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Mac to Sony and now maybe back to Mac ?

bigbadneil

bigbadneil

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 18, 2009
360
3
Last year I asked for help from this forum on what laptop I should buy and after many replies it was the general consensus that I should go for a New Sony Z which I did, the only problem that I have had since getting this is that at that time in Asia (where I live) the biggest hard drive was 128 GB so that is what I ended up with and since buying the Sony I have had to buy a 500 GB external hard drive which is OK but not really what I want, so I am back in the market for an upgrade.
Before buying the Sony I had a MacBook Air and loved it but due to the lack of memory and the need to run windows programs I switched to the Sony. So my question is what should I try next?? I looked at the new MacBook Air but they only have 128 GB so can’t go that route, and looked at the MacBook Pro thinking that I can boot camp it so that I have the best of both worlds but they are heavy and I really don’t want to drag a heavy computer back and forward to work every two months (I work on an Oil Rig in Africa).
So please can someone offer me some new ideas, especially small and light and plenty of memory
Thanks
 
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If you don't need it now, I would wait for the Sandy Bridge refresh of the 13" Air and get it with the optional 256 GB SSD. I've heard June or July for the refresh. Who knows though. It's coming, just don't know when.
 
HAHA, the MacBook Pros are not heavy. They are extremely light. Even the 17" is light compared to the competitor's 15"s.
 
Next MacBook Air update will be Spring or Summer 2012.

Put SB in MBA's too soon and it will pull sales from the more profitable MacBook Pro's, especially their 13" MBP

No way it will be any sooner, it's about profit first and as it stands now the current 11 and 13" MBA sales are double or more than Apple anticipated.

If you need it now, buy it now. If an update comes in a month sell the old and buy the new ... future proofing electronics is vapor ... odds of coming out ahead are about as good as in a Casino ... "see it, like it, buy it, enjoy it" ...
 
Sorry me again I just dont think 256 MB is enough, I am using about 120 of 128 MB on the Sony Vaio and another 300 on the external HD
Also waht about the option for a 512 SDD drive (or something like that) cost 1200 bucks, guess I need that right???
 
bigbadneil said:
Sorry me again I just dont think 256 MB is enough, I am using about 120 of 128 MB on the Sony Vaio and another 300 on the external HD
Also waht about the option for a 512 SDD drive (or something like that) cost 1200 bucks, guess I need that right???
Click to expand...

you mean gb not mb...
 
a 512gb solid-state drive is not out of the question if money is no object. That's a biggest SSD you can buy.

Honestly, your best (and cheapest) bet is just getting a 1tb external USB 2.0 drive. Sure, you may not want to carry another little thing around, but around us$99.00 you're not gonna get an "upgrade" for any cheaper.

... and I gotta agree, my 15" is NOT heavy. What exactly is "light" to you? It seems like you really like the ultralight category, but your options for on-board hard drive space is limited if you're thinking about going with the new Air. I don't know what the situation is with the Vaio Z.
 
Gr80Likes2Boogi said:
a 512gb solid-state drive is not out of the question if money is no object. That's a biggest SSD you can buy.

Honestly, your best (and cheapest) bet is just getting a 1tb external USB 2.0 drive. Sure, you may not want to carry another little thing around, but around us$99.00 you're not gonna get an "upgrade" for any cheaper.

... and I gotta agree, my 15" is NOT heavy. What exactly is "light" to you? It seems like you really like the ultralight category, but your options for on-board hard drive space is limited if you're thinking about going with the new Air. I don't know what the situation is with the Vaio Z.
Click to expand...
Sir,
I have always been a Mac man but I work for Chevron and they took my PC laptop back when I started working in another business unit and there softwear for checking email on a personel laptop only works on a windows PC so that was the main reason why i switched back to a PS i.e. the Sony Vaio.
In Asia they only have the Sony Vaio in a 256 GB (now) so I am thinking of going back to apple with a bigger hard drive and boot camp it so that I have the best of both worlds
Sony Vaio 512 GB in US $3600
MB Pro 13" with 512 GB SSD is $3060 not sure what the cost of the 15" is??.
THe extra 1200 bucks wont break the bank
 
entatlrg said:
Next MacBook Air update will be Spring or Summer 2012.

Put SB in MBA's too soon and it will pull sales from the more profitable MacBook Pro's, especially their 13" MBP

No way it will be any sooner, it's about profit first and as it stands now the current 11 and 13" MBA sales are double or more than Apple anticipated.

If you need it now, buy it now. If an update comes in a month sell the old and buy the new ... future proofing electronics is vapor ... odds of coming out ahead are about as good as in a Casino ... "see it, like it, buy it, enjoy it" ...
Click to expand...

June or July would be 8-9 months since the last refresh. Definitely not out of the question by any means. You think Apple will allow the new Air refresh to go to mid-2012 with laptops like the new Samsung 9 series coming out? You're out of your mind. I think Apple would be cutting into their profit margins if they DIDN'T release a Sandy Bridge Air. A Core 2 Duo machine in 2012, wow.
 
Who the hell wants to boot camp into windows just for email?

Sounds like you're just trying to get talked into a mac when a PC is what your livelihood demands. I also don't understand why hard drive size is a determining factor. You can literally put anything in a PC laptop.
 
Al Coholic said:
Who the hell wants to boot camp into windows just for email?

Sounds like you're just trying to get talked into a mac when a PC is what your livelihood demands. I also don't understand why hard drive size is a determining factor. You can literally put anything in a PC laptop.
Click to expand...

I want to bootcamp for my Chevron email.........me

My livelihood doesn’t demand anything, I like having new things and am lucky enough to be able to afford new things, I was just asking for some advice on what is now available.........when I bought the Sony Vaio Z it was the best option for me then, things have changed and now I want a new toy.

As for getting everything on a laptop, I am sorry but you are wrong, my 128 GB is nearly full and my external HD is also nearly full.

Saying all that thanks for your reply
 
Why not just run Windows XP or Windows 7 in a virtual machine environment, such as Parallels or VMWare? That way, you have a Windows environment for your email and Mac OS for everything else. I just bought a 2011 17" MacBook Pro (the stock model) and transport it with me to work on a daily basis. I'm not a lumberjack-type person, and can tell you that it weighs less than the Dell 15" computers I maintain at work. My particular model has a 750GB HDD in it, almost six times the capacity of your 128GB HDD. I'm running Windows 7 via VMWare Fusion, although I would recommend purchasing additional RAM - it only comes with 4GB.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8G4 Safari/6533.18.5)

Sandy Bridge Air is just shorthand for a MacBook Air with one of Intel's new Sandy Bridge processors in it.
 
HawaiiMacAddict said:
Why not just run Windows XP or Windows 7 in a virtual machine environment, such as Parallels or VMWare? That way, you have a Windows environment for your email and Mac OS for everything else. I just bought a 2011 17" MacBook Pro (the stock model) and transport it with me to work on a daily basis. I'm not a lumberjack-type person, and can tell you that it weighs less than the Dell 15" computers I maintain at work. My particular model has a 750GB HDD in it, almost six times the capacity of your 128GB HDD. I'm running Windows 7 via VMWare Fusion, although I would recommend purchasing additional RAM - it only comes with 4GB.
Click to expand...
Hay man thanks for the info I really appreciate it, I am on an Oil Rig in Sunny Angola right now and when I get home I will pop over to the Apple store and get my hands on one of the MB Pro's and take it from there.

Will this Sandy Bridge have a bigger HD???
 
What about this: or should I just go with the iMac and a 11"MBA
1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM
128GB Flash Storage
Apple MacBook Air SuperDrive
Apple LED Cinema Display (27" flat panel)
Keyboard (Int'l English) & User's Guide (English)
AppleCare Protection Plan for MacBook / MacBook Air / 13-inch MacBook Pro - Auto-enroll
Wireless Keyboard
Time Capsule
Nouse
 
Is it not possible to upgrade the HDD on your Sony Z? From the amount of space you are using right now, it doesn't seem like the MBA will be a suitable standalone solution for some time but your iMac + MBA idea sounds good.
 
I have just come off the phone with 3 different Apple shops in KL and all of them say 2 to 6 weeks to order the iMac..............WTF.
I really don’t want to wait, I only get one month off then back on the Oil Rig so I want it as soon as I get home in one weeks time.
Apart from 5k Malaysian how much of a difference is there between a stock iMac and the fully loaded one that I originally wanted????.
 
I thought I'd chime in as I have both a Vaio Z and a 15" Macbook Pro.

To address some concerns of yours:

Size: the Z is significantly lighter and smaller than my MBP. While the MBP isn't heavy by any means, it is heavy relative to the Z.

Space: Seems to be your largest concern. You can easily mod the optical drive in the Z to fit a standard 2.5" laptop drive. I believe there is a 9.5mm height limitation, so currently the largest drive you can put in is a 750gb HD. There should be a 1tb 9.5mm laptop drive coming out later this year. So in total - if you just modded your optical bay - you could have a 750gb + 128gb SSD. The Z also now has an option for a 512gb SSD (I believe it's a quad raid 0 array).

The stock SSD in the Z is not very easy to replace depending on the model you have. Sony uses proprietary parts, so you cannot use just any old 2.5" drive in place of the stock SSD without modification. That said, if you have the cash - you can call sony and order the proprietary 512gb SSD and install quite easily.

So in total - if money was no object - and you wanted to max out your Z and still have an SSD you would:

1. Pay the cash for the 512gb SSD upgrade
2. Remove the optical bay in exchange for a standard 2.5" bay and either buy a 750gb HD now, or a 1tb drive later this year.
 
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