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4gb worth the cost if you've got to pay sales tax?

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ndriver182

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 26, 2007
569
4
I'm in the market for the 13" model and I'd like to get the 4gb of RAM in the base model. Unfortunately being that I live in California I'll have to deal with 8.25% sales tax on top of the upgraded price of the laptop. This ends up putting me over $1500 for a base 13" with 4gb of RAM. I can get the 13" with the stock 2gb of RAM off Amazon shipped overnight for $1300 and no tax.

So is 2gb of RAM really worth ~$225? I have an i7 iMac as my primary machine and realistically don't see doing any heavy work on the Air, but I still like to "futureproof" my hardware if the cost is reasonable regardless. I did test a stock unit at the local Apple Store and I opened about 8-10 apps like mail, iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, Safari, Finder, some QT videos I found on the computer, etc. With all of that open it seemed to run pretty well. Normally I don't have that many apps open at a time.
 
Whorehay

Whorehay

macrumors 6502a
Feb 17, 2008
631
1
ndriver182 said:
I'm in the market for the 13" model and I'd like to get the 4gb of RAM in the base model. Unfortunately being that I live in California I'll have to deal with 8.25% sales tax on top of the upgraded price of the laptop. This ends up putting me over $1500 for a base 13" with 4gb of RAM. I can get the 13" with the stock 2gb of RAM off Amazon shipped overnight for $1200 and no tax.

So is 2gb of RAM really worth ~$325? I have an i7 iMac as my primary machine and realistically don't see doing any heavy work on the Air, but I still like to "futureproof" my hardware if the cost is reasonable regardless. In this particular case I'm having a hard time justifying $300+ for 2gb of RAM. I did test a stock unit at the local Apple Store and I opened about 8-10 apps like mail, iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, Safari, Finder, some QT videos I found on the computer, etc. With all of that open it seemed to run pretty well. Normally I don't have that many apps open at a time.
Click to expand...

Poor you :( So much tax..
In Los Angeles County, we pay a minimum of 9.75% tax, and in some cities it's up to 10.25%! Be glad you only have to pay 8.25% :p

For real though, if you're only doing basic tasks like iTunes, iPhone, Safari, Finder etc., 2GB is fine for you. Lots of my friends get along with 2GB just fine with their 13" MacBooks. Heck, I'm on a Santa Rosa MBP with 2GB and I'm doing fine.

If you're thinking of doing more than that, I'd spring for the 4GB if you're going to do any sort of hardcore multitasking, Photoshop, watching YouTube in 1080P, etc-- even if you just want to be more "future proof" because there's no real way to upgrade the RAM in the future.
 
madoka

madoka

macrumors 6502a
Jul 17, 2002
523
152
1. Amazon is $1300, so the price difference is $225.

2. Wait three more weeks for black Friday. Apple typically discounts $100 off, which effectively is taking care of the tax for you. So the price for the 4gb upgrade should be around $120 over stock.
 
K

KPOM

macrumors P6
Oct 23, 2010
18,031
7,872
Most of the online retailers are backordered right now. I'm trading in my old Air so I went with one of them, but it will probably be another week before it arrives.
 
H

h00ligan

macrumors 68040
Apr 10, 2003
3,028
136
London
Wait a week or so and buy it from somewhere that won't charge tax. There will be 4gb options on amazon, macmall, etc. Just be patient.

I wasn't and I think I should have been.
 
R

runnin17

macrumors member
Dec 9, 2008
75
0
The RAM is soldered onto the motherboard. You should get the most you can now and then you won't regret not upgrading down the line.
 
S

ssb333

macrumors member
Oct 29, 2008
65
0
ndriver182 said:
I'm in the market for the 13" model and I'd like to get the 4gb of RAM in the base model. Unfortunately being that I live in California I'll have to deal with 8.25% sales tax on top of the upgraded price of the laptop. This ends up putting me over $1500 for a base 13" with 4gb of RAM. I can get the 13" with the stock 2gb of RAM off Amazon shipped overnight for $1300 and no tax.

So is 2gb of RAM really worth ~$225? I have an i7 iMac as my primary machine and realistically don't see doing any heavy work on the Air, but I still like to "futureproof" my hardware if the cost is reasonable regardless. I did test a stock unit at the local Apple Store and I opened about 8-10 apps like mail, iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, Safari, Finder, some QT videos I found on the computer, etc. With all of that open it seemed to run pretty well. Normally I don't have that many apps open at a time.
Click to expand...

I am in NYC. We pay 8.75% and have been for long time.
 
N

ndriver182

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 26, 2007
569
4
Believe me. I'm not disputing the cost of the RAM upgrade itself. I completely agree that $100.00 is a great price. My quandry is just that I'd have to spend $1522.42 from Apple for the base 13" w/4gb RAM vs. $1300 from Amazon, but with only 2gb of RAM. All the sudden a $100 upgrade is a $222.42 upgrade from that perspective.

I've got my '09 MBP on eBay right now so I'm going to sell that and see if I can hold out for the Black Friday sale and hopefully there will be a discount. If so then that won't be so bad. On the other hand if I just can't stand waiting four weeks for some reason without an Air I can just snag one off Amazon. I have my iMac and iPhone in the meantime, but it's just really convenient having the notebook too.
 
wingnut8

wingnut8

macrumors 65816
Jun 8, 2007
1,321
75
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3GS: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

Well $100 isn't really that great of a price considering you don't get the original ram. But I did it anyways because there's no choice to upgrade later.
 
wirelessmacuser

wirelessmacuser

macrumors 68000
Dec 20, 2009
1,968
0
Planet.Earth
Right now is the Wow! Look at this new computer gotta have it immediately or I'll suffer...

A month from now if you're still alive, you'll learn two things.

1) By some miracle the wait didn't kill you.

2) You've learned more about this model and may change your mind about the configuration you want.
 
rhinosrcool

rhinosrcool

macrumors 68000
Sep 5, 2009
1,751
687
MN
wirelessmacuser said:
Right now is the Wow! Look at this new computer gotta have it immediately or I'll suffer...

A month from now if you're still alive, you'll learn two things.

1) By some miracle the wait didn't kill you.

2) You've learned more about this model and may change your mind about the configuration you want.
Click to expand...

This is so true. Without a lot of real-world data, it seems like everybody is rushing out to get the mba. Case in point, so many are purchasing the 2gb versions that may really handicap the mba's potential. Yes, they look great. Also, preliminary tests seem to indicate that they can handle a lot of tasks. However, they haven't been used and tested enough to really know how well they hold up. Personally, I think they are perfect for my needs, but my budget won't allow one. Hopefully, in a few months. Waiting a month or so maybe to my benefit. Then, we should have a much clearer view of their strengths and weaknesses.
 
N

ndriver182

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 26, 2007
569
4
Not that I would use my college's discount (where I graduated from), but do Black Friday discounts supersede educational discounts? I have a hard time imagining Apple would offer the educational discount + Black Friday discount.
 
P

Platypusman99

macrumors member
Mar 5, 2009
42
0
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

I am inCalifornia too so I went to Small Dog and should have the machine you described by next week. No tax and $5 shipping.
 
Gen

Gen

macrumors 6502a
Jul 15, 2008
901
99
ndriver182 said:
Not that I would use my college's discount (where I graduated from), but do Black Friday discounts supersede educational discounts? I have a hard time imagining Apple would offer the educational discount + Black Friday discount.
Click to expand...

Not that I know of. The education discount, I think, is still the lowest price a consumer can get for brand new stuff.
You can wait for it to show up in the refurb store

alphaod said:
Student discount is $50 :(
Click to expand...

Plus you get $10 off the 4Gb RAM upgrade, and you can get a significant Apple Care discount when you buy at the same time as your mac
 
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