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2011 Air owners not upgrading - step in

I use my 2011 MBA for your everyday social computing tasks.

I have barely pushed this thing as is to it's limits.

I can see absolutely zero need to spend another $1000+ to replace a perfectly working laptop with one thats ~10% faster.

other than the new CPU, there would be no other tangible benefits to me.


There is one big Caveat to that though. Mountain Lion. we'll see how it runs
 
Geekbabe said:
It is a beautiful computer :) What configuration did you get?
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13", 128, i5.

Weird thing is, the serial number shows that's it's new and not a refurb. Who knows.

I didn't think I'd like gestures, but I'm really loving that feature now. I'm happy with my upgrade.
 
I bought another Mac to complement the MBA that I bought in Nov 2011. It does the things that the MBA didn't come with - GbLAN, Bigger drives, More powerful CPU. I'm running it as a server controlled by the MBA.
 
I have both the 11'' and 13" 2011 MBA models. The 11'' meets my primary computer needs very well. I have no plans to upgrade to the 2012 as it's primarily a speed bump. My requirements for a new MBA are truly longer battery life, improved display (retina), better fans/heat displacement, next gen CPU. Maybe a new form factor but the current just seems ideal.
 
LordVic said:
I use my 2011 MBA for your everyday social computing tasks.

I have barely pushed this thing as is to it's limits.

I can see absolutely zero need to spend another $1000+ to replace a perfectly working laptop with one thats ~10% faster.

other than the new CPU, there would be no other tangible benefits to me.


There is one big Caveat to that though. Mountain Lion. we'll see how it runs
Click to expand...
The SSD is twice as fast in the 2012 vs 2011. That's why I bought a MBA to start with. The SSD speed turned out to make more of a difference in my usage than the CPU speed difference.
 
dmelgar said:
The SSD is twice as fast in the 2012 vs 2011. That's why I bought a MBA to start with. The SSD speed turned out to make more of a difference in my usage than the CPU speed difference.
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For what the hell are u using your computers ? The speed of my 11'' 2011 i5 4gb 128ssd is enough for almost everything invented in computer world of app !!! Except games :)
 
dmelgar said:
The SSD is twice as fast in the 2012 vs 2011. That's why I bought a MBA to start with. The SSD speed turned out to make more of a difference in my usage than the CPU speed difference.
Click to expand...

Really? Would you mind sharing the benchmark where this little tidbit came from?
 
drsox said:
I bought another Mac to complement the MBA that I bought in Nov 2011. It does the things that the MBA didn't come with - GbLAN, Bigger drives, More powerful CPU. I'm running it as a server controlled by the MBA.
Click to expand...

Do you mind linking me to any posts with regards to this? I'm interested in a similar setup. What Mac are you using for your server?
 
ZBoater said:
Really? Would you mind sharing the benchmark where this little tidbit came from?
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Adding to this discussion:

The ARS article shows disk speed comparison in a chart:
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/06/review-the-2012-macbook-air-soars-with-ivy-bridge/

Both 11's and 12's can handle SATAIII(6GB) SSDs, its just that Apple didn't use 6GB SSDs in the 2011 model. They went with SATAII drives.

The drives on the new airs are SATAIII/6GB and can therefore run twice as fast - I think Anandtech already said they fell a bit short on that. Those with the 2011 model can still mod their laptop with an OWC Aura SSD with 6GB capacity because the machine can handle them. That's why OWC is touting the speed of their replacements...
 
louden said:
The drives on the new airs are SATAIII/6GB and can therefore run twice as fast - I think Anandtech already said they fell a bit short on that. Those with the 2011 model can still mod their laptop with an OWC Aura SSD with 6GB capacity because the machine can handle them. That's why OWC is touting the speed of their replacements...
Click to expand...

Just because the interface supports a higher speed doesn't mean the SSDs are twice as fast. Please don't confuse the two. If you can point to a benchmark that shows the 2012 SSD being TWICE as fast as the 2011 SSD, let me know, ok? :cool:
 
The new MBA's are nice, but my mid 2011 gets so little use, I'm actually thinking of selling and getting an ipad instead.
 
ZBoater said:
Just because the interface supports a higher speed doesn't mean the SSDs are twice as fast. Please don't confuse the two. If you can point to a benchmark that shows the 2012 SSD being TWICE as fast as the 2011 SSD, let me know, ok? :cool:
Click to expand...

Here is an article where they compared SSD read/write performance of the 2011 and 2012 -
http://osxdaily.com/2012/06/19/macbook-air-2012-ssd-benchmarks-vs-macbook-air-2011/

The improvements are a little more than a doubling of the write speed and more than tripling of the read speed from 2011 to 2012.
 
Well I had decided that I would keep my Air for 2-3 years. What interested me most was the extra ram, then again it isn´t that often that I require more ram.

I will wait for them to improve the screen, and maybe I will buy an MBP instead of a MBA later. As it is now my MBA is being mostly used as an dekstop with the ATD, and the distance I have to walk now have been vastly shortened from the time I bought the MBA.

So I am guessing my next Mac would be a MBP.
 
GoSooners said:
Do you mind linking me to any posts with regards to this? I'm interested in a similar setup. What Mac are you using for your server?
Click to expand...

I'm going to be using an i7 Mac Mini and connecting to it with VNC (the free version :http://www.realvnc.com/). I'm wrestling with it now and some of the issues are : Remote Screen size and Resolution, Ability to operate with a Remote Parallels session, Network data rate using Remote Parallels. I may end up running Bootacamp as a preferred boot and switching to OSX when needed.

To be honest, it's a bit of a luxury but I'm going to persevere till I get something workable. If/When I upgrade to a more powerful MBA (2014 ?), then I'll reuse the Mini as a server of some kind.
 
So we're at the point of justifying not to upgrade now? I am simultaneously appalled and intrigued by this open display of modern consumerism ideas.
 
I just got my late 11.6 air; I see no reason to sell/upgrade. I plan on keeping it for several years at least.
 
I'll upgrade when my 13" falls apart. I'll give it 5-6 years considering how much I use it! :D

I'm sure by than I could buy an entry level 13" macbook that will be an absolute beast.
 
Geekbabe said:
After debating with myself for days here I've decided that tempting as the new systems are that the Retina Pro form factor is too big & that the 2012 Air isn't a substantial enough upgrade to sell my 2011 Air & spend several hundred for a new one. I'll keep my Air & see what the next refresh brings.

I find myself though longing to buy something, anybody else having this feeling?
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Did you actually feel the need to upgrade, though? I have a 2011 11 inch MBA and I'm tempted to upgrade to a 13 inch 2012 model with 8GB ram and 256GB storage, purely because for my line of work I need the extra screen space, memory and storage. Otherwise I wouldn't have even considered it.
 
no, I'm keeping my 2011 13" i7, I might upgrade next time around tho in 2013
 
USB3.0 and 8GB of RAM are sweet and tempting, but i only use the MBA when i'm out and about, and for what i do, i really don't need much of either unless i ditch the iMac.

So i'll keep waiting and see if haswell is a lot better or cooler, or wait until there's a retina thunderbolt display with a discrete graphics card to allow gaming, so i ditch the iMac and current Air.
 
I will keep my MBA 13" mid-2011 (1,8 GHz Intel Core i7, 4 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD).
It is great at the things I do. It is mostly using Office for Mac (Word, PowerPoint, Excel) in combination with EndNote and SPSS. Surfing the web, managing my emails, calendar and contacts as well as light photo or movie editing tasks. Furthermore I am using different messenger / VoIP services and I am keeping my music organized in iTunes (and iTunes Match).
So I do not see any need to upgrade now.

Plus, I have never been a fan of going with every update cycle.
I am usually using my machines for many years, until I upgrade them.
Of course, I always lag a little behind, when everyone gets their new stuff, but when I upgrade, it is usually an upgrade, I can really feel.

:)
 
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