2013 Macbook Air - Upgrade RAM or not?

[anna4712]

I'm going to sell my 64GB 3G iPad Mini to buy a 2013 MacBook Air. What attracts me to to it is the lightweight and long battery life. I already have a 2011 iMac 27in (1TB, 2.7ghz i5, 4GB RAM) which I use for watching movies, photo editing, a few games etc as well as my usual web browsing.

I want to get a Macbook Air, mainly for university but also so I can do my photo editing on the go and be able to sit in front of the tv to browse the web and so on. It would be good to be able to do some light gaming..for example just something like the sims on it but due to it's size I'm not exactly sure at this stage if that is a realistic idea? Any insight on that would be great.

Anyway, I'm wondering if I should stick with the standard 4GB RAM or upgrade to 8GB. Where I live it's around $120USD on top of the 1170USD for the computer itself. I'm getting the 13inch with the smaller hard drive, I don't have a lot of files apart from photos and have 1TB space on my iMac as well as an external hard drive. I've read a few other posts where everybody says to go for the extra RAM because you can't update it later. Do you think its really necessary? I've never had a computer with more than 4GB and I've found it fine, my iMac can handle a lot and rarely lags at all. I'd rather not have to spend the money (plus have to wait the extra three or four days to get it delivered rather than buy in store) but I don't want to regret it later. Also I've heard a few comments about 8GB RAM impacting on the long battery life and making it shorter, is that true?

Any help would be great, thanks in advance

 

[mj1108]

Anyway, I'm wondering if I should stick with the standard 4GB RAM or upgrade to 8GB.

Upgrade. Especially if you plan on keeping this machine for awhile.

Also I've heard a few comments about 8GB RAM impacting on the long battery life and making it shorter, is that true?

Not true. Anything about any part of the configuration impacting battery life has been about going with a i5 or i7 processor -- nothing to do with the RAM itself.

 

[filmbuff]

We really need a sticky for these. It could be a locked topic with only one post. Make the title "YES, you should upgrade to 8gb" and be done with it. Then maybe we will only see 3 new topics about this per day instead of 6.

 

[falconeight]

I don't think the MBA is a good iPad replacement if its purpose is gaming, internet in front of the tv.

 

[anna4712]

Sorry about the multiple thread post. I'm a new user and not overly tech-savvy but wanted to ask about what to do for my personal usage.

As I said in the post, I'm using it mainly as a replacement for the iPad in terms of the university needs. Aside from that, yes, it will be used much the same as the iPad but there's no way around the fact that I will need a laptop for my school work as well as my part time photo editing job.

 

[somuchwater]

If you can afford the extra $80 bucks (student price on the upgrade, I think - if not, $100), absolutely. There's no reason not to, and every reason to. So, yeah, if you can spare the cash do it. As has mentioned many many times on this board, it can't be upgraded at a later date and RAM is the component that generally gives the best bang-to-buck ration in terms of longevity, adaptability etc.

 

[cyclotron451]

I've just installed several versions of Mavericks on my 11" mid 2011 MBA4,1 core i5 with just 2GB of RAM. It works great. I think that todays 4GB MBA would obviously be better. if you have a bit of extra cash then get the 8GB. It will however work OK whatever you choose, I'm sure!