Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

MBA 13" 8gb or 4gb?

Modrisco89

Modrisco89

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 13, 2015
20
2
Cork
Hi,

Wondering if you guys can help me, I've never been a mac user but thinking of joining the resistance.


Thinking of purchasing the one below:

http://www.apple.com/ie/macbook-air/specs.html

The 13" Mac with 128gb SSD (or should I go for 256gb?)

I'm wondering, would 4gb be enough for Microsoft office, spotify and webbrowsing at the same time?

Perhaps run virtual windows and some programming (programming like visual basic, python, nothing extreme) on it if that's possible

I'm not looking to do any gaming (maybe some classic games on an emulator)

I need something that'll last me the next 7-8 years and I've been advised that macs are the way to go.

Thinking of purchasing this tomorrow but I want the best 1st experience with a mac to be the best as possible!

Thanks.
 
Last edited:
The MacBook Air 4gb is fine for browsing and simple tasks, however in general 4gb is the bare minimum, you should go for 8gb at least. If you are looking to have the laptop for 6 odd years you do better buying a MacBook Pro. They tend to be more robust machines, the MacBook Airs are nice and light etc, but are not as good a workhorse as the Pro is. To give you an example, take something like this machine: http://www.ikfix.nl/macbook-pro-unibody-13-inch-m2010-occasion/nl/product/2302/?CPI=0 you can then get extra Ram and an SSD, this is much cheaper and will certainly last longer for what you want. The point is that if anything breaks, you can easily replace it, this can't be done with the new MacBook Airs en Pro's.

The most important thing for you is to figure out exactly what you need the machine to do and make your choice accordingly. Just as a general rule, laptops don't last much longer then 3 years.....even Mac's

Anyways, good luck.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ignatius345
Willo34 said:
The MacBook Air 4gb is fine for browsing and simple tasks, however in general 4gb is the bare minimum, you should go for 8gb at least. If you are looking to have the laptop for 6 odd years you do better buying a MacBook Pro. They tend to be more robust machines, the MacBook Airs are nice and light etc, but are not as good a workhorse as the Pro is. To give you an example, take something like this machine: http://www.ikfix.nl/macbook-pro-unibody-13-inch-m2010-occasion/nl/product/2302/?CPI=0 you can then get extra Ram and an SSD, this is much cheaper and will certainly last longer for what you want. The point is that if anything breaks, you can easily replace it, this can't be done with the new MacBook Airs en Pro's.

The most important thing for you is to figure out exactly what you need the machine to do and make your choice accordingly. Just as a general rule, laptops don't last much longer then 3 years.....even Mac's

Anyways, good luck.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the advice, but my acer is 7 years old just in bad shape, plus my friend's mac is 8 years old and it's still running no problem...
 
Modrisco89 said:
Thank you for the advice, but my acer is 7 years old just in bad shape, plus my friend's mac is 8 years old and it's still running no problem...
Click to expand...

Yes, I understand. Bet that your friends Mac is still running after 8 years because he has replaced/upgraded some parts down the years. Don't forget that for any MacBook Air or Pro model from 2014 onwards you cannot replace any parts yourself anymore! This basically means the machine is a onestopshop.
 
  • Like
Reactions: cycledance
Willo34 said:
Yes, I understand. Bet that your friends Mac is still running after 8 years because he has replaced/upgraded some parts down the years. Don't forget that for any MacBook Air or Pro model from 2014 onwards you cannot replace any parts yourself anymore! This basically means the machine is a onestopshop.
Click to expand...

He didn't but that doesn't matter, if it's gonna last 3-4 years then that's fine, I just wish to know if 8GB would better than 4gb consider what I want to do?
 
Willo34 said:
Yes it is, 100%. 4gb is not enough, especially in the coming years. Get 8gb, more than worth the extra investment.
Click to expand...

Ya I figured, I'm starting to think is it worth buying the pro retina altogether, would it last longer as more robust device? Please advise thanks
 
Modrisco89 said:
The 13" Mac with 128gb SSD (or should I go for 256gb?)

I'm wondering, would 4gb be enough for Microsoft office, spotify and webbrowsing at the same time?

I need something that'll last me the next 7-8 years and I've been advised that macs are the way to go.

Thinking of purchasing this tomorrow but I want the best 1st experience with a mac to be the best as possible!
Click to expand...


if u wanna stick with this for more than 2 years and have a great experience then get a 256gb hd and 8gb of ram.
a 128gb hdd and 4gb ram belong to 2005, not 2015 and certainly not 2020.
 
cycledance said:
if u wanna stick with this for more than 2 years and have a great experience then get a 256gb hd and 8gb of ram.
a 128gb hdd and 4gb ram belong to 2005, not 2015 and certainly not 2020.
Click to expand...

Don't see the point in 256gb at this point, I'm going for the new retina pro 128gb, I have all my music on Spotify, all my college work on onedrive plus I have a 1 TB external aswell for all my movies. Unless installing Windows might cause problems with space, might not bother doing that though, thanks for the advice.
 
Modrisco89 said:
Don't see the point in 256gb at this point, I'm going for the new retina pro 128gb, I have all my music on Spotify, all my college work on onedrive plus I have a 1 TB external aswell for all my movies. Unless installing Windows might cause problems with space, might not bother doing that though, thanks for the advice.
Click to expand...

well you are making a mistake but i can´t be bothered honestly. u'll see.
 
Very vague, can an expert confirm this? Is there any reason the future might bring that I will need 256 gb ssd?
 
Modrisco89 said:
Why do you recommend 256 as opposed 128?
Click to expand...
There is absolutely nothing wrong with the 128GB as long as you understand (it sounds like you do) you may need to store large files like a big music collection on an external drive or in a cloud service.

I have a 13" Retina with a 128GB as my only computer and it suits me perfectly and I store nothing at all in cloud services. It is not like OS X 10.12 Bunny Hop is going to come next year and all of a sudden require 5X the drive space and require a 256GB SSD.

Just to give you an idea, a new Mac with the OS and iLife and iWorks apps installed will use about 20GB of drive space. So that leaves you about a 100GB for personal files. If you can live with that (I can easily), then have at it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 997440, navaira, einkelflugle and 1 other person
The OP has already stated that he understands the limitations of 128GB SSD. Very little of his work product lives on the drive. If that's the case 4GB RAM should easily be adequate for several years. Hey, OP, have a great Mac experience.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Meister
cincygolfgrrl said:
The OP has already stated that he understands the limitations of 128GB SSD. Very little of his work product lives on the drive. If that's the case 4GB RAM should easily be adequate for several years. Hey, OP, have a great Mac experience.
Click to expand...

good thing he went with 8gb ram and 256gb hdd though. (and even that is very very little nowadays.)
 
Modrisco89 said:
Hi,

Wondering if you guys can help me, I've never been a mac user but thinking of joining the resistance.


Thinking of purchasing the one below:

http://www.apple.com/ie/macbook-air/specs.html

The 13" Mac with 128gb SSD (or should I go for 256gb?)

I'm wondering, would 4gb be enough for Microsoft office, spotify and webbrowsing at the same time?

Perhaps run virtual windows and some programming (programming like visual basic, python, nothing extreme) on it if that's possible

I'm not looking to do any gaming (maybe some classic games on an emulator)

I need something that'll last me the next 7-8 years and I've been advised that macs are the way to go.

Thinking of purchasing this tomorrow but I want the best 1st experience with a mac to be the best as possible!

Thanks.
Click to expand...


Watch this video and go from there. You'd be very surprised how far 4GB will take you and the 128SSD is fine

At this time there is a system in the refurbished are for under a 1000 dollars that would be fine , you have 2 weeks for trial can always return it
 
  • Like
Reactions: 997440, Weaselboy and Meister
4 GB really fits the majority of the people. For mainstream tasks like browsing, listening to music word processing, light gaming and video/photo edition should be completely fine. Now if I were to keep it for several years I would definitely get the 8 GB.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Meister and ignatius345
asoksevil said:
4 GB really fits the majority of the people. For mainstream tasks like browsing, listening to music word processing, light gaming and video/photo edition should be completely fine. Now if I were to keep it for several years I would definitely get the 8 GB.
Click to expand...


4 Gig is totally fine, you don't NEED 8 GB. The video I provided a link to PROVES you don't. Granted no one likes returning systems and waiting to order them but you can pickup one at one of the stores or order it and if it doesn't work exchange it. Heck I think Apple will even let you keep the "first one" while the second one is being built/ordered
 
  • Like
Reactions: Meister
cycledance said:
well you are making a mistake but i can´t be bothered honestly. u'll see.
Click to expand...
I have to agree here. Your only convenient option if you run out of space is to get a little 128gb flash drive and keep it parked in one of your USB ports -- but that's a lot slower and less convenient than just bumping it up now...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back