RJW1678 join:2003-01-15 Wilmington, DE 1 edit |
(Solved) Planning to buy a Mac Book Air & have questionsI am planning to buy a 13inch Mac Book Air after Easter and I have a couple questions -
1. Should I upgrade the memory from 4GB to 8GB?
2. Is the 3 year AppleCare Protection Plan worth the money?
It will have 256GB of storage and I am also getting a Thunderbolt Ethernet Adapter with it.
This will be my first Mac.
Thank you in advance for your suggestions, Bob W. |
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J E F F4Whatta Ya Think About Dat? Premium Member join:2004-04-01 Kitchener, ON |
J E F F4
Premium Member
2013-Mar-20 3:39 pm
Re: Planning to buy a Mac Book Air & have questions1. If you have the money, why not? Though 4GB is plenty and should be for a while. 2. As for AppleCare, not sure. It's handy if device breaks, so if you want peace of mind, go for it.
Remember to get a drive for backing up your machine. |
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to RJW1678
Buy from B&H » www.bhphotovideo.com/c/s ··· -Search= ...significantly less expensive than Apple Store (even with their modest education discount)...and NO sales tax! They sell AppleCare for $95 when I bought it (call and ask if they'll sell it at that rate...they run specials periodically) Laptops get dropped, so yeah, get it. (my 4GB is very fast...if you want to spend money to go from very fast to very, very fast...be my guest) |
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tubbynetreminds me of the danse russe MVM join:2008-01-16 Gilbert, AZ |
to RJW1678
said by RJW1678:1. Should I upgrade the memory from 4GB to 8GB? if you can afford it -- yes. i have the mid-2011 13" mba with the i7. i maxed it out at 4gb and while it cooks -- i do run vm's on it. i wish i had the extra 4gb that was offered in the 2012 model. honestly -- if i had the 8gb 13" mba -- i wouldn't be considering upgrading to the 15" r-mbp after the refresh this summer. q. |
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to RJW1678
4GB of ram is plenty for a Macbook. But if you do plan on doing some video editing or anything that uses lot of resources, 8GB is worth getting.
And you should get the AppleCare 3 years protection plan if you have enough money for it. |
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to RJW1678
If you have the cash get the 8GB of ram you won't be disappointed. Also if you have the money get the i7 processor upgrade. I bought a 2012 11" MBA with the i7 and 8GB of ram and it's possibly the best little computer I have ever owned. The apple care warranty is worth the money as well. |
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Metatron2008You're it Premium Member join:2008-09-02 united state |
It's simple, you want a system to use for several years? Get 8 gigs.
For one, each new OS revision of OSX uses more ram. That's pretty much on par for every update for every OS, even ones like Linux (Although usually not much more).
Also, 256 gb is enough to use parallels/bootcamp, and play windows games, and use windows. You need that 8 gb for parallels (And parallels runs games as fast as bootcamp as long as you have the ram, I can verify this as I've used both).
8 gb reduces load when multitasking. And there's always new apps that come out that require more ram use. You will be shortsighted to not get at least 8 gigs ram. |
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buckinghamDoylstown Pa Premium Member join:2005-07-17 Buckingham, PA |
I agree with Metatron2008...go for the max 8gb ram up front, especially since it's not upgradable. The current MBA is the first one that you can actually get with 8gb, too! |
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sfogliatelleWe Is Whut We Am Premium Member join:2002-05-29 Baton Rouge, LA |
to RJW1678
Keep in mind that once you pull the trigger on an Air, unless you've opted for extra memory or a more spacious hard drive, you won't have the option any longer.
If your budget allows, I'd suggest both upgrades.
As for Apple Care, unlike the above two upgrades, you've got a while to make that decision. I personally wouldn't dream of buying a Mac laptop without it. Just last month I had my original mid-2010 Macbook Pro battery replaced under warranty with it at the local Apple Store. |
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kitsune join:2001-11-26 Sacramento, CA |
to RJW1678
FYI, applecare does not cover accidental damage. So if you run it over with your car or drop it in the pool it's not covered. |
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RJW1678 join:2003-01-15 Wilmington, DE |
Thank you for replies, it has help me decide.
I am going to order a 13inch Mac Book Air with 8GB of memory, I7 Processor, 256GB of storage, and a Thunderbolt Ethernet Adapter after Easter. I presently have a Desktop top computer running Ubuntu Linux 12.04.2 and I also have an iPad(4th gen) 4G/LTE with WIFI. So like I said this will be my first Mac, but not my first Apple product.
Thank You, Bob W. |
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