dslreports logo
 
    All Forums Hot Topics Gallery
spc
Search similar:


uniqs
2209

dellsweig
Extreme Aerobatics
MVM
join:2003-12-10
Campbell Hall, NY

dellsweig

MVM

about to buy an Macbook Air - questions

Greetings

I am about to pull the trigger in a macbook air - 13 inch.

I think I can live with 256GB SSd and the i5 processor but I am having issues with the 4GB RAM....

I will be running a windows VM (Parallels) so I can use this for some of my work applications and I am concerned 4GB will not be enough for running a VM and doing any other useful work.

BestBuy has $100 off the 4GB model and cannot get the 8GB as this is special order. If I get the 8GB from Apple, it will cost $200 more ($100 savings from BB on 4GB model and $100 for the additional 4GB ram)

Anyone out there running 4GB in this type of scenario??

HiVolt
Premium Member
join:2000-12-28
Toronto, ON

HiVolt

Premium Member

Do not buy the one with 4GB ram. I'm amazed Apple still sells machines with only 4GB ram that are non upgradeable.

Pony up to the 8GB model, you'll thank yourself in a few years.

Or, check the refurb section every few days to see if a unit in your config requirements pops up.

dellsweig
Extreme Aerobatics
MVM
join:2003-12-10
Campbell Hall, NY

dellsweig

MVM

yup - on macmall now - can save a little (25$) but that will pay for the hdmi adapter

Tinkster
Premium Member
join:2003-07-16
Rosedale, MD

Tinkster to dellsweig

Premium Member

to dellsweig
Wait till they announce the new model in September if you can wait.

Or if you are just getting something older the 4GB should works fine(depends on what you will use it for).

We have an older Mac book Air Mid 2009 with 128GB HD and 2GB and Mavericks works like a champ on it for regular use nothing extreme like video compressing but for day to day use for surfing and email works fine. (We use it as a loaner here for Presentations and such)

But like they said once you have it your stuck with it. So totally up to how you will use it.

I do recommend the 8GB (if you need it) but I think if you have the cash and can wait the new Air's will have a 16GB option if you need that more memory.

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

buckingham to dellsweig

Premium Member

to dellsweig
You definitely want 8gb for running VMs. Also consider the MacBook Pro 13" Retina. It's only a few ounces heavier than the Air and has more ports for plugging things in and out. A little better performance, too. I made that choice after carefully considering it. My only mistake was a too small SSD...128gb at the time.
Riamen
Premium Member
join:2002-11-04
Calgary

Riamen to dellsweig

Premium Member

to dellsweig
I bought a 2013 MBA with 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD. You will definitely need the extra RAM to run VMs.

Cody0
Bob Vance, VR
Premium Member
join:2002-05-28
Spokane, WA

Cody0

Premium Member

said by Riamen:

I bought a 2013 MBA with 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD. You will definitely need the extra RAM to run VMs.

I bought this in MBPr form (after having the 128/4 MBA) and absolutely love it. It replaced my ollldd (8 years old) Core duo MB with 2gb which was running 10.6 just fine, but I'd say in order to future proof a bit and especially run a virtual environment you should go to 8gb.

If you do end up considering the MBPr - I'd go here (the only reason I didn't go refurb was because I bought this right after the refresh so none were available):
»store.apple.com/us/produ ··· -core-i5

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

1 recommendation

tubbynet to dellsweig

MVM

to dellsweig
said by dellsweig:

Anyone out there running 4GB in this type of scenario??

mid-2011 13" i7 mba with 4gb -- and i run a win7 32-bit vm on the laptop.
it works. i say "works" and isn't great because it gets a little laggy at times. i know that i'm two generations back on proc and graphics -- which may be a little bit of the reason.
this machine has been moved to only occasional vm duties and for what i'm doing in it -- it works just fine. however -- if i could get the 8gb -- i would do it in a heartbeat.

q.

dellsweig
Extreme Aerobatics
MVM
join:2003-12-10
Campbell Hall, NY

dellsweig

MVM

Just pulled the trigger from MacMall - saved $60 - not bad.....

Went with the 13 inch MBA 256GB SSD 8GB RAM

now time to shop for a dock

Mike
Mod
join:2000-09-17
Pittsburgh, PA

Mike to dellsweig

Mod

to dellsweig
»buyersguide.macrumors.co ··· Book_Air

They were just updated 84 days ago. I doubt we'll see an upgrade for a bit.

Tinkster
Premium Member
join:2003-07-16
Rosedale, MD

Tinkster

Premium Member

A 12" Retina model is rumored for the fall.

There is a chance hehe.
xQim
join:2003-09-20
01234

xQim to dellsweig

Member

to dellsweig
Pay the premium and get the 8GB. I have the 11" MacBook Air with i5 processor and 8GB of RAM and it works wonderfully. You are going to need the 8GB to run the clunky Windows OS.
Daemon
Premium Member
join:2003-06-29
Washington, DC

Daemon to dellsweig

Premium Member

to dellsweig
said by dellsweig:

Just pulled the trigger from MacMall - saved $60 - not bad.....

Went with the 13 inch MBA 256GB SSD 8GB RAM

now time to shop for a dock

Smart choice! I have a mid 2011 with 4GB of RAM. Memory compression in Mavericks helps, but 4GB is really the "browser/word processing" RAM level.

Ugly
Fishy Cool Bird
join:2001-12-12
The Meadow

Ugly to dellsweig

Member

to dellsweig
Wasn't there a dock rumored to offer Thunderbolt V.3? ~ That sounds crazy fast.

Perhaps one of the potential upgrades in next MBPr, whenever that arrives?

September sounds reasonable.
Gnarlodious
join:2003-06-25
Santa Fe, NM

Gnarlodious to dellsweig

Member

to dellsweig
I have the new Macbook Pro and its a big upgrade to the Solid State Drive. Pageouts are less of a bottleneck with this fast VM. I think the naysayers here are probably unaware of how fast this hard disk really is. True that 8GB is going to be better than 4, but the Macbook Air is not made for power usage. If you really need 8GB of RAM get the unit with horsepower.

My only real complaint with this Macbook is that the WiFi radio has trouble connecting to some access points. Specifically, certain Comcast routers are a problem.
Daemon
Premium Member
join:2003-06-29
Washington, DC

Daemon

Premium Member

said by Gnarlodious:

I have the new Macbook Pro and its a big upgrade to the Solid State Drive. Pageouts are less of a bottleneck with this fast VM. I think the naysayers here are probably unaware of how fast this hard disk really is. True that 8GB is going to be better than 4, but the Macbook Air is not made for power usage. If you really need 8GB of RAM get the unit with horsepower.

I disagree. There are plenty of use cases that are RAM bound before they are CPU or GPU bound. Multi-app pipelining, for example, where data from one program goes into a second, goes into a third, etc. Each step is fast, but keeping so many apps open at once stresses RAM.
jm101
join:2011-07-17
Oakland, CA
ARRIS BGW210-700
Ubiquiti UDM-Pro
Ubiquiti UniFi UAP-AC-PRO

jm101 to Daemon

Member

to Daemon
said by Daemon:

said by dellsweig:

Just pulled the trigger from MacMall - saved $60 - not bad.....

Went with the 13 inch MBA 256GB SSD 8GB RAM

now time to shop for a dock

Smart choice! I have a mid 2011 with 4GB of RAM. Memory compression in Mavericks helps, but 4GB is really the "browser/word processing" RAM level.

Agreed. I currently have 4GB on my late-2011 MacBook Pro. I mainly use it in closed clamshell mode. Basic web surfing and simple apps work fine. But once I start multitasking on it the fan speed increases and I can tell it's struggling. Would upgrade it but am too scared to.

michieru
Premium Member
join:2009-07-25
Denver, CO

michieru to dellsweig

Premium Member

to dellsweig
Although I know you already executed the order I do question the need for such RAM when you have an SSD. Even if you didn't have dedicated RAM you still are going to have that paging file on the SSD itself which is already very fast.

So if you wanted to save money you still technically buy the 4GB model without much of a performance hit at all besides CPU.

Thinkdiff
MVM,
join:2001-08-07
Bronx, NY

Thinkdiff

MVM,

Yes, SSDs are fast but they are still orders of magnitude slower than RAM. It's "ok" when you need to swap to SSD, but you'll still feel it.

Not to mention that you'll be taxing the SSD with unnecessary writes. They have limited write cycles, which, granted, would take a long time to reach, but why decrease the performance and longevity of your laptop to save ~$100-150?

michieru
Premium Member
join:2009-07-25
Denver, CO

michieru

Premium Member

I read a detailed article which unfortunately I cannot find right now regarding the lifespan of an SSD being at minimum 8+ years after destroying it's write cycles. The test ran for months writing onto the SSD's with random data until they started to fail.

The SSD's used where Samsung 840 Series.

Most people will buy a new computer every 4 years. Unless it's a laptop which has a shorter lifespan with the wear and tear of every day use. So even if you had limited write cycles I don't think it's much of a concern as many people believe it to be.

Anyway yes it's indeed slower but how exactly is the onboard SSD being connected? SATA 3.0 or PCIe?

Thinkdiff
MVM,
join:2001-08-07
Bronx, NY

Thinkdiff

MVM,

Yes, it would take a long time, maybe 8 years.. who knows. My point was, they definitely have some finite lifespan. Why shorten it anymore than necessary?

Apple uses PCIe flash in the MBA. Depending on what model you end up with, read/write speeds vary from 600MBps/300MBps to 680MBps/520MBps (see here). By comparison, DDR3 can reach tens of GB/sec with significantly lower latency.

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

tubbynet to michieru

MVM

to michieru
said by michieru:

Although I know you already executed the order I do question the need for such RAM when you have an SSD.

anecdotally -- i do feel it.
i run a win7x32 vm on my mid-2011 mba -- and i can feel it slow down a touch when i am running my vm. if i keep the processes under control -- the fan doesn't kick on -- but its not as responsive as it is on my dedicated boxen with 16gb ram. my swap-in/swap-out is pretty large as well.
i will say it works for occasional use (my mba stays upstairs so i have a work laptop without having to undock my mbpr) for things like visio -- but more often than not -- if i am doing a lot of work -- i'll just fire up my virtual desktop session hosted inside of my corporate office. its just easier.

q.
mrgeek74
join:2014-07-11

mrgeek74 to dellsweig

Member

to dellsweig
I feel no problems using Maverics with my MBA containing 4Gb on-board. My tasks are occasional Aperture and GIMP applications as well as all types of office and entertainment activities, using both the internal screen and 27" Dell 2711. So I guess that you can use 4 Gb MBA without a doubt (that is not an attempt to set up an opinion that 8 Gb is not much cooler!).

Selenia
Gentoo Convert
Premium Member
join:2006-09-22
Fort Smith, AR

Selenia to dellsweig

Premium Member

to dellsweig
For what it's worth, I have a 4GB older Toshiba laptop running Linux. It runs Windows 8 and XP for work purposes just fine. I keep the high spec one around the house for using in whatever room I want or need to but I carry this older one around for work related stuff and it keeps up. Long as you're not trying to do high end graphics stuff within a VM or running a crapload of apps on top of the VM, you should be fine. I am fine doing even some light gaming to kill time on the Linux side with the VM running. In my case I could upgrade the RAM but have not the need. My other laptop has 16GB anyways and can be upgraded more.

Mike
Mod
join:2000-09-17
Pittsburgh, PA

Mike

Mod

OS X loves memory though.

michieru
Premium Member
join:2009-07-25
Denver, CO

michieru to Thinkdiff

Premium Member

to Thinkdiff
My point was only if such a thing really mattered to the buyer since most people don't keep laptops for that long anyway because they want the latest and greatest or just keep up to speed.

However yes it's still slower than I expected it to be so I see your point. I was just thinking from the top of my head on it.

darcilicious
Cyber Librarian
Premium Member
join:2001-01-02
Forest Grove, OR

darcilicious to Mike

Premium Member

to Mike
Latest from the rumor-mill: »www.christiantoday.com/a ··· 0396.htm
Expand your moderator at work