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How important is 8G ram?

email68 said:
Choice for me is i5 - 4G - 128SD refurb for $929.

Or i5 - 8G - 64SD new for $1099.

The idea is that I can never upgrade the ram, but I could the SSD.

Still its a big price difference just to get the 8 and lose the double SSD.
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If you have to ask then you don't need more than 4GB of RAM. Anyone who needs more than four gigs of RAM is acutely aware of this and can easily explain why because when the RAM runs out everything stops. I remember back in the day when computers came with 384MB of RAM.

If you're using your Air as a desktop you're overtaxing it and you should not expect a happy ending.
 
The real question should have been can I get by with 4g. Sounds like I can from what I was hearing.

The difference was I could get a refurb MA 2012 with 4g. If I wanted an 8g, I'd have to go new and the difference would have been $260 more just to get the extra 4g.

I decided to stick with the refurb, and use that extra cash to build out a new mini after they refresh them.
 
DVD9 said:
If you're using your Air as a desktop you're overtaxing it and you should not expect a happy ending.
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What does this mean? My new 2012 MBA outperforms my 4 year old desktop in pretty much all measurable categories without even breaking a sweat. And my 4 year old desktop runs even better now than when I bought it due to an SSD upgrade and maxing out the RAM. The MBAs have improved dramatically in the last couple of years, and are easily on par with desktops of just a couple of years ago. Just check out the Geekbench scores on mid-2010 iMacs vs. the 2012 MBAs. Add the MBA's SSD to the mix, and you have a MUCH faster user experience than with the 2010 iMac.
 
email68 said:
Thanks guys.

I decided on the MacAir 2012 4g refurb with 128SD. $929. I just sold my 2008 Macbook for $700. This made it just a couple hundred for the upgrade.

I'll get a beefy MacMini after they refresh them. The MacAir will be just a goof around machine for web, email, and writing. I'll use the cloud to sync things up.

Of course, I'll keep watching the refurb store for the next 14 days :p
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I can't believe a 64 GB option still exists, especially given the pricing of NAND. So the Air will have a 64GB option through mid 2013:rolleyes:? That just seems so silly to me.
 
DVD9 said:
I remember back in the day when computers came with 384MB of RAM.
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That was me just 12 months ago! in my 10 years old vaio Z505. Then I noticed the HD came on alot, so I went ahead and maxed it out at 500M, things improved, then something else happened and my 750mhz Celeron (remember those?) processor slowed down to 500mhz and it was 100% cpu ALL THE TIME! :mad: so that's when I said it's time for a new laptop.

I blame on software developers. Every time they update something, they invariably give you more "features" you don't need, but now the bloated app wants you upgrade$ the hardware. Is a vicious cycle. Reason why I had stayed with Photoshop 6.0 (remember that?) works just great for what I do at home, no need to make other people rich.
 
DVD9 said:
remember back in the day when computers came with 384MB of RAM.
Click to expand...
My first Mac came with 1 MB of RAM, but that was more than the capacity of its 800KB floppy drives. I couldn't afford $700 for a 20MB hard disk.
 
email68 said:
Thanks guys.

I decided on the MacAir 2012 4g refurb with 128SD. $929. I just sold my 2008 Macbook for $700. This made it just a couple hundred for the upgrade.

I'll get a beefy MacMini after they refresh them. The MacAir will be just a goof around machine for web, email, and writing. I'll use the cloud to sync things up.

Of course, I'll keep watching the refurb store for the next 14 days :p
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As another option for you, Fry's has the 2012 13" base on sale right now for $999. I had Best Buy match this price.

However, running Win 7 via VmWare had page outs in the amount of 1.17 gb in less than an hour, downloading only videos. I didn't feel any slowdowns or experience any lag.

I am tempted to return this one and upgrade to 8gb but that would be an additional $300 based on the discounted price I purchased @ $999 for the base.

What do you guys think?
 
As always, it depends on what you're using it for. If you're going to be doing video all the time, like every-day kinds of all the time, then you're going to want 8Gb (or even the Pro). If however, like the OP you're only using it for occasional photo and video edits while on holidays, the base model is more than enough for your needs.
 
I'd be too restricted with 64GB SSD, even without bootcamp. If you want to run Parallel/VMWare then neither is a good tool for the job. The Air is a creation device, but can be severely limited based on your configuration of choosing.

Based on what you use it for, you'd be less restricted with a larger internal SSD than you would with more ram in my opinion. The lesser of two evils. I see ram is more of a luxury compared to storage. I don't let the fact that ram is not upgradeable sway me towards something that at the end of the day may not suit my usage pattern. 4GB of ram is enough for what I do, but 64GB SSD is really cramping and would defeat the utility of the laptop.
 
ducatiti said:
I am tempted to return this one and upgrade to 8gb but that would be an additional $300 based on the discounted price I purchased @ $999 for the base.

What do you guys think?
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How many more posts do you need to see? You don't need more than four GB of RAM.

Now that 128GB SSD which is made by Toshiba, that has a Sandforce controller so good luck using Filevault2.
 
DVD9 said:
I remember back in the day when computers came with 384MB of RAM.
Click to expand...

My first PC (in 1987) had 256KB of RAM. It cost us almost $500 to max it out at 640KB a year or so after we bought it. I splurged back in 1994 for a 90MHz Pentium with a whopping 16MB of RAM. :D
 
DVD9 said:
How many more posts do you need to see? You don't need more than four GB of RAM.

Now that 128GB SSD which is made by Toshiba, that has a Sandforce controller so good luck using Filevault2.
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He isn't the OP and he is indicating he uses VMs. Of every type of user, he would be the one to need the 8 GB of RAM. (More info on how much RAM to get)
 
Last edited:
DVD9 said:
The answers are already given. Refusing to read the thread is rude.
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But he doesn't have an answer. He is asking a new question about a discounted Mac and its tradeoffs for having less RAM.

Of course, "refusing" to read threads didn't stop all of these people from posting. This is a forum for people to ask questions and provide their advice, not to limit discussion.

And chastising him for asking a legitimate question is also rude.
 
tiwizard said:
He isn't the OP and he is indicating he uses VMs. Of every type of user, he would be the one to need the 8 GB of RAM. (More info on how much RAM to get)
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Your input is well appreciated. So I installed Aperture 3 and edited three photos for about 10 minutes and my Page Outs are already at 2 GB lol. Processing the adjustments took a little long but not bad. I'm in the process of moving my library to the network drive and will see if it gets any worse.
 
KPOM said:
My first PC (in 1987) had 256KB of RAM. It cost us almost $500 to max it out at 640KB a year or so after we bought it. I splurged back in 1994 for a 90MHz Pentium with a whopping 16MB of RAM. :D
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You youngster! :D My first computer (in 1983), a KayPro II CP/M machine, had 64 KB of RAM. That was a great computer. I used it until 1989 (primarily for word processing) until I got my first MS-DOS PC.
 
ducatiti said:
Your input is well appreciated. So I installed Aperture 3 and edited three photos for about 10 minutes and my Page Outs are already at 2 GB lol. Processing the adjustments took a little long but not bad. I'm in the process of moving my library to the network drive and will see if it gets any worse.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it seems like for you the 8 GB of RAM would be beneficial, even for $300. The photo editing and VM scenarios you posted would probably benefit by having that extra RAM.

Of course, assuming you're not talking about the Retina Pro with 16 GB of RAM you have in your signature ;)
 
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