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Macbook Air Rev A and Macbook white 2,1

paeza

paeza

macrumors regular
Original poster
Hi

I am thinking about buying a 1.6 Ghz macbook air rev A for A$ 700 because I really like its form factor. Normally I use Macbook white 2.0 Ghz with 2 Gb ram and GMA 950 for most of my university works. So I am wondering about the speed difference between them for word, excel, internet, matlab and maple. I only use my macbook for these applications and also watching movie from my external harddrive.

any comment would be appreciated.
 
paeza said:
Hi

I am thinking about buying a 1.6 Ghz macbook air rev A for A$ 700 because I really like its form factor. Normally I use Macbook white 2.0 Ghz with 2 Gb ram and GMA 950 for most of my university works. So I am wondering about the speed difference between them for word, excel, internet, matlab and maple. I only use my macbook for these applications and also watching movie from my external harddrive.

any comment would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

I'd steer away form a Rev A regardless of the price for yea verily you shall indeed notice the difference with your current MB.
mind you a Rev B with an SSD would be well worth a few extra shekels and would suit your applications admirably
 
Stay away from the original MBA even if it's free... no I didn't stutter.

I wouldn't recommend people move to the original MBA even if it's free. I wouldn't recommend anyone move from ANY Intel Mac to any MBA that's not at least a v 2,1 with a stock SSD.

Do yourself a favor, and this goes for everyone out there, if you cannot afford a rev 2,1 MBA, with an SSD, just buy a different Mac. The WhiteBook is 10x the Mac, and it's cheaper... the MBP is an excellent choice.

If you cannot afford a rev B/C v 2,1 MBA refurbished from Apple.com for $1349 for rev B with SSD, or $1549 for rev C with SSD, JUST BUY ANY OTHER INTEL MAC INSTEAD. Don't put yourself through it... don't force yourself into a garbage 4200rpm HDD even if it's the v 2,1 MBA. Just come up with at least $1349, or buy a different Mac... it's that simple!

The WhiteBooks go on sale for $769 for the 9400m GPU, in the refurbished store. The 27" iMac is $1269... there's no reaosn to spend hard-earned money on a garbage computer that like the original MBA that SHOULD NOT even have the "mac" brand name on it. It is the only Mac I am aware of that does NOT perform like a Mac in any way. It's not dependable, and it doesn't just work, and it doesn't even do the simplest of tasks efficiently or effectively.
 
Scottsdale said:
I wouldn't recommend people move to the original MBA even if it's free. I wouldn't recommend anyone move from ANY Intel Mac to any MBA that's not at least a v 2,1 with a stock SSD.
Click to expand...

Scottsdale.. first, I'd like to say that I really enjoy your posts. Intelligent and insightful.

As far as the MBA Rev A goes, I have to disagree. I upgraded mine with a Runcore 128GB SSD and it is more than an acceptable machine.. in some cases, quicker than my late 2009 Mac Mini. BTW, mine 'Just Works'.

For Office apps, internet, email, Photoshope Elements 8 & Adobe Lightroom 3, watching movies (mostly those that come packaged with BluRay's), streaming music, it is more than sufficient for light duty work and quite a pleasure to use. I do admit that it can get a little warm at times.

I do however agree, that with the 80GB hard drive, it's painfully slow.
I'll probably use my MBA Rev A until it dies. So, if you can get one for 'free' 🙂, or relatively cheap, adding a Runcore SSD is a no brainer. (if you can do both for under $1,000)

Back to the OP's question.. would I buy one now? Given today's technology & prices no, unless I could get a screaming deal on a Rev A with an SSD and weight is a major factor. I'd do a white book or an MacBook Pro 13.
 
MickeyVee said:
Scottsdale.. first, I'd like to say that I really enjoy your posts. Intelligent and insightful.

As far as the MBA Rev A goes, I have to disagree. I upgraded mine with a Runcore 128GB SSD and it is more than an acceptable machine.. in some cases, quicker than my late 2009 Mac Mini. BTW, mine 'Just Works'.

For Office apps, internet, email, Photoshope Elements 8 & Adobe Lightroom 3, watching movies (mostly those that come packaged with BluRay's), streaming music, it is more than sufficient for light duty work and quite a pleasure to use. I do admit that it can get a little warm at times.

I do however agree, that with the 80GB hard drive, it's painfully slow.
I'll probably use my MBA Rev A until it dies. So, if you can get one for 'free' 🙂, or relatively cheap, adding a Runcore SSD is a no brainer. (if you can do both for under $1,000)

Back to the OP's question.. would I buy one now? Given today's technology & prices no, unless I could get a screaming deal on a Rev A with an SSD and weight is a major factor. I'd do a white book or an MacBook Pro 13.
Click to expand...

That is your opinion... we have differing opinions.

PATA drive controller doesn't even allow full bandwidth of the Runcore SSD.

Limited drive space.

Intel graphics that are as bad as day one... no improvement... the v 2,1 gets graphics, OpenCL, OpenGL, and h.264 updates with every OS X update. It has gotten better and better.

Merom CPU that is too hot and been problematic since day one.

667 MHz RAM that doesn't match what the 2,1 has to offer.

A POS Mac that doesn't deserve the name Mac in any way... If I were Jobs, I would feel like a thief selling that POS to people as a Mac. The most disappointing Mac in the last five years, bar none. Not even close. Absolutely disappointing and worthless.

The original MBA looks pretty, but in just about every other way, it's worthless. Sure you can check email and surf the web, as long as you don't want any interactive media or videos, but all in all it's basically a writer's computer... basic as can be.

The 2,1 MBA is a real Mac. It gets better and better with every Nvidia, OpenGL, h.264, and other driver update... it has been shear joy owning several 2,1 MBAs. The original was a joke from day one, and Apple should feel bad for selling such a POS... the proof was what it did with the pricing... dumped them from $3099 to $1299 in less than eight months... $1799 to $999... and the biggest proof that even Apple thinks it's a POS is the fact that the rev 2,1 changed EVERY MAJOR COMPONENT/Advantage. CPU, GPU, drive, drive controller, RAM, MDP, and etc.

I am done giving Apple a pass on its worthless POS original MBA. It is amazing the MBA brand is still here. Apple f'cked so many people over, and destroyed the brand so badly that it should honestly axe the MBA and call it something else with its next update. It is obvious that Apple doesn't care about its customers too, and I am done defending that jerk SJ who would sell such a POS garbage machine that doesn't even deserve an "eMachines" branding on it. It looks pretty, but other than that, it's worthless for anything beyond email and Microsoft Word.
 
I agree that the Rev B & C are great due to their graphics card and SATA connection along with a more consistent experience over the Rev A.

However, I picked up a Rev A MBA on the cheap with a perfect screen and no issues watching flash. I've "tested" the videos that others say their Air stutters on and I get perfect play through. Even watching 30min of Diggnation on Rev3.

The drive is slow to open up apps and stuff so I'm getting ready for a RunCore upgrade. It's my computer on the go when I need it. I doubt I could use ANY Air as my only computer. Lacks too many items to be your only computer. My opinion.
 
I love my Rev A MBA and lavished it with a large SSD for the price of a brand new computer!

It does everything I ask of it and has only let me down with BBC iplayer with flash demanding 150% of the cpu. The rest of the flash world seems to do fine.

I would recommend, however, that if you can stretch to afford a used Rev B/C you will doing yourself a favour. The form is the same, but it's a better machine.
 
Thank you so much for all comments. I ended up buying rev c 1.86 GHz.
It is an amazing machine. Its screen is a lot better than my old macbook 2,1. I love its form factor. I have just brought it to a conference with me. I can feel the weight difference when carrying around.
 
paeza said:
Thank you so much for all comments. I ended up buying rev c 1.86 GHz.
It is an amazing machine. Its screen is a lot better than my old macbook 2,1. I love its form factor. I have just brought it to a conference with me. I can feel the weight difference when carrying around.
Click to expand...

You made a wise choice... but that wasn't an option listed, LOL. You made a great decision to stay away from the original MBA. The v 2,1 is amazing, and you will love every minute with it. Congratulations!
 
Touched a nerve did we?????😀



Scottsdale said:
That is your opinion... we have differing opinions.

PATA drive controller doesn't even allow full bandwidth of the Runcore SSD.

Limited drive space.

Intel graphics that are as bad as day one... no improvement... the v 2,1 gets graphics, OpenCL, OpenGL, and h.264 updates with every OS X update. It has gotten better and better.

Merom CPU that is too hot and been problematic since day one.

667 MHz RAM that doesn't match what the 2,1 has to offer.

A POS Mac that doesn't deserve the name Mac in any way... If I were Jobs, I would feel like a thief selling that POS to people as a Mac. The most disappointing Mac in the last five years, bar none. Not even close. Absolutely disappointing and worthless.

The original MBA looks pretty, but in just about every other way, it's worthless. Sure you can check email and surf the web, as long as you don't want any interactive media or videos, but all in all it's basically a writer's computer... basic as can be.

The 2,1 MBA is a real Mac. It gets better and better with every Nvidia, OpenGL, h.264, and other driver update... it has been shear joy owning several 2,1 MBAs. The original was a joke from day one, and Apple should feel bad for selling such a POS... the proof was what it did with the pricing... dumped them from $3099 to $1299 in less than eight months... $1799 to $999... and the biggest proof that even Apple thinks it's a POS is the fact that the rev 2,1 changed EVERY MAJOR COMPONENT/Advantage. CPU, GPU, drive, drive controller, RAM, MDP, and etc.

I am done giving Apple a pass on its worthless POS original MBA. It is amazing the MBA brand is still here. Apple f'cked so many people over, and destroyed the brand so badly that it should honestly axe the MBA and call it something else with its next update. It is obvious that Apple doesn't care about its customers too, and I am done defending that jerk SJ who would sell such a POS garbage machine that doesn't even deserve an "eMachines" branding on it. It looks pretty, but other than that, it's worthless for anything beyond email and Microsoft Word.
Click to expand...
 
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