Old Air & iMac vs new Air & mini

Weerez935 · Jun 14, 2013

So I'm in no hurry to do anything, but I wanted to see what you guys thought.

I have a base 2011 11" air (owc 180gb ssd) and I really like it, but now that I'm going to grad school and our classes are in lecture halls with lots of desk space I'm considering something with a bigger screen.

One option would be to sell my MacBook Air and get the new one and possibly a mini to go along side it. I do have a 27" samsung display to use with either. The downside to this is a new air with 8gb ram, 13" screen and 256 gb ssd is the same price as a refurb 27" imac.

So my second option is keep the air and buy a refurb 2012 imac. Because its a refurb I'm pretty much stuck with the 1tb 5400 hdd. But I can expand the memory to 32gb and have dedicated graphics as well as a dual 27" monitor setup.

I'm leaning towards the second option because my MacBook Air is more than capable for most things, especially school stuff (papers, presentations, and a few other minor things). However I do occasionally have page outs with only 2 gb ram.

ggibson913 · Jun 14, 2013

The 27" is huge. Make sure you have the space for it. I just returned mine for that issue and expense. I will tell you that the fusion drive is worth it.

Dwinguel · Jun 15, 2013

Yes, I would go for the second option, if you can live with the 2GB of RAM on the Air.

In terms of size for the iMac, it depends what you are going to use it for and whether you need a better graphic card or not (3D imaging, games, etc.), but depending on your usage, you might be better off (money wise) with a 21.5" model.

davidg4781 · Jun 15, 2013

Just curious, why not just use the Air with the Samsung monitor?

I used 2 computers back in 2005. A MacBook and a desktop PC. It was a pain keeping files synced, especially getting to school 30 minutes away only to find the recent version of your capstone project is on your HDD back at home.

Weerez935 · Jun 15, 2013

davidg4781 said:
Just curious, why not just use the Air with the Samsung monitor?

I used 2 computers back in 2005. A MacBook and a desktop PC. It was a pain keeping files synced, especially getting to school 30 minutes away only to find the recent version of your capstone project is on your HDD back at home.

I might do this.
I think I would opt for the 13 in with this option though.

davidg4781 · Jun 16, 2013

Weerez935 said:
I might do this.
I think I would opt for the 13 in with this option though.

Definitely. Back in 2006 I went from a 4:3 17" monitor to the MacBook's 13" screen. I thought it would be totally unusable. 7 years later I have very little issues with it. Yeah, it's small, and there have been some instances where it would've been nice to have some research on one side of the screen and Pages on the other.

I don't do much of that though, so no issues. If I did I certainly would've bought a 23" monitor to go along with it.

Weerez935 · Jun 16, 2013

davidg4781 said:
Definitely. Back in 2006 I went from a 4:3 17" monitor to the MacBook's 13" screen. I thought it would be totally unusable. 7 years later I have very little issues with it. Yeah, it's small, and there have been some instances where it would've been nice to have some research on one side of the screen and Pages on the other.

I don't do much of that though, so no issues. If I did I certainly would've bought a 23" monitor to go along with it.

Yea I have the 11 and I love it, but there are definitely times when id rather have the extra screen space.

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