Considering a 11" or 13" Air. Suggestions?

USB 3.0 hard drives are relatively cheap and portable now. I'd go with one of them. The 11" Air is nice. It will be featherlight compared to your 15".

If money for the 27" iMac doesn't come thru soon, I'm looking at a refurbished 13" MBA. Bigger screen than iPad (which I carry everywhere), and sports the SD card slot.

If you look at what you're storing beyond 128GB, methinks you'll find it's mostly large media you don't need on-board 24/7. Plug a big drive into an Airport Extreme as a network drive, or just use a portable >=1TB USB3 drive for about a hundred bucks.

Don't underestimate that SD card slot. 32GB and 64GB cards are not expensive now, and can move piles of data around for you fast in very little space. Just don't loose them tiny postage stamps.

ajumbaje said:

gotcha. I have a 1tb that I use for time machine. saying I should get another?

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It depends on your needs. If you are looking for something to carry around, or want something that's faster, then consider USB 3.0. It will be almost as fast as an internal hard drive (though not quite as fast as an internal SSD).

ajumbaje said:

I currently have a 15" Macbook Pro from early 2008. I am looking to upgrade as I can't upgrade anymore on this puppy...

I like the size and weight of the 11" and would be a little more comfortable lugging that around with me on trips and what not.

The only big thing I have run into is the hard drive size. I currently have a 640gb hard drive on my mbp and have about 160 some gb free. SSD is still crazy expensive. What have you all done to curb less storage on your computers? I also have a 64 gb jump drive that I use for important files, and an external 1tb for time machine that obviously is not full.

What do you all think?

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I was pondering this decison and then I tried out the MBA and 13 inch MBP at the local Apple Store. Not much difference in weight but the MBP has more power and is retina. Have you considered that?

ajumbaje said:

Somewhat. They're still crazy expensive for the specs I want. 2200$ compared to around 1700 for the 13" models(pro retina and MBA) and 1650 for the 11"

8gb ram, 256 ssd, fastest processor available for each

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If you are comparing the 13" rMBP to the MBA, note that the base i5 in the Pro gets similar performance as the i7 in the Air. That gets the price difference down a bit.

Move your large storage needs to a desktop/server. Once u do that, a few limitations to your laptop purchase will fall out and you are free to concentrate on weight, bulk, cpu, cost.

Honestly day in, day out do you access all those hundreds of gigabytes of data? do you need them with you on the road at all times?

So leave them at home with your file server, which you can add HD at your heart's contend as needed, AND you can access them wirelessly. Look Ma, no silly cables!

ajumbaje said:

Don't they have wifi hard drives now? I don't have a desktop(nor do I need one). Unless I can find an iMac fairly cheap but newer.

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Yep, you can find NAS (network-attached storage) drives that connect to your router for pretty cheap (relatively speaking) these days. Good for the old overnight time-machine backups.

I've owned almost every iteration of the Apple PowerBook since the PowerBook 100, and several MacBook Pros. My considered opinion: The 11" MBA is the sweetest machine Apple has ever built. The current MBA with a Thunderbolt display is pretty close to a perfect desktop replacement setup.

Much as I would love the extra screen real estate with the 13" - and the SD card slot - I know I would pine for the 11". There's just something about the size of the thing that makes using it a joy.

I'd second what other posters have said about a USB 3 drive. I have one of the G-Tech Slim 500GB with my iTunes library loaded. I carry it around and never notice the weight.

MBP Retina or?

Quote:
Originally Posted by numbersyx View Post
I was pondering this decison and then I tried out the MBA and 13 inch MBP at the local Apple Store. Not much difference in weight but the MBP has more power and is retina. Have you considered that?
Somewhat. They're still crazy expensive for the specs I want. 2200$ compared to around 1700 for the 13" models(pro retina and MBA) and 1650 for the 11"

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Faced with the same choice, I went with the MBP retina.

Apple 13" refurbs were supposedly 1699 for a while but, the link below to the Apple shows only rhe 15" for now. I would wait for the 13's @$1699 to come back. BTW, got mine at B&H :great price with free Parallels, Bento & good price on Applecare (bundle)
http://store.apple.com/us/product/FC975LL/A

ajumbaje said:

not bad. Im hesitant to bite on a refurb though. That and I wouldnt mind 16gb on one of those puppies

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No need to hesitate on a refurb. They are as good as new, perhaps better, since they have been personally inspected. The only difference is that you don't get the fancy box (it usually arrives in a plain white shipping box with foam padding to protect the precious cargo inside).

I wouldn't buy a MBPr in the 13" model. With the massive display and wimpy GPU, you're likely to get a lot of display lag - especially a few years down the road. I would recommend MBA 13" with 8gb of ram and the i5 - benchmarks show <5% difference between the i5 and i7 in the MBA.

As for peripherals/storage/etc, i do basically what jmoore does - external display and HDD on a 13" air. Would love more GPU power (MSI GUS II anyone?) but you can't have everything i guess.

Don't worry about the refurbs. I'm on my second. I just replaced my refurb alu MacBook I bought back in 2009 with a 2012 MBA. I ordered the 4Gb MBA and as a bonus, it's actually the 8Gb model.

Apart from the box, as KPOM said, it's basically a new Mac complete with warranty and also eligible for Apple Care.