2012 year of the upgrades for me. couple questions...

[youngmac]

Just came from apple store and got the Macbook Air , been using mbp 15 for the last 3 years and 8 months.I always been a macbook pro person, but now couldn't resist the air. last time i used the cd drive was 2009 and never used the ethernet port since i had my mbp.

so happy because i take the laptop with me and travel often, i got the 13inch 128gb,4gb low end.

couple questions to my macrumours friends:

1) should restore everything from time machine, can you choose what to restore?

2) i'm planning on buying a usb3 hard drive, any recommendations?

3) i always used the 9400m on my mbp, how is it compared to the intel 4000hd?

4)i use gaming rarely on mbp using 9600m gt, i know the later is dedicated card. but is the 4000hd close to the 9600m gt? I have seen youtube video that on cinebench mb air score higher (on both cpu and open gl) than my late 2008 mbp.

Thank you. Upgrading to iphone 5 very soon

 

[kattskrall]

Just came from apple store and got the Macbook Air , been using mbp 15 for the last 3 years and 8 months.I always been a macbook pro person, but now couldn't resist the air. last time i used the cd drive was 2009 and never used the ethernet port since i had my mbp.

so happy because i take the laptop with me and travel often, i got the 13inch 128gb,4gb low end.

couple questions to my macrumours friends:

1) should restore everything from time machine, can you choose what to restore?

2) i'm planning on buying a usb3 hard drive, any recommendations?

3) i always used the 9400m on my mbp, how is it compared to the intel 4000hd?

4)i use gaming rarely on mbp using 9600m gt, i know the later is dedicated card. but is the 4000hd close to the 9600m gt? I have seen youtube video that on cinebench mb air score higher (on both cpu and open gl) than my late 2008 mbp.

Thank you. Upgrading to iphone 5 very soon

hmm i don't think gaming is a good idea at all tbh. the noise of the fan is just too much when starting up diablo 3... and the heat. (and i have the i7 8gb 2012 13"). i have my 5 year old pc for occasional gaming it can still pull diablo 3 on 1080p with high settings with no probs

i think we're a long way from integrated graphics can replace a dedicated gpu.

i would recommend you buying a sdxc card with 64gb storage for$50

Gl with your new MBA dude!

 

[asting]

Just came from apple store and got the Macbook Air , been using mbp 15 for the last 3 years and 8 months.I always been a macbook pro person, but now couldn't resist the air. last time i used the cd drive was 2009 and never used the ethernet port since i had my mbp.

so happy because i take the laptop with me and travel often, i got the 13inch 128gb,4gb low end.

couple questions to my macrumours friends:

1) should restore everything from time machine, can you choose what to restore?

2) i'm planning on buying a usb3 hard drive, any recommendations?

3) i always used the 9400m on my mbp, how is it compared to the intel 4000hd?

4)i use gaming rarely on mbp using 9600m gt, i know the later is dedicated card. but is the 4000hd close to the 9600m gt? I have seen youtube video that on cinebench mb air score higher (on both cpu and open gl) than my late 2008 mbp.

Thank you. Upgrading to iphone 5 very soon

1) When you restore, you should get to choose (applications, files, etc), but I don't know if it gives you the option to choose more specifically.

2) Western digital, seagate, Toshiba, etc all make fantastic drives. Even most of the no name brands will use WD or seagate drives in them. I have A seagate goflex 2.5" 1tb drive, and it is very snappy (90mb/s). It's really hard to go wrong though. Just make sure whatever you get can be powered by one usb port

3+4) For this front, it is apparent youngmac has no idea what he's talking about. The HD400 is comparable if not faster (see here). The laptop does heat up a bit while gaming, but neither fan noise or heat should inhibit your gaming experience (for casual stuff). If those sort of things bug you may I suggest using headphones and putting it on a desk. No gaming laptop is going to not be loud or generate heat.
It's actually a very well powered machine. I play CS:GO, iLoL (mac port of League of Legends), Portal 2, and a few other games with absolutely no issues. There are only a handful (if any) this thing couldn't run. I'm not saying every game will be maxed, but it handles just about anything.

Finally, if it's not too late I would look into pricing at third party retailers. If you're from the US bestbuy is typically cheaper and offer the exact same model.

 

[youngmac]

Thanks guys.
Asting I'm from uk, no bestbuy here.
I'm not a big gamer, I was just curious how the new games will run, anybody tried Fifa 12?

 

[youngmac]

First impressions are good:

Can't believe how big and heavier the 15 mbp was. I used to think twice before taking the mbp with me. Now i got the skinny sleeve (Acme Made) in black and the mb air is a joy to pack and take it with you more often.

Everything is much faster, of course i had 2008 mbp.

To me the mb air screen is much nicer than my mbp, and less glare. I've even compared viewing movies, mb air look little bit nicer in 720p hd.
Viewing angles mb air wins.
I always thought that a mbp screen will be better than the air. Or maybe screen on the 15 inch has improved since 2008.

I tried portal and run everything on high but fans got loud, but run nicely.

I have installed all my programs, music and some movies. I have still 49GB left on my hd.

My air boots in 14s. not really important to me but it is a change from my mbp.

To be honest the facetime camera, looks much better when there's good lighting. on low light the difference with my mbp late 2008 camera is not that big.

Speakers are not bad really, i was afraid i wasn't going to like it. Anyway i always use headphones most of the times. I think the 15' mbp had little more bass, and little bit louder, i don't mind that.

I haven't tried the battery life yet on normal use.