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1.6/80 vs. 1.8/64 start of review.....

I think "NC MacGuy" made a good point. Being that the price difference is $1,300 you could purchase a refurbished imac 20" which has a 320GB hard drive for $1249!! :eek::D

Being that most folks state that the MBA is a good second/complimentory notebook, it just may make sense for a few folks to use the savings on an imac, macbook pro, etc....:cool:
 
Thanks!

Cybergypsy said:
Ok been just a few hours and start my review...decieded to keep my 1.6 and sell the SSD heres a link:)

Review
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot for the review, CG. Confirms my gut instincts from what I've read lately. Snappiness is fine and good, but when I spend 90% of my road computing just using Word or PowerPoint, it ain't worth a grand. Maybe go for SSD my computer after next.
 
Clix Pix said:
When I bought my SSD I was not thinking of potential resale value, I was thinking of MY actual use NOW and for as long as I will be using this machine. I also considered the possibilities of a "transplant" of a larger-capacity SSD in the future and it seemed to me that probably it would be easier to do with another SSD already in the machine rather than with a standard HD because of cabling and such. There is also the possibility that when Apple brings out version 2 or rev B of the MBA that there will be other enhancements that would lead me to simply buy a new machine rather than replacing the innards of my current one. Whatever....

I think all of the models of the MBA are just terrific and I am glad that Apple did provide us with choices which would fit various budgets and various needs.
Click to expand...

If you have the means -by all means!!

I'm cheap and pragmatic. We've got some G4 iMacs and G3 iBooks that need upgrading before I can justify forking over the extra dough. With SSD money, bought a 20", 2.4 iMac that is making a few others very MacHappy since it replaced one of the first G4 iMacs (ooohhhh, so that's Leopard.)

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have the SSD. 64/55G was the deal breaker for me.
 
Think about how cheap and easy it would be to upgrade a Macbook, in a year or so with an ssd drive. Got to love the macbook for it's easy user replaceable hard drive. In fact the macbook ssd drives would still be cheaper than the ones for the macbook air, because the macbook uses the standard size drives. :D
 
CaptainCaveMann said:
Think about how cheap and easy it would be to upgrade a Macbook, in a year or so with an ssd drive. Got to love the macbook for it's easy user replaceable hard drive. In fact the macbook ssd drives would still be cheaper than the ones for the macbook air, because the macbook uses the standard size drives. :D
Click to expand...

You are correct. The standard size and SATA connector will make it a snap. That ZIF PATA arrangement in the Air hopefully will be around for a while.

My worry is they move the 1.8's to a SATA arrangement and the PATA's get obsoleted.
 
Is the HDD model noisy? Reports of "clicking" sounds are kind of concerning to me.
 
phatjoe said:
I think "NC MacGuy" made a good point. Being that the price difference is $1,300 you could purchase a refurbished imac 20" which has a 320GB hard drive for $1249!! :eek::D

Being that most folks state that the MBA is a good second/complimentory notebook, it just may make sense for a few folks to use the savings on an imac, macbook pro, etc....:cool:
Click to expand...

I was pretty hot for the SSD. But when word got out the performance difference was marginal I realized the $1000 would just about cover all the software upgradaes I am going to need.
 
To me (no offense) but that wasnt much of a review. I've actually bought the 1.6/80gb model and used it for a full week before returning it.

The machine has no problems, just that the fan noise was loud compared to the mb,mbp and heat at the bottom back was the same as the 2.4ghz mbp just before it became too hot to touch and was annoying. I dont think there was anything wrong with the fan itself or the heat of the mba but its so easy to get it to rev up to the maximum output.

I noticed that the exhaust of the mba is not good at the bottom back of the machine where it could get blocked easily. The mb and mbp has it on the top back part, which is a much better area.

As for programs and such it wasnt so bad opening safari and minor programs but if you do alot of multitasking on the mba with the 4200rpm hdd, I will warn you guys that the bottleneck will be seen very easily. The machine will come to a crawl. Then the fans will start to rev up with its high pitched bvrrrrrrrrmmmm noise (kind of like the mb's fan at its highest just higher pitched and a bit stronger). For example the mbp when its being taxed to its maximum the fan revs up and still has a shhhhhhooosshh kind of noise with a hint of a buzz noise but nope not on the mba no shhooosh but a rather bvvvrrrmmmmm noise that sounds like a mini vacuum and is the center of your attention if your in a quiet room or library by yourself.

I wouldnt mind the fan noise if it came on rarely like that, but its sooo easy to push the mba to its limit. I mean opening microsoft word (ub version) and ichat + safari with 4+ tabs and even if you only load 1 page from safari and if that page has a youtube video on (not even high def or on fullscreen) the fan will start to rev up to its highest. And on top of that once the fan gets going, you have to wait like 15 minutes after closing whatever app that causes it to tax the mba for the fan to finally die down.

I honestly believe that there is nothing wrong with the mba that I had and that its just working as it should. But I'm very picky about fan noise as you can see. I've compared all 3 mba,mb,mbp and to me the mb and mbp was hard to push to its limit and the fan came down fast from closing whatever that taxed the mb and mbp but the mba is pushed even in light use to its limit.

I have to watch out of what programs and what kinds of webpages to avoid for the fan to start revving up and that is a pain to have in the back of your mind. But with the mb and mbp its like whatever I threw at it it handled without the noise.

It could be a different story with the ssd model of the mba. It could have been the bottlenecking from the 4200rpm 1.8" hdd. Just think about it, have you ever used a 4200rpm 2.5" hdd? I have and its slow as hell, now just think about it in a 1.8" form factor and not to mention the 1.8" 4200rpm drive uses low voltage. The platter and head has to be tiny. Also the ssd drive, even if it is in 1.8" form it still out performs my 10k raptor drive on my mac pro.

I am still interested in the mba and since I just bought a 2.8ghz 8 core mac pro with 16gb of RAM I'm thinking about selling my sr mbp and opting for the 1.8/ssd model.

Also I recently bought a samsung 64gb ssd (the newer models) from ebay and put it in my 2.4ghz sr mbp and it was a joy to use. Imagine all the apps lauching simultaneously without affecting each app in speed and no need for cache because it will retrieve the app or files instantly. But I did sell the samsung because there was a sleep issue where it froze my mbp and had to reboot to work. So I want to look into the mba for ssd because I absolutely loved it.
 
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