Hello all. Thanks in advance for any advice/opinions you can offer.
I will be traveling abroad for 1+ year in the coming months. I will be in a country that experiences periodic power outages - hence the new MBA's outstanding battery performance is very attractive. As regards usage, I work online as a webmaster - so apart from the standard usage (office docs, web browsing, etc.), I work with Adobe Dreamweaver and Captivate...also do some VERY LIGHT work in PhotoShop. I don't typically have very many programs running at once...perhaps Chrome (5-10 tabs), Dreamweaver, and Photoshop running simultaneously. I also do some moderate gaming via Steam: nothing graphically intensive: mostly older games like Portal and Portal 2, Team Fortress, etc - all of which should perform just fine with integrated Intel HD 5000 gpu (right?). Lastly, I use streaming video services like Netflix and Youtube heavily. *NOTE: one of my biggest concerns is that I want to be able to watch movies (on the HDD or on a USB DVD player) without any "chugging" or lag - which was a big problem with my current laptop (a 2012 base model HP that I purchased in a pinch and have regretted tremendously).
Regarding current HDD usage - my current computer came with a 320gb HDD, and I've used about 200GB. However, 100GB+ of that is audio/video/photos that I should have moved over to my 1TB external drive, but just haven't gotten around to it. My programs and OS probably take up about 40-50GB. I rely heavily on the cloud for document and image storage. I don't anticipate needing to use more than 128GB at any given time on a hard drive since I do typically off-load just about everything.
So - with all of that said, I am leaning toward the 13-inch MBA with the 256GB SSD upgrade, along with the 8GB RAM upgrade. However, I am also considering the i7 processor upgrade (call it "future-proofing" I suppose).
Lastly - this laptop will be my only computer for the entire year. I also own a couple of iPads - but I will rely heavily on this laptop for everything the iPad can't do.
So - what configuration do you suggest? I can't afford to max everything out...but I am willing to pay whatever is necessary to ensure that this laptop lasts me (hopefully) 4+ years...which is what I expect for paying $1300+!
PS - I will be carrying this laptop around in my backpack ALLLL day. Most days I will walk 2-5 miles in a very hot, humid climate (tropical). That is the reason I am strongly inclined toward the MBA rather than the rMBP. Weight and size are a big factor for me.
Thanks again!
TJ
I will be traveling abroad for 1+ year in the coming months. I will be in a country that experiences periodic power outages - hence the new MBA's outstanding battery performance is very attractive. As regards usage, I work online as a webmaster - so apart from the standard usage (office docs, web browsing, etc.), I work with Adobe Dreamweaver and Captivate...also do some VERY LIGHT work in PhotoShop. I don't typically have very many programs running at once...perhaps Chrome (5-10 tabs), Dreamweaver, and Photoshop running simultaneously. I also do some moderate gaming via Steam: nothing graphically intensive: mostly older games like Portal and Portal 2, Team Fortress, etc - all of which should perform just fine with integrated Intel HD 5000 gpu (right?). Lastly, I use streaming video services like Netflix and Youtube heavily. *NOTE: one of my biggest concerns is that I want to be able to watch movies (on the HDD or on a USB DVD player) without any "chugging" or lag - which was a big problem with my current laptop (a 2012 base model HP that I purchased in a pinch and have regretted tremendously).
Regarding current HDD usage - my current computer came with a 320gb HDD, and I've used about 200GB. However, 100GB+ of that is audio/video/photos that I should have moved over to my 1TB external drive, but just haven't gotten around to it. My programs and OS probably take up about 40-50GB. I rely heavily on the cloud for document and image storage. I don't anticipate needing to use more than 128GB at any given time on a hard drive since I do typically off-load just about everything.
So - with all of that said, I am leaning toward the 13-inch MBA with the 256GB SSD upgrade, along with the 8GB RAM upgrade. However, I am also considering the i7 processor upgrade (call it "future-proofing" I suppose).
Lastly - this laptop will be my only computer for the entire year. I also own a couple of iPads - but I will rely heavily on this laptop for everything the iPad can't do.
So - what configuration do you suggest? I can't afford to max everything out...but I am willing to pay whatever is necessary to ensure that this laptop lasts me (hopefully) 4+ years...which is what I expect for paying $1300+!
PS - I will be carrying this laptop around in my backpack ALLLL day. Most days I will walk 2-5 miles in a very hot, humid climate (tropical). That is the reason I am strongly inclined toward the MBA rather than the rMBP. Weight and size are a big factor for me.
Thanks again!
TJ
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