How much ram?

[A_ardvark]

My wife is currently using my 15 inch MacBook (2018) for work, mostly office stuff, a lot of project planning, web focused with some excel. Nothing heavy. Her work has offered to buy her a replacement MacBook Air, now she's asking me for advice. She has the previous MacBook (one port) from 2017. She loved the portability but complained constantly that it would freeze and beachball endlessly. I looked at it a few times, my take away was that she had a ton of open windows and documents. but she's adamant that this is part of her workflow.

She has commented several times on how much smoother my MacBook is to use. I'm wondering what upgrades she should look for in the 2020 MacBook Air. 8gb or 16gb of ram? Dual or Quad core.

What would kill the beachball?

 

[twintin]

Have you tried a clean install on her MacBook ? Beachballs are not necessary a memory issue.

Regarding how much memory to add to a new Air, check how much is in use on her current MacBook. If the memory pressure is high or lot of swap is used on regular basis, then add the twice the size of what she has now. Otherwise, you can go either way, but since she is not paying for the Air and seems to be allowed to choose, why not max the RAM and possibly the storage ?

 

[A_ardvark]

Great advice. Thanks! I think there's some price sensitivity. They initially wanted her to go with a thinkpad with docking station etc, but she suggested a Mac because she's more comfortable with the OS and the base cost was lower than the thinkpad solution.

 

[ctjack]

my 15 inch MacBook (2018)

MacBook (one port) from 2017.

She has commented several times on how much smoother my MacBook is to use.

usual Macbook 2017 is a lightweight web browser, email checker, like portable notepad.
It is never meant to be used for average work, since it even doesn't have a fan.

I'm wondering what upgrades she should look for in the 2020 MacBook Air. 8gb or 16gb of ram? Dual or Quad core.

The most base is the real deal. Go with i3/8gb and you won't have any beachballs. Because i3 is 5C degrees cooler than i5. Single core performance is the same. And single core performance is most of the things, that we do on a laptops.
You don't need 16gb, because it is too much for Air. The only concept to have 16gb ram: for VMs.
So Air base is the best option, and it can even compete on single core with MBP 15'' 2018.

 

[A_ardvark]

usual Macbook 2017 is a lightweight web browser, email checker, like portable notepad.
It is never meant to be used for average work, since it even doesn't have a fan.

The most base is the real deal. Go with i3/8gb and you won't have any beachballs. Because i3 is 5C degrees cooler than i5. Single core performance is the same. And single core performance is most of the things, that we do on a laptops.
You don't need 16gb, because it is too much for Air. The only concept to have 16gb ram: for VMs.
So Air base is the best option, and it can even compete on single core with MBP 15'' 2018.

Thanks!

 

[KPOM]

Great advice. Thanks! I think there's some price sensitivity. They initially wanted her to go with a thinkpad with docking station etc, but she suggested a Mac because she's more comfortable with the OS and the base cost was lower than the thinkpad solution.

Just to manage expectations, the 2020 Air won’t be as fast as your 2018 MacBook Pro, but any model should handily outperform the 2017 12” MacBook. I would recommend the i5. The extra heat won’t make that much of a difference, but more apps are able to make use of multiple processors now. The base model can be upgraded with the i5 for $100, so hopefully cost won’t be an issue.

 

[rambo47]

I say always max out the RAM, especially when you're talking about up to 16MB for just $200.