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Macbook Air 4GB vs 8 GB

X

Xiferof

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 10, 2012
1
0
Hi,

I am a college student and I wish to purchase a Macbook Air. I decided on the 11” with 8GB but unfortunately that is not available in India, as we don’t have Apple online store.

However, I have the option of getting it through my relatives in Thailand but then the date of getting it gets pushed to much.
I wanted to inquire that should i wait for the 8GB or settle for 4GB. I will not be using the air for heavy purpose like Aperture, iMovie just light things like browsing, making presentation, writing assignments etc. Although I will be requiring to run VMs a lot for doing college work, I do not know how much the 4 gigs of RAM will affect my performance considering this will be the first time I will be using a machine with SSD. I have MacPro(3TB,8GB,i7) at home that will be used for all my other tasks like Aperture, iMovie and gaming.

Also has anyone bought the 4GB Macbook Air mid 2012 and regrets not having bought the 8GB?

Thanks
Xiferof
 
N

nickjamesknight

macrumors newbie
Feb 27, 2011
17
0
Sheffield, UK
Xiferof said:
Hi,

I am a college student and I wish to purchase a Macbook Air. I decided on the 11” with 8GB but unfortunately that is not available in India, as we don’t have Apple online store.

However, I have the option of getting it through my relatives in Thailand but then the date of getting it gets pushed to much.
I wanted to inquire that should i wait for the 8GB or settle for 4GB. I will not be using the air for heavy purpose like Aperture, iMovie just light things like browsing, making presentation, writing assignments etc. Although I will be requiring to run VMs a lot for doing college work, I do not know how much the 4 gigs of RAM will affect my performance considering this will be the first time I will be using a machine with SSD. I have MacPro(3TB,8GB,i7) at home that will be used for all my other tasks like Aperture, iMovie and gaming.

Also has anyone bought the 4GB Macbook Air mid 2012 and regrets not having bought the 8GB?

Thanks
Xiferof
Click to expand...

I have an older MBA and have 4GB of RAM. I generally perform the same tasks that you do and I find that the 4GB is more than enough for my needs. Don't forget however that you won't be able to upgrade the RAM once you have your unit.

Nick
 
yanksrock100

yanksrock100

macrumors 6502a
Oct 30, 2010
673
245
San Diego
I think 4 gigs is enough for normal tasks, or even some heavy tasks. The real deciding factor for me is...a base MBA at Amazon costs $1099, no tax. An 8 GB MBA costs $1299+tax (so maybe $1400). It isn't worth $300 more for 4 more GBs of ram.
 
M

MacPat333

macrumors regular
Sep 16, 2012
140
0
Dubai
It's unfortunate that you don't have an online store.

I decided to go for the 8GB but I'll be using PS and iMovie and I'll do a lot of video editing.

I am waiting already 1 week just for a confirmation if I can order it or not. Very annoying.
 
53x12

53x12

macrumors 68000
Feb 16, 2009
1,544
4
Xiferof said:
Hi,

I am a college student and I wish to purchase a Macbook Air. I decided on the 11” with 8GB but unfortunately that is not available in India, as we don’t have Apple online store.

However, I have the option of getting it through my relatives in Thailand but then the date of getting it gets pushed to much.
I wanted to inquire that should i wait for the 8GB or settle for 4GB. I will not be using the air for heavy purpose like Aperture, iMovie just light things like browsing, making presentation, writing assignments etc. Although I will be requiring to run VMs a lot for doing college work, I do not know how much the 4 gigs of RAM will affect my performance considering this will be the first time I will be using a machine with SSD. I have MacPro(3TB,8GB,i7) at home that will be used for all my other tasks like Aperture, iMovie and gaming.

Also has anyone bought the 4GB Macbook Air mid 2012 and regrets not having bought the 8GB?

Thanks
Xiferof
Click to expand...

I think the saying is always, buy the most CPU, memory and HDD space that you can afford. Specifically on the MBA, I think getting the most memory that you can is very important as you can't later upgrade it like you can on other computers. You will be stuck with what you get for the life of the computer. Would stink to find out you want more later on.
 
M

MacPat333

macrumors regular
Sep 16, 2012
140
0
Dubai
You cannot upgrade the CPU or the RAM afterwards, only the SSD you can swap to a bigger one!

So, get the RAM upgrade for sure, the i7 I think is not needed for the MBA and the 128GB SSD can be changed later on!
 
J

J&JPolangin

macrumors 68030
Jul 5, 2008
2,593
18
Close to a boarder, in Eu
I was faced with a similar situation as :apple: won't ship to US military bases directly so I was faced with either getting a NIB 2011 13" MBP or an open box 2012 13" MBA.

For $85 more than the 2012 13" MBA open box, I have a new 2011 13" MBP now with 8Gb of RAM and a 512Gb Crucial M4 SSD ($1,154 total) so I have 4x's the internal storage, a faster CPU, just about equal GPU (m3000 vs ULV4000).

I lost the USB3 and its 1.5 lbs heavier = trade off's I can live with until Broadwell hits the 11" MBA's and gives them battery life similar to the current 13" model machines and substantially better graphics and CPU power:D
 
O

orangezorki

macrumors 6502a
Aug 30, 2006
633
30
It's galling not being able to get something that is freely available somewhere else in the world, but I would get the best configuration you can get locally, so you have it sooner and a warranty if anything goes wrong. As you already have a bigger computer, the 4GB should be fine for your needs for a good time.

David
 
6

617aircav

Suspended
Jul 2, 2012
3,975
818
yanksrock100 said:
I think 4 gigs is enough for normal tasks, or even some heavy tasks. The real deciding factor for me is...a base MBA at Amazon costs $1099, no tax. An 8 GB MBA costs $1299+tax (so maybe $1400). It isn't worth $300 more for 4 more GBs of ram.
Click to expand...

It should cost $100 more
 
C

coldjeanzzz

macrumors 6502a
Nov 4, 2012
655
17
I plan to make my MBA my main machine so I went with 8 GB since I think 4 GB will be outdated in a couple of years

But if you have another machine that you will use for more heavy duty stuff then I don't see why 4 GB wouldn't work
 
M

MacPat333

macrumors regular
Sep 16, 2012
140
0
Dubai
Just placed an order for my MBA 13"/i5/128GB SSD/8GB RAM, now it's waiting time up to 4 weeks in the worst case.
 
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