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RJW1678
join:2003-01-15
Wilmington, DE

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RJW1678

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(Solved) Planning to buy a Mac Book Air & have questions

I 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.

J E F F4
Whatta Ya Think About Dat?
Premium Member
join:2004-04-01
Kitchener, ON

J E F F4

Premium Member

Re: Planning to buy a Mac Book Air & have questions

1. 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.

haroldo
join:2004-01-16
USA

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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)

tubbynet
reminds me of the danse russe
MVM
join:2008-01-16
Gilbert, AZ

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MVM

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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.
PowerfulOwl
join:2013-03-04
La Mirada, CA

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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.

RiseAbove
Premium Member
join:2004-01-30

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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.

Metatron2008
You're it
Premium Member
join:2008-09-02
united state

Metatron2008

Premium Member

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.

buckingham
Doylstown Pa
Premium Member
join:2005-07-17
Buckingham, PA

buckingham

Premium Member

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!

sfogliatelle
We Is Whut We Am
Premium Member
join:2002-05-29
Baton Rouge, LA

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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.
kitsune
join:2001-11-26
Sacramento, CA

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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.
RJW1678
join:2003-01-15
Wilmington, DE

RJW1678

Member

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.