2012 11" i5 macbook air

[elf69]

The air is due tomorrow but want to ask a few questions etc.

it is a 1.7GHz i5 with 4GB RAM but only 64GB SSD.
a 256GB SSD is about £150 so that is first upgrade.

As it does not have a LAN port I will need this for work.

The unit has thunderbolt.

First question....

USB 3 to lan
or
thunderbolt to lan

 

[cruisin]

• Do you need 2 USB ports?
• Will you have a USB hub?
• Do you use an external monitor?

The Thunderbolt to LAN adapter has drivers included with the computer, so it will work with every Mac.

The USB 3 version is 3rd party and needs to have drivers installed on every computer you will use. Sometimes there are issues with 3rd party drivers (like when a new version of OSX is released).

 

[elf69]

All I NEED is one usb port, more is better of course.
I do have hubs laying around yes, and also a usb3 desk dock with lots different ports but unknow about sierra compatibility.
unlikely to use external monitor on thunderbolt, I'm planning on using my ipad 3 and duet for external screen.

I was leaning toward the thunderbolt as it is apple and more likely work without issue.

 

[elf69]

Also does this 2012 air support internet recovery?

 

[cruisin]

Thunderbolt is shared with the external screen and the ethernet adapter, so you definitely need to be certain.

You can get USB to HDMI dongles, so you do have some choice. They will not work for anything demanding, so they are about as good as the Duet solution. Keep in mind that alternative video output is more demanding on the computer then just using the thunderbolt port, so you might get more heat/fan noise and lower performance.

The 2012 Air does have internet recovery.

 

[elf69]

I'm 98% sure i will not use external thunderbolt screen.
I know I will need lan

duet should be fine with my needs as only to show webpages from one browser while i use another browser on the main screen.

Just finished setting it up and very happy and fast.

I'm happy

 

[elf69]

So using it at work with duet to my ipad 3.
Also have chrome (4 tabs) firefox (4 tabs) imessage skype and thunderbird running.

getting about 2 and half to 3 hours battery.

Also ram only using 1.58GB of the 4GB and no swap file.

It unsurprisingly out performs my 13.3 2010 macbook other than battery life.

 

[PBG4 Dude]

I'm 98% sure i will not use external thunderbolt screen.
I know I will need lan

duet should be fine with my needs as only to show webpages from one browser while i use another browser on the main screen.

Just finished setting it up and very happy and fast.

I'm happy

The Thunderbolt port outputs video as well, as it doubles as a mDP port. I use the Moshi mDP to HDMI converter on my 2012 MBA to connect to my 1080p external display. This converter cost $35 at the Apple Store when I got it years ago.

 

[elf69]

I do not have a screen at work so use my ipad3 with duet.

but thunderbolt to lan be very useful for work.

Also I notice with monitor app the app memory is actually really good and drops to 845MB and goes up to 1.45GB with a small swap file.

this machine seems to cope really well with tasks.

my 2010 13.3" macbook had 8GB ram and it used 4.68GB most the time