With the lack of upgradable ram and hard drive, how long would a MBA be able to handle new OS versions and program apps if all I'm doing is basic tasks (internet, email, and microsoft office)? Will 4gb of ram likely be very limiting in 2 years?
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Longevity of MBA
- Thread starter Toast487
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I personally doubt that 4GB of RAM will be very limiting in 2 years time. Especially for basic tasks I would expect that 4GB will still be more than sufficient to run the OS smoothly in the way it was intended. Apple know that not all of their user base buy a new mac every year, their machines are intended to last much longer than 2 years.
For your tasks 4GB of RAM will be plenty for the next couple of years at least. I do the same things on mine as you will be doing and do not even come close to pushing the limit of the system.
The only ones who push it are power users who run multiple VMs, or do heavy photo/video editing/AutoCAD stuff.
You'll be fine for a couple years.
Ah no, sorry. I do a bit of recording with Logic and RAM just disappears if I use soft synths. I think though, in terms of word processing and email/web surfing, you would probably be alright for a couple of years.
I will upgrade to Mountain Lion without worrying, but whatever comes after that, I will be a bit more cautious with upgrading my MacBook Air. But for the smaller tasks, I reckon the MBA will hold up nicely, I plan to see my MBA's apple care out, so another 2 and a half years for me.
I have a 2010, 2 GB RAM Air. I use it for basic tasks such as word processing and browsing, and it never lags or beach balls' at all.
People do over-react when it comes to RAM. Even if you need to page, the SSD makes it tolerable, much unlike paging to an HDD.
People do over-react when it comes to RAM. Even if you need to page, the SSD makes it tolerable, much unlike paging to an HDD.
damn this MAB mid 2009 still works
I have (among other Macs) still a 13" MBA mid 2009 (2GB RAM, 2.13GHz, 256GB OWC Mercury Aura SSD) and this gizmo still doesn't want to break. I hope that Mountain Lion will bring it to its knees so that I have a reason to replace it with a 2012 MBA. But as long as it works and performs well, I'll hold on to it.
I have (among other Macs) still a 13" MBA mid 2009 (2GB RAM, 2.13GHz, 256GB OWC Mercury Aura SSD) and this gizmo still doesn't want to break. I hope that Mountain Lion will bring it to its knees so that I have a reason to replace it with a 2012 MBA. But as long as it works and performs well, I'll hold on to it.
I expect that currently selling Macs should have another 4 or 5 years of OS upgrades available then a year of OS patches.
If you don't change what you will be using the Air for, 4GB should be fine for a few years. What may become limiting is if you only get 128GB of SSD and build up music and/or photo collections.
I have a 2010 ultimate running Lion and have no issues even when using Aperture. I expect to get at least a couple of more years out of it before upgrading. By then, I would think whatever version of iPad is out, will out spec my current air.
Just 2 gb ram here & I've not run into any trouble yet. I've done some light work with Logic, basic internet, streaming internet without issue.
I'd rather be running Snow Leopard but that's not possible on this MBA apparently. Going to wait & see how ML performs before I put it on here. 6 months or more before it's ever on the iMac.
I'd rather be running Snow Leopard but that's not possible on this MBA apparently. Going to wait & see how ML performs before I put it on here. 6 months or more before it's ever on the iMac.
Longevity...
I just wanted to let people know that I still maintain a couple of Power Macs for relatively high end users which are over ten years old...I think worrying about the longevity of the macbook air is a no brainer...for email word preocessing etc I think you will get ten years out of it!
Good luck
I just wanted to let people know that I still maintain a couple of Power Macs for relatively high end users which are over ten years old...I think worrying about the longevity of the macbook air is a no brainer...for email word preocessing etc I think you will get ten years out of it!
Good luck
After my 2008 MacBook had taken a bad fall (it still worked, but the screen was cracked and the case was bent in such a way that the battery would drain even when the thing was closed. Plus, the optical drive stopped working ages ago), I decided it was time to upgrade and bought a 2011 MBA. I only use my computer for grading essays, creating lecture presentations, (very) light photo editing, and surfing the interwebs. If this new computer does last as long as the previous one (e.g. at least 3 years), I will be very disappointed.
It's limiting already!
I have a 5yo MBP, with 4G RAM; yesterday I found that safari was using 2.5G of that... and I only had 4 tabs open.
Photo editing (Aperture), and software development also take up more than all of my ram, or, they try to...
I'm planning on at last 16G the next time I upgrade...
I have a 5yo MBP, with 4G RAM; yesterday I found that safari was using 2.5G of that... and I only had 4 tabs open.
Photo editing (Aperture), and software development also take up more than all of my ram, or, they try to...
I'm planning on at last 16G the next time I upgrade...
I will be getting one of the new iMacs as a primary computer. This will be solely for word processing, internet, email, spotify, etc. I like the air for its portability, because I am usually traveling a lot and carrying my laptop with me everywhere. My only hangup is that it is quite expensive, which I don't mind, but I would like to get my moneys worth in terms of how long it would last. Especially when the 13" pro is not that much bigger and I know I could upgrade it.
I bought the October 2010 11" MBA when it first came out, and mine is still going strong (even despite being dropped off of a security belt at an airport and sustaining a very scary looking dent in the bottom) after 18 months of ownership. I'm probably going to upgrade to the 2012 refresh only because I could only get a 128GB hard drive at the time I bought mine, and this happens to be my only machine.
I don't expect a new one should last any less than mine, which shows no signs of weakness after 18 months. It won't need to be upgraded (other than to get a bigger hard drive) after 2 years, but I have someone I can hand this one down to for her birthday in October, and by then I expect the 2012 versions will be out, so that's my plan.
Just a note re: portability. I got the 11" and my husband got the 13" at the same time. He is seriously considering getting the 11" next time. (Although he has a desktop in the home office for use at home.) The 11" is absolutely perfect to have with you on the go, on a plane etc. Even though it's my primary (only) machine, I wouldn't go larger, personally. I notice a difference in weight lifting his machine, trying to fit it in my purse etc. We're on the road for months at a time, most of the year. For a few months, we were averaging 4 days per country, so that's a lot of flying and a lot of use in traveling situations. I don't know if you're thinking 13" or 11", but we do find the 11" is better for traveling with, as long as you don't mind having a smaller screen while you're using it.
So far, in 15 months, my 2010 13-MBA has been bullet-proof. As long as I don't spill liquid into it or crack the screen with the mag-safe adaptor, I think I'll get 5 years out of it. It is very quick, and drives Dell 21 and 24" displays with no problems using DisplayPort. Still using SnowLeopard, will probably stay with it for a while.
Ram
Turn on (start) all your programs that you normally use. Now open the activity monitor and look at your system memory. That will only give you the static picture, but it is an indication. I would say plenty left to play with.
Turn on (start) all your programs that you normally use. Now open the activity monitor and look at your system memory. That will only give you the static picture, but it is an indication. I would say plenty left to play with.
i agree with this - granted i am on an older MBP so the chip and ram are aging a bit, but i find 4gRAM to be the bottleneck - especially when running vmware.
next computer will get the ram update first.
if you really are just doing WP/email/web 4gig is plenty. beyond that i don't see why 8 wouldn't be the first upgrade to make
Note that this thread is a year old... But really, if your needs are literally as basic as "internet, email, and microsoft office" I think the Air could last quite a few years. You know, you don't *have* to upgrade the OS or software at all as long as the machine does what you want.
I used a 15" MBP for 4 years with no problem and I run a lot more powerful programs than that (Vectorworks, Final Cut Pro, FileMaker Pro, Photoshop, etc). It was still meeting my needs but I had a hardware issue so I upgraded to a MBA a little over a year ago. It is still working great for me.
I used a 15" MBP for 4 years with no problem and I run a lot more powerful programs than that (Vectorworks, Final Cut Pro, FileMaker Pro, Photoshop, etc). It was still meeting my needs but I had a hardware issue so I upgraded to a MBA a little over a year ago. It is still working great for me.