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agaskew

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 3, 2009
416
253
Hi,
My Rev C Air gets used for home working quite a lot these days. There don't seem to me many options for a docking station arrangement for the Air unfortunately.

I already have Bluetooth mouse for my Air. I am considering getting Apple's Bluetooth keyboard, plus a cable to connect up to my DVI monitor (1680x1050).

i am hoping that when in the home office, I can use the Air when its closed, hooked up to the monitor and speakers, plus BT keyboard/mouse. WiFi will be OK for a network connection, and I also hope to have a USB superdrive in the mix.


Anything to be wary of in doing this? I recall reading that the Air can get hot/noisy when driving an external monitor, presumably because the graphics chip is working harder? I'd also like some sort of funky stand for the Air while its all plugged in - any ideas?

Thanks!
 

GoCubsGo

macrumors Nehalem
Feb 19, 2005
35,741
153
Keep in mind that people run MacBooks (white plastic ones) with the integrated graphics all of the time. Of course, if a MB is at all piss poor on airflow then the MBAir is even worse. That is not to say you cannot do it, but I would highly suggest for serious tasks that you open your lid slightly and mirror your display. I ran a PowerBook on a 30" screen and when I did anything that required a lot of CPU power (encoding a movie, running a Photoshop script on hundreds of images) I would do just that. Maybe it was unnecessary, but to me it dropped the temp down a good 5º F at least.

Everything else you mentioned is fine. Also, note there are limited to no real "docking" solutions for an Apple notebook. There's one that is probably way overpriced because they have the corner market on that crap, but frankly I believe Apple did this intentionally as they believe if you want a notebook and a desktop you should just buy both. :)
 

jimboutilier

macrumors 6502a
Nov 10, 2008
647
42
Denver
I have two "desktop" solutions for my MBA. Both feature a stand for the air (one Targus and one Kensington), and a Mini Display port to DVI adapter to a 24" monitor.

At home I have a powered 7 port USB hub that I connect to the Air with keyboard, mouse, scanner, printer, ethernet etc, and at work I use wireless keyboard and mouse but do have a 4 port hub for ethernet and occasionally an external drive.

At home I tend to leave the Air closed and it runs fine on its raised stand and does not seem to overheat. At work I usually leave the Air open so I have the use of both displays.

Either way seems to work well for me. If I had to guess, I'd say the Air runs a bit cooler closed, but thats just a subjective observations. As the Air with or without an external display gets warm at times and drives the fan to 6200rpm, at least my RevC unit seems to have a nice quiet fan (much softer than my RevA MBA).
 

agaskew

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 3, 2009
416
253
Thanks for your replies :)

Can't stretch to the Mac Pro just yet, lol. I may go for a laptop stand with fans built in, as long as they are quiet.
 
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