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Is it worth the money?

S

S3lmaac

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 4, 2012
11
0
I have wanted a Mac for two years, and I'm thinking I'm going to scrape up some money and buy a MacBook Air.

I'm going to go for 13" and I'm buying with i7. I really want a powerful computer that can deal with a lot, I need it for school, but I also want a PC where I can save pictures and have a little heavier programs on it as Photoshop and Illustrator. I also wonder if it's possible to install PC games on it, like COD and such, will it handle it?

The main reason I want a MacBook Air is the fact that the PC I have now is a 17" PC that is so heavy you can't carry it around for long.

So the main question is; Is the MacBook Air something for me and is it worth the money?
 
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Yes, its absolutely worth the money.
No, I don't think it fits what you said you want. Running PC games is not the use car that it was designed for.
 
Yes, that's what I though. I just had to ask in case I would install a game and it would run slow. But for the other purposes it works well?
 
I like my MBA, although every gadget I own is apple haha.

Well worth the money, but buy AppleCare or some sort of insurance!
 
Is it worth the money? ABSOLUTELY. Will it do the things you have mentioned? Yes (apart from the games part). But if playing games and PS are really important to you, get the base 15" macbook pro (or even the late 2010 model, so that it fits in your budget). It would still be MUCH lighter than a 17" Windows brick ;)
 
Thank you guys for the help! :D

And I will look at the MacBook Pro 15"
 
I moved from a 17" laptop to a 13" macbook air, and it's one of the best moves I have made. If you will be moving around and taking it out with you, it is really liberating.
 
I bet! :D

I was also wondering, do they make like macbook air covers which will protect it from getting scratched up. Because that's really important to me.
 
I just bought a 13" MBA (base model) to replace a dying 17" MBP, and I think it's fantastic. I've always been a MBP-or-bust type, but the latest MBAs are actually quite good as general-purpose systems.

My intention is to use this until the hi-res 15" MacBook ProAirs come out this year (assuming they do), hence I didn't opt to upgrade to an i7 and/or to 256GB.

I'm not sure how demanding COD is, as I don't play it, but the MBA plays SC2 full-res at medium graphics settings like a charm (the fan, however, is on constantly but not all that loudly when playing like that).

I guarantee you'll love the Air - the form factor and lightness are extremely compelling. You can always supplement the disk space with SD cards. The i5 chip is pretty fast, and the i7, from what I've read, adds about 10% (and more for some tasks, like video encoding). The graphics capabilities are decent, even for moderate gaming (not excellent, but all told, not bad).

The one major caveat is the 4GB RAM limit - it's soldered on, and you're stuck with it. I suspect you'll hit that well before you run into issues with anything else.

One other option to consider is to go with the 11", then use a larger system at home/the dorm/whatever when you need to. As light as the 13" is, the 11" makes it seem huge.

S3lmaac said:
I bet! :D

I was also wondering, do they make like macbook air covers which will protect it from getting scratched up. Because that's really important to me.
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Absolutely. However, I've opted for a RadTech sleeve (and ScreenSavrz) and then a booq case. The sleeve protects from scratches, and the case protects from dents. I think the covers are a bit bulky for something as thin and light as an Air, but by all accounts they work fine.
 
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I love my 13" MBA

I run VMware Fusion and Win7 on it as well as Final Cut Pro X
Works like a charm and I go between my Thunderbolt ACD at home and my 23" ACD at work

It was an excellent choice for me
 
boy-better-know said:
I moved from a 17" laptop to a 13" macbook air, and it's one of the best moves I have made. If you will be moving around and taking it out with you, it is really liberating.
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Have to agree. My MBA 13" fits in the documents section of my work laptop bag inside a Jiffylite cushioned mailer I picked up in the shipping department. :D
 
If you're looking for a powerful machine that you can play games well on, I would take a look at the Alienware M14X. It is 14", and is quite heavy due to its power, but it is a nice portable size.

The Macbook Air is great, but very limited. It doesn't look like you have any specific requirements for a OS X, so it seems rather silly to me get an Apple machine when all of your requirements can be met on a Windows laptop.

If you care about gaming, I'd check out the benchmarks between the recommended Alienware vs Macbook Air/Pro.

Before someone says anything about customer service from Apple is better - Alienware is very good.
 
Now I'm pretty certain of my choice. You seem to have many good things to say about it :D

But I'm totally new at this apple stuff, so what is really Apple Care? Is it inurance or something? :confused:
 
minnus said:
If you're looking for a powerful machine that you can play games well on, I would take a look at the Alienware M14X. It is 14", and is quite heavy due to its power, but it is a nice portable size.

The Macbook Air is great, but very limited. It doesn't look like you have any specific requirements for a OS X, so it seems rather silly to me get an Apple machine when all of your requirements can be met on a Windows laptop.

If you care about gaming, I'd check out the benchmarks between the recommended Alienware vs Macbook Air/Pro.

Before someone says anything about customer service from Apple is better - Alienware is very good.
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I know alienware is a really powerful machine, but great gaming possibilities on my future PC/Mac isn't something that is so important. I always have my ps3. And I think the Alienware machines are very ugly.
 
If you don't need games, the the Air is a great choice. I do video and photography work on it, so that should be fine.

Applecare is Apple's extended warranty and well worth the money on a laptop.
 
The Air is a great machine - you'll love it.

I think the conventional wisdom is that the i7 version only gives a small performance increase & so perhaps isn't worth the extra cash, but hey if you have the cash - your call
 
Get a 15" Macbook Pro! A little heavier, but it's a nice compromise. You'll appreciate the dedicated GPU and the 2.2GHz i7.

I know lots of people who have a MBA as their primary, but I feel that the MBP will be a better investment in your case, especially in the long run. It should last 2-3 years easily (I'm still using my 2009 15").
 
Worth it?

Yes
Positively
Absolutely
No hesitation
Beyond a shadow of a doubt

Can you tell how much I like MBA's ?

I have both an 11" & 13". The 13" is simply outstanding. I bought both because I couldn't decide.

Even though I don't care for the 11" very much, I'm still keeping it for occasional use.
 
S3lmaac said:
I have wanted a Mac for two years, and I'm thinking I'm going to scrape up some money and buy a MacBook Air.

I'm going to go for 13" and I'm buying with i7. I really want a powerful computer that can deal with a lot, I need it for school, but I also want a PC where I can save pictures and have a little heavier programs on it as Photoshop and Illustrator. I also wonder if it's possible to install PC games on it, like COD and such, will it handle it?

The main reason I want a MacBook Air is the fact that the PC I have now is a 17" PC that is so heavy you can't carry it around for long.

So the main question is; Is the MacBook Air something for me and is it worth the money?
Click to expand...

Don't listen to what these people say...YES it is worth it and YES it will play pc games like a CHAMP! I have an 11" 2011 MBA with bootcamp on it and I can play skyrim (I've clocked 104 hours so far...about half of that is on my MBA) flawlessly and I recently started playing Rage....it runs SO FAST AND SMOOTH! Battlefield Bad Company 2 runs like a champ, so does Assassins Creed Brotherhood, and Deus Ex Human Revolution and Portal 2. I have 75 games in my steam library and I'm slowly installing them to see which work. LA Noire is a crappy console port that is giving "gaming" pcs problems...so no biggie. Mafia 2 runs amazingly...then gradually grinds to a halt due to a horrible memory leak. Oh and COD: MW3 plays great too!

Don't let anyone tell you the MBA can't do something...because so far I haven't found anything it can't do!!
 
Thank you.

I'm also looking at the MacBook Pro 15" now, since you guys are recommending it! :D
 
gentlefury said:
Don't listen to what these people say...YES it is worth it and YES it will play pc games like a CHAMP! I have an 11" 2011 MBA with bootcamp on it and I can play skyrim (I've clocked 104 hours so far...about half of that is on my MBA) flawlessly and I recently started playing Rage....it runs SO FAST AND SMOOTH! Battlefield Bad Company 2 runs like a champ, so does Assassins Creed Brotherhood, and Deus Ex Human Revolution and Portal 2. I have 75 games in my steam library and I'm slowly installing them to see which work. LA Noire is a crappy console port that is giving "gaming" pcs problems...so no biggie. Mafia 2 runs amazingly...then gradually grinds to a halt due to a horrible memory leak. Oh and COD: MW3 plays great too!

Don't let anyone tell you the MBA can't do something...because so far I haven't found anything it can't do!!
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I love how you say that you can play all these games 'flawlessly' and it runs 'so fast and smooth'. You fail to mention the resolution and the graphical settings. I've played skyrim on my 13" Air, and while it is PLAYABLE, i would certainly not say 'so fast and smooth'. I believe my settings were on medium and native resolution.
 
minnus said:
I love how you say that you can play all these games 'flawlessly' and it runs 'so fast and smooth'. You fail to mention the resolution and the graphical settings. I've played skyrim on my 13" Air, and while it is PLAYABLE, i would certainly not say 'so fast and smooth'. I believe my settings were on medium and native resolution.
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This. It's not like you're going to even be running a constant 30 fps on most games, and certainly not at anything resembling a high resolution and high graphic settings.

If you really want to have games, I would certainly recommend getting the MBP.
 
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