upgrade the 11" to 4GB for sure.
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Aug 2, 2011 18:29
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Kilometers Davis posted:I'm having some serious first world problems here. For whatever reason, I'm thinking of taking back this new iMac and going back to my gaming PC I built and getting a 13" Air. If I did that I would have pc upgrade money, and I could sell my iPad since the Air would cover everything I need in it. Has anyone else done the "windows box / air" combo and enjoyed it? I can't help but think jumping back and forth from OSs will be jarring and i'll miss the iMac. This is exactly my setup, I sold my old iMac and built a gaming pc and picked up a 13" Air (2010) and was really happy with it, except I hate using my windows rig for anything other than playing games. I've become pretty busy lately and haven't been gaming much so I've been using the Air as my primary, making me miss the iMac's screen big time. If you plan to do serious longterm gaming you'll probably be happy with the setup but if it takes the backseat, stick with the iMac?
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Aug 2, 2011 18:32
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I went from having an iMac + iPad and my wife had a Macbook Pro to an Macbook Air for me (sold both iMac and iPad). After the iPad 2 came out, we sold the Pro and I bought the iPad 2 and gave the MBA to my wife and I used the difference to put upgraded parts into an old gaming rig. We needed more RAM in the Air since it was the 2010 Model but couldn't do anything with the ram, obviously, so we sold the Air for a 2011 Pro. Having a platter drive, though, stunk, so we bought a new Air, 11", 4GB model and are finally, very happy with this combo. It sucks we've constantly shuffled around hardware, but since the stuff is so new we didn't lose anything. This sounds like what you are looking for, but I travel on a train to work and the MBA, as light and small as it is, just was no match for the portability and instant-tive-ness that you get from an iPad.
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Aug 2, 2011 18:37
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Kilometers Davis posted:I'm having some serious first world problems here. For whatever reason, I'm thinking of taking back this new iMac and going back to my gaming PC I built and getting a 13" Air. If I did that I would have pc upgrade money, and I could sell my iPad since the Air would cover everything I need in it. Has anyone else done the "windows box / air" combo and enjoyed it? I can't help but think jumping back and forth from OSs will be jarring and i'll miss the iMac. I'm now using a Windows 7 desktop as my iTunes base station for my (first-gen) iPad and iPod Touch (soon to be new iPhone). I've had it for a couple years without using it much; it was a hand-me-down from my father and a "work PC". Now, however, it's a (relatively) high-storage media server that allows me to stream to my PS3 and Air as need be, while alleviating the burden on the 128GB SSD of the latter. It also allowed me to save money by getting the base 13" Air instead of needing a higher capacity SSD. Loving this setup; living in the future owns. Sadly, as this Air is also destined for a fair amount of work use, I'll eventually have to shell out some painful amount of money for a Windows 7 Pro license to Bootcamp with at some point. For now, the desktop is really bridging the gap for the few things I still need Windows for. Incidentally, seconding that the Air is pretty great for remoting into my work desktop. That all being said, the iPad is almost exclusively used by my fiancée as a replacement for her aging Asus 14" laptop. If I didn't have her as an (appreciative, casual) user for the iPad I probably would have sold it when I got the Air, as I find the iPod Touch does everything as well and is more portable. I still like having big juicy iOS games (just picked up GTA Chinatown Wars, finally) for trips but really I'd be more than fine without it now. Kenny Logins fucked around with this message at 18:43 on Aug 2, 2011 |
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Aug 2, 2011 18:41
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Why are you guys not making your employer pay for your computers/software that you use for work?
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Aug 2, 2011 19:04
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Bob Morales posted:Why are you guys not making your employer pay for your computers/software that you use for work? I'm guessing they are their own employers in a lot of cases.
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Aug 2, 2011 19:17
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ndrake posted:Well if you want a small discount on a basically new 13" air, 256 gb with samsung SSD and samsung panel, let me know. I wanna know, I'm considering buying one for this upcoming school year. I've got PMability, if you want to take it to there.
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Aug 2, 2011 19:23
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Bob Morales posted:Why are you guys not making your employer pay for your computers/software that you use for work? Long story short I bought my Air through my employer and they were able to write off the sales tax and reimburse me. Apple's Online Store with education discount and $100 back-to-school gift card was the best way to go for that reason. I legitimately qualified for that discount only because my employer also paid for my French night class at the local university this past year! Given that I will have to use the gift card for software I'd need to get with any new laptop purchase (e.g. iWork) I wound up getting my base 13" Air for effectively $1150 (CAD) which is totally loving sweet.
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Aug 2, 2011 19:27
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My current job is coming to an end, and when it does, I have to send back the laptop they gave me to use. I've wanted to get a MacBook for a while, mostly because that's the last modern OS that I really have no experience with. Also it's pretty. My problem is that I haven't really kept up with CPU and GPU tech in ages, so I don't have a clue what's what anymore, and while I can compare specs on different models, it's hard to tell what's actually important. What I need: * Web browsing * Some sort of Office suite (doesn't necessarily have to be Microsoft office, but I'd like to have a good word processor and spreadsheet software at minimum) * Built in webcam for video calling * Battery that will let me use the computer for several hours without having to worry about plugging in * Lots o' pixels (I don't care if everything looks tiny... resolution is important to me). What I don't care about : * Gaming (Macs have games now? I kid, I kid... but seriously, I don't care about gaming on a laptop) * Massive amounts of harddrive space (my work laptop has 230 GB and I'm not even using half of it). * Size/weight (Big or small, I can handle it just fine) What I care about even though I shouldn't: * The casing. Basically, the plastic white MacBooks drive me crazy, and I do not want one. I loved the black ones, but it seems like they stopped making those long ago. I honestly don't care too much for the brushed metal thing, either, but I'll take it over cheap looking plastic. For my needs, I honestly think a plain old MacBook would probably be fine. Cost is a concern. I am eligible for student discounts through my college, but the discounts aren't exactly amazing. This basically leaves me with the following options: $$$$ Buy a new MacBook Pro $$$ Buy a refurbished/previous generation MacBook or MacBook Pro $$ Buy previous generation hardware through Amazon or whatever $ Buy used That all brings me back to the specs, since I would potentially be comparing previous generation hardware to current hardware, and I still don't know how much better an i5 is over a Core 2 Duo, or whatever the options are. I know I don't need top of the line, but I'd still like it to be comfortably peppy. Are there any specs I should straight up avoid?
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Aug 2, 2011 19:50
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brc64 posted:My current job is coming to an end, and when it does, I have to send back the laptop they gave me to use. I've wanted to get a MacBook for a while, mostly because that's the last modern OS that I really have no experience with. Also it's pretty. Take a look at the 11inch and 13inch Airs. The 11inch has essentially replaced the white MacBook entirely.
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Aug 2, 2011 19:53
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movax posted:Everyone is riding a wave of Yeah, as it turns out, one of my friends works at the Apple store in Austin so he's going to give me his F&F discount. I'll probably buy one in the next couple weeks.
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Aug 2, 2011 19:54
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brc64 posted:What I need: Every single Apple computer will fill this needs. Even the iPad, possibly. quote:* Lots o' pixels (I don't care if everything looks tiny... resolution is important to me) quote:What I don't care about : quote:That all brings me back to the specs, since I would potentially be comparing previous generation hardware to current hardware, and I still don't know how much better an i5 is over a Core 2 Duo, or whatever the options are. I know I don't need top of the line, but I'd still like it to be comfortably peppy. Are there any specs I should straight up avoid? Get anything that is Core i5/i7, ideally something from 2011 so you pick up the benefits of the 2nd Generation Core ix architecture, also known as Sandy Bridge. Improved performance and improved power efficiency; to give you an idea the new 13" MBA with a 1.6GHz 2nd Gen. Core i7 beats my 15" 2010 MBP with a 2.66GHz 1st Gen. Core i7. Comparing apples to apples, the new 15" gets about two more hours of battery life than mine as well. I think you either want the 13" MBA or the 15" MBP with the high-res upgrade. The 15" MBP is priced too high though IMO, and that high-res upgrade also sets you back an extra $100/$150, so if you're going that route, you'll have to look at refurbs. A base 13" MBA brand-new from Apple is $1299.00. The 15" is at a ball-crushing 1799.00 base (  )e: looked up my order for the 2010 MBP. Fully loaded (high-res matte, fastest CPU) it was $2050, and even that was kind of steep. e2: Don't forget the cost of AppleCare, which is cheaper for the smaller machines. movax fucked around with this message at 20:24 on Aug 2, 2011 |
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Aug 2, 2011 20:19
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Star War Sex Parrot posted:Has anyone picked up Apple's USB to Ethernet adapter with a 2011 Air? I'm seeing some reports of the adapter not working with Lion, and I'm wondering if I should pick it up. I have a feeling that the third-party ThunderBolt to Ethernet adapter will be ridiculously expensive.
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Aug 2, 2011 20:22
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Star War Sex Parrot posted:Just an update: Apple's USB to Ethernet adapter works just fine with the 2011 Air. Was about to test it out since my new i7 11" just showed up. You had me worried for a bit.
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Aug 2, 2011 20:25
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