Kudos to this forum

[peterb69]

Hi all. I have been a 6 month lurker of this forum, and a 1 1/2 year Mac OS X user having coming from the world of Windows (prior DOS) for many, many years. I have a 15" MacBook Pro with 24" ACD as my only computer and love it. I wanted a 2nd computer to travel with (internet, e-mailing, photodownloads, very light photo editing, presentations) and not worry about damaging/losing my main computer. I have been hoping for a MacBook Air update (at least 4gb ram) just like many of you.

My wife has an iPad and I thought that would be my answer. I "LOVE" the iPad to watch live MLB games with the MLB2010 app while relaxing on my deck at night. So I am very glad my wife has one and let's me "borrow" it. BUT....as a hobbyist photographer, I like to surf other photographer's websites & blogs. Most have flash, or so many photos on the blogs, half of the photos are x'ed out when viewing. So the iPad is not for me. Maybe a future iPad gen when it runs a more OS X'ish operating system.

So I just bit the bullet and bought a used 1.86 128SSD MacBook Air. If Apple does update the Air within the next 2 weeks, you can thank me as I was tired of waiting.

I do wish to thank many users here whose advice I took through their posts. Users like Scottsdale, gwstat, & Spacekatgal among others. I do wish a bit more advice, and a bit less bickering on this forum as a whole. Yes we are all a bit annoyed Apple has not updated the Air, nor we even know if they ever will. But it is everyone's own choice to make do with Air, go MBP, iPad, or ...gulp....back to Windows. With our shared advice and experience, others can make their own decisions on what is good for them.

Thanks everybody and looking forward on receiving my new(used) MBA.

ps. If I load Win7 to use in bootcamp, how big of a partition should it be to run well? I would only load an application I need for work which is not to big itself but needs Windows, and of course a virus package.

Thanks again

 

[Blondie :)]

I would say only 8-15GB, if you're only using one application. The size variance depends on how much space you'll need to store data pertaining to the application. Are you using bootcamp on your Air? If so, I would definitely recommend using bootcamp. If you're using a different notebook, I would recommend running a virtualization software, such as virtualbox. It makes things a lot easier IMHO.

 

[Hellhammer]

If your app works with XP and you could get a disk for XP, use it instead as it uses a lot less space. You can always resize the partition if needed

 

[Spacekatgal]

Thanks again

Hey, no problem.

Wasn't there another thread here saying that it would have to be a giant SSD to have both windows and OSX? You need a lot of free space, like 20 percent, or you get a big performance hit.

It's a great device, especially with an SSD. I hope you love it!

 

[gwsat]

Peterb69 -- stop it, you will turn our heads. Congratulations on your MBA. I am jealous. I see why the iPad wouldn't work for you. You need access to too many grahhics-centric sites for it to be otherwise. Although I am posting this from my iPad, I continue to be disappointed by it's shortcomings. I guess I should be grateful anyway, though. Unlike you and Scottsdale, the iPad works well for most of what I need to do.

 

[uberamd]

I would say only 8-15GB, if you're only using one application. The size variance depends on how much space you'll need to store data pertaining to the application. Are you using bootcamp on your Air? If so, I would definitely recommend using bootcamp. If you're using a different notebook, I would recommend running a virtualization software, such as virtualbox. It makes things a lot easier IMHO.

Windows 7 install needs over 10GB by its self. I wouldn't go anything less than 30GB for Win 7. Service Packs, etc can require a lot of space to install, etc. It is hard to resize partitions after they are created, give yourself more room instead of wishing you had later on down the road.

 

[peterb69]

Thanks all. It will be for the Air, and since I use Win XP at work, I will take your advice and bootcamp via XP. That way less disk space used.

Someday I'll buy Win7 & a VM program and put that on my MBP.

 

[hohohong]

So I just bit the bullet and bought a used 1.86 128SSD MacBook Air.

How much did you pay for your used Air?

Cheers!

 

[gwsat]

Thanks all. It will be for the Air, and since I use Win XP at work, I will take your advice and bootcamp via XP. That way less disk space used.

Someday I'll buy Win7 & a VM program and put that on my MBP.

I have run Windows, first XP and more recently 7, in a VMware Fusion virtual machine on my MBP for years. When I had only 2Gb of RAM Windows programs ran very slowly and the whole setup was unstable. But ever since I upgraded to 6Gb of RAM (the max my MBP can reliably handle) I have been running Fusion in Unity mode so that Windows apps show up in the OS X dock and accept most OS X keystroke shortcuts. It's been pretty neat.

 

[peterb69]

How much did you pay for your used Air?

Cheers!

I bought it off e-bay.

I have been watching pricing there for awhile as well. Rev A Airs go for around $800 to $900 depending on condition & extras. Rev B Airs go for about $1000 to $1200. Rev C Airs go for about $1200 to $1500. These are SSD pricing.

With advice I gained here, I wanted Rev B/C with SSD.

 

[gri]

I bought it off e-bay.

I have been watching pricing there for awhile as well. Rev A Airs go for around $800 to $900 depending on condition & extras. Rev B Airs go for about $1000 to $1200. Rev C Airs go for about $1200 to $1500. These are SSD pricing.

With advice I gained here, I wanted Rev B/C with SSD.

Congrats top your beauty. I got a refurbished 1.83 SSD one myself recently (from Apple though, which gives me the full warranty). So now I can still hope for a new one and enjoy what is out there currently without only waiting and actually not enjoying.

 

[MartiNZ]

How much did you pay for your used Air?

Cheers!

In any other context that sounds like such an awesome question . Just saying.