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Simon · May 23, 2008, 02:40 AM

Originally Posted by MikeD

Usually, I have these apps open all at once:
Word
Pages
PowerPoint
Keynote
Preview (sometimes)
Quicktime (sometimes)
iWeb w/large site loaded

Would like decent performance w/PS or Aperture (Need RAW processing for photography - my hobby)

And that's why the MBA is certainly not the right machine for you. At 2GB it's severely RAM starved and since you use a whole lot of apps at once and some of these apps are also quite RAM hungry you need a Mac that will take 4 GB RAM. The MBA is definitely out of the question if you care about performance only remotely as much as about size/weight.

PS and Office will work fine on a current MB, Aperture OTOH would really perform a lot better on a MBP. Also since you do a lot of layout/graphics stuff I think the extra screen space and resolution of a 15" MBP would come in handy too.

If I were you I' keep my eyes peeled for good refurb deals on MBPs. You can find them for as low as $1499. Granted, that's more than what a MB costs, but a lot less than a MBA. And that machine would actually be suitable for what you want to do. And before you dismiss the idea due to size or weight, just consider that a 15" MBP is less than half a pound heavier than the 13" MB you're carrying around now.

hsl · May 23, 2008, 02:59 AM

that's why i ordered the 1,8 MBA with HDD.

It;s not my main machine, but the apps you use will run fine on the macbook air.
I even run aperture on here, I use it to view shots on location shoots. I runs quite ok, but I don't use it to process the images, thats not where the macbook air is good at.

So if it's your main machine and you have to have a lot more speed than the old core duo macbook, than i would say... don't go for the air. but if it's your second mac, next to a Pro or an iMac, than it would be fine.

MOst of the time i have these apps active:
Safari, firefox, Mail, Adium, Pages, iCal, Powerpoint, Entourage, terminal, textmate and fireworks
The air is not getting a lot slower when having all these apps open.

ctt1wbw · May 23, 2008, 05:25 AM

Originally Posted by Simon

And that's why the MBA is certainly not the right machine for you. At 2GB it's severely RAM starved and since you use a whole lot of apps at once and some of these apps are also quite RAM hungry you need a Mac that will take 4 GB RAM. The MBA is definitely out of the question if you care about performance only remotely as much as about size/weight.

PS and Office will work fine on a current MB, Aperture OTOH would really perform a lot better on a MBP. Also since you do a lot of layout/graphics stuff I think the extra screen space and resolution of a 15" MBP would come in handy too.

If I were you I' keep my eyes peeled for good refurb deals on MBPs. You can find them for as low as $1499. Granted, that's more than what a MB costs, but a lot less than a MBA. And that machine would actually be suitable for what you want to do. And before you dismiss the idea due to size or weight, just consider that a 15" MBP is less than half a pound heavier than the 13" MB you're carrying around now.

Ummmm, 2 gigs is pretty much the industry standard these days, right? The last three or four Dells I've bought came standard with 2 gigs of RAM. They work just fine.

hsl · May 23, 2008, 05:31 AM

Well,.. for harcore RAW processing it is nice to have more (like 4GB) RAM.

Simon · May 23, 2008, 05:36 AM

Originally Posted by ctt1wbw

Ummmm, 2 gigs is pretty much the industry standard these days, right?

If all you do is web, e-mail and some Office on XP, maybe.

If you have Leopard and you also run stuff like PS or Aperture next to Office and iWork you will want 4GB. RAM is very cheap now. Going 4 GB is the cheapest way to get decent performance. Something you can't do on a MBA.

ctt1wbw · May 23, 2008, 09:45 AM

Yeah, memory is cheap these days, but do what I do: quit one app before opening another. That's cheaper.

mduell · May 23, 2008, 02:11 PM

Originally Posted by MikeD

WBut I drag this thing EVERYWHERE! I'm a HS teacher and take it to and from work each day, to meetings, the coffee shops etc. Usually, I have these apps open all at once:

Word
Pages
PowerPoint
Keynote
Preview (sometimes)
Quicktime (sometimes)
iWeb w/large site loaded

Would like decent performance w/PS or Aperture (Need RAW processing for photography - my hobby)

I run the basic set of office productivity apps (iChat, Linkinus, Mail, Firefox, iCal, iPhoto, Address Book, Terminal, TextWranger, Keynote, Pages, Word, Excel on an MBA and it works fine for me; after about a week of uptime I've only used 1.5GB RAM. Opening Photoshop isn't going to kill performance, although it will probably be a bit pokey for RAW.

Originally Posted by ctt1wbw

Yeah, memory is cheap these days, but do what I do: quit one app before opening another. That's cheaper.

Only if your time has little to no value.

ctt1wbw · May 23, 2008, 02:54 PM

Well, I'm about ready to retire, so I have the time.

Simon · May 24, 2008, 01:35 AM

Originally Posted by ctt1wbw

Well, I'm about ready to retire, so I have the time.

Time or no time, but if you take the MBA with its slow disk and then force it to swap due to its crippled max RAM, in terms of performance that is pretty much the worst you can do. A MB that costs half of what the MBA costs will easily outperfom it.

People need to look at the MBA as a second or third Mac for very light use when you absolutely cannot afford to lug around something heavier. As soon as you're looking at more demanding apps (PS, Aperture) or using a whole bunch of RAM-hungry apps (Office, iWork) together, the MBA is simply neither performance-effective nor cost-effective.

The MBA is an awesome computer, but you won't be satisfied with it if you use it for the wrong kind of work.

ctt1wbw · May 24, 2008, 01:56 AM

There's that word again: crippled. It's not crippled. It has the same amount of memory as my Dell 1520.

Simon · May 24, 2008, 02:14 AM

Originally Posted by ctt1wbw

There's that word again: crippled. It's not crippled. It has the same amount of memory as my Dell 1520.

Crippled as in you're forced to use less than the chipset would allow you to you use. On that Dell you can add more RAM if you need it; it has two SO-DIMM slots. On the MBA you can't do that since 2 GB are soldered and there's no slots.

All Apple would have to do to solve this issue is offer a 4 GB RAM BTO option. They didn't. Hence the crippled max RAM on the MBA.

Andy8 · May 24, 2008, 05:16 AM

I leave a power supply at home and another at the office, so i am not "crippled" by carrying my 1300 grams of MBA with one finger to and from.

houstonmacbro · May 25, 2008, 12:04 AM

Originally Posted by Cadaver

I have a 2.2GHz MacBook and I'm very happy. It has a smaller footprint than a MacBook Pro and it'll accept 4GB of RAM unlike the MacBook Air.

For me, it was the best compromise between portability and performance.

Yeah, I am interested to know what the new MBs are gonna look like. I hear they are being revamped.

smaug · May 31, 2008, 09:13 PM

I have the SSD 1.8 and, in subjective perception, it is faster than my Santa Rosa Macbook Pro; the SSD makes a HUGE difference in swap file usage as well as application launching and general "snappiness;" it is a difference that does not always show up in benchmarks but is REALLY noticeable when you use it.