Current Thunderbolt Ultimate Owner, looking to upgrade, help please!

[GadgetGeek407]

Here I am again asking for opinions! I have a loaded i7 256gb sad 13 air serves me well warranty till september 2012. I love it, don't really need or have to upgrade but more want to.

I feel its a better way to sustain value by upgrading to the new ones and having warranty at all times. I was rather disappointed that this model dropped so much in price according to whats in the apple refurb store at 1199 and this was like 1799. I have yet to see anything drop this sharp! But I suppose it happens cause of how much ram and sad prices are dropping!

I am a used car dealer and this air has been amazing, I do want the 256gb in 13 and the whole point of upgrading I would like the 8gb but wonder where n how it would really make a difference?

I figure this way ill be in warranty for another year and have the newer model.

What can i realistically get out of this ultimate on the market?

 

[ZBoater]

Im in the same boat. Expect $1000-$1100 (if you are lucky) for your current MBA. I tried getting the 256GB model but the 2012 ultimate called my name, so ended up spending $2,200. $1,200 for this upgrade was a bit rich, but I am loving the extra memory and storage, and Im in love with USB 3.0.

 

[GadgetGeek407]

Im in the same boat. Expect $1000-$1100 (if you are lucky) for your current MBA. I tried getting the 256GB model but the 2012 ultimate called my name, so ended up spending $2,200. $1,200 for this upgrade was a bit rich, but I am loving the extra memory and storage, and Im in love with USB 3.0.

so you got 512gb ssd? DAMN, what do you use the usb 3.0 on or for what? where do you notice the 8gb difference?

 

[aristobrat]

I would like the 8gb but wonder where n how it would really make a difference?

Attached is info from Apple that contains one way to tell if additional RAM might help performance on your computer.

Personally, I'd guess that the average bear would rarely run into 4GB of RAM being a performance issue.

 

[ZBoater]

so you got 512gb ssd? DAMN, what do you use the usb 3.0 on or for what? where do you notice the 8gb difference?

I have 1TB of movies and TV shows. 512GB won't cut it alone. I have a 2TB Western Digital Passport external USB 3.0 drive. It's twice as fast on my new MBA,

I like to play with VMs and I have 50GB set aside for bootcamp. So my 256GB SSD was beginning to feel tight. I haven't played enough with the VMs to notice any difference. They were running fine with 4GB of RAM.

One odd thing is that my Windows 7 VM (using the bootcamp partition) is actually SLOWER to boot on my new MBA, by about 6-8 seconds. I have both MBAs side by side right now while I transfer my stuff, and I noticed this. I am disappointed as I expected the new MBA to be at least as fast as my older one. I think I have Parallels issues. My Ubuntu 11.10 VM is not working at all on my new MBA (it works fine on my old one). Somethings funky.

 

[KPOM]

What can i realistically get out of this ultimate on the market?

Im in the same boat. Expect $1000-$1100 (if you are lucky) for your current MBA. I tried getting the 256GB model but the 2012 ultimate called my name, so ended up spending $2,200. $1,200 for this upgrade was a bit rich, but I am loving the extra memory and storage, and Im in love with USB 3.0.

I had the 2011 MacBook Air 11.6" "Ultimate" model and netted just under $1000 on eBay (Gross was slightly over $1100, less eBay/PayPal's combined 12% fees). You might get $1000 on the MR Marketplace, and eBay's fee drops to 5% from 9% for fixed price vs. auction sales.

Technology depreciates rapidly. Old somewhat truths notwithstanding, Macs lose value nearly as quickly as Windows PCs, and more in absolute terms since they are at the high end. "Ultimate" versions lose value more quickly than base models, as well.

Technology is my hobby, so I don't mind getting the "best" configurations and updating more rapidly. But if your aim is value for money, the best way is to get the most basic model that serves your needs, and update when the old model no longer suits your needs. A Core i5 MacBook Air 11" costs $150 less than the Core i7, but my guess is that a year from now will fetch about $50 less in the resale market, and 3 years from now will get about the same. If you are worried about warranties, consider AppleCare or SquareTrade (and your homeowner's insurance company will gladly sell you a personal articles policy that will cover accidental damage as well as theft for a reasonable price), plus also consider that your credit card company likely doubles the OEM warranty.

----------

One odd thing is that my Windows 7 VM (using the bootcamp partition) is actually SLOWER to boot on my new MBA, by about 6-8 seconds. I have both MBAs side by side right now while I transfer my stuff, and I noticed this. I am disappointed as I expected the new MBA to be at least as fast as my older one. I think I have Parallels issues. My Ubuntu 11.10 VM is not working at all on my new MBA (it works fine on my old one). Somethings funky.

That's a bit odd. I'm still attempting to get Windows working in Boot Camp (I used an old version of Winclone to move it over and it was always a bit sketchy with 64-bit Windows), but I've noticed that Windows in Parallels is a bit faster than before. Did you update to the latest version of Parallels 7 (a new patch came out last week)?

 

[bogatyr]

I feel its a better way to sustain value by upgrading to the new ones and having warranty at all times. I was rather disappointed that this model dropped so much in price according to whats in the apple refurb store at 1199 and this was like 1799. I have yet to see anything drop this sharp! But I suppose it happens cause of how much ram and sad prices are dropping!

The price drop isn't 1799 to 1199 but rather 1440 to 1199. The refurb was 1440 previously - not 1799. I bought the refurb 2 months ago actually.

Remember to compare apples to apples (no pun intended).