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Steve121178

macrumors 603
Apr 13, 2010
6,403
6,969
Bedfordshire, UK
My son is interested in getting a Mac laptop. I decided to go halves with him and this Christmas may be the time.

His needs, for an 11 year old, are pretty basic.

- Word processing and publishing for school
- Photo editing
- Web browsing
- Gaming -- Minecraft and Roblox
- Programming -- Lua

The MBA in question is the 13" 2.0GHz, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD.

Bit overkill. Just get a cheap PC.
 

ka-spot

Suspended
May 23, 2012
625
323
Sofia, Bulgaria
That is the exact model (Macbook Air 2.0Ghz, 8GB, 256GB) I want :) Maybe next month.. Amazing machine!

I hope You'r kid will enjoy it. And obviously deserve it.
 

wolfpuppies3

macrumors 6502
Jun 26, 2012
413
0
Virginia, USA
What you have specced out for him should be ideal and give him a bit of room to grow as well. 8GB memory, 13" screen, 256 GB SSD are all solid good thoughts for his current and possible future use.

Excellent choice.
 

Hammie

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Mar 17, 2009
1,549
72
Wash, DC Metro
Bit overkill. Just get a cheap PC.

He has a cheap PC and it is on the verge of death after just over a year. Keeps overheating. Motherboard replaced twice. Fans and I believe the graphics cards have been replaced and it still overheats without a huge fan underneath it.

My MBP has never got so hot that it burns me. Warm on a couple occasions, but not like his gets.

His will overheat and shut down sitting idle on our stone countertops... :mad:
 

mrcheezit

macrumors member
Jun 11, 2012
40
0
That is more than capable for his needs. I'm thirteen years old and have the 13" base MBA and I use it for Minecraft, Python, Java, and BASIC. It handles things like that fine.
 

rMacBookPro

macrumors member
Oct 1, 2012
37
1
My son is interested in getting a Mac laptop. I decided to go halves with him and this Christmas may be the time.

His needs, for an 11 year old, are pretty basic.

- Word processing and publishing for school
- Photo editing
- Web browsing
- Gaming -- Minecraft and Roblox
- Programming -- Lua

The MBA in question is the 13" 2.0GHz, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD.

When my son was little, he also played roblox and minecraft.
He probably wants to learn Lua for roblox because my son says "it can make some cool things in the game". My son never learned Lua, but now (12 year old) he knows how to code HTML, CSS, JAVASCRIPT, JAVA, and C#
 

Hammie

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Mar 17, 2009
1,549
72
Wash, DC Metro
When my son was little, he also played roblox and minecraft.
He probably wants to learn Lua for roblox because my son says "it can make some cool things in the game". My son never learned Lua, but now (12 year old) he knows how to code HTML, CSS, JAVASCRIPT, JAVA, and C#

Yes, both Roblox and Minecraft can be programmed in Lua.

He has been doing a little on my MBP because his laptop keeps crashing... :(
 
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