If by fine you mean will it work. Yes, it will be fine.
You asked what other people do.
You also asked if owning a MBA and nothing else... is not something I would choose, no.
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MBA as desktop?
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If by fine you mean will it work. Yes, it will be fine.
You asked what other people do.
You also asked if owning a MBA and nothing else... is not something I would choose, no.
Yes, you can. I use my 128GB 2013 13" Air as my only computer, and at my desk it is plugged into an external monitor, speakers, keyboard, mouse and is on a stand. Works perfectly.
As for storage, its connected to a 3TB USB 3 WD hard drive and a 500GB Toshiba USB 3 drive, so the storage isn't an issue (plus a 64GB SD card permanently in the slot)
As for storage, its connected to a 3TB USB 3 WD hard drive and a 500GB Toshiba USB 3 drive, so the storage isn't an issue (plus a 64GB SD card permanently in the slot)
I use a 13" mid 2012 Macbook Air as my main computer, with a 24" monitor, apple keyboard and magic mouse.
Storage is not an issue because back-ups and media (movies, music) are stored on a network disk attached to an Airport Extreme router.
If this does not fulfill your needs, let me remind you that stating 2012, Macbook Air has USB 3.0 (I also have 2 x 1TB and 1 x 3TB USB 3.0 disks).
I benchmarked a small (2.5" Seagate Backup Plus) 1 TB disk with large files (movies) and it hit 110 MB/s on Write.
That's the same speed as if the disk would be inside the computer (i.e. macbook pro) !!!
So... if you want to use a MacBook Air as a desktop and worry about capacity, just use a network drive, or an USB 3.0 disk (if you want higher speeds). Problem solved.
What you will really miss is a dedicated video card if you want to play newer games but except that... no, I don't think you will miss anything.
Hope it helped...
Storage is not an issue because back-ups and media (movies, music) are stored on a network disk attached to an Airport Extreme router.
If this does not fulfill your needs, let me remind you that stating 2012, Macbook Air has USB 3.0 (I also have 2 x 1TB and 1 x 3TB USB 3.0 disks).
I benchmarked a small (2.5" Seagate Backup Plus) 1 TB disk with large files (movies) and it hit 110 MB/s on Write.
That's the same speed as if the disk would be inside the computer (i.e. macbook pro) !!!
So... if you want to use a MacBook Air as a desktop and worry about capacity, just use a network drive, or an USB 3.0 disk (if you want higher speeds). Problem solved.
What you will really miss is a dedicated video card if you want to play newer games but except that... no, I don't think you will miss anything.
Hope it helped...
Oh, yeah, of course. For what it's worth I agree with you, it's just our setups were/are a little different. But it's based as much on circumstances as preference and style. When I have to travel, I usually only load a few movies on my laptop and I'm OK with that. If I were traveling abroad for a while, I'd copy all the movies to an external drive, and I'd be okay with that.
I live in a secluded location out in the woods, way off the road and any internet connectivity must come over the copper that Verizon buried there many years ago. I'm happy to have access at all (not to mention electricity!) and I'm not interested in cloud based streaming over 2.5mb DSL.
Been there before, but all we had was dialup.
God willing, I'll never have to worry about the lack of HSI again.
It's interesting to see the different opinions here. I can understand what you're saying on a conceptual level. But as a practical matter, I plug/unplug my MBA once a day perhaps when I'm at home. Pull the power cable, usb and thunderbolt. Takes maybe 10 seconds and there is no "pain". For me, it would be more painful to spend money on a second computer that I don't really need.
Circa 2006 I had a big G5 setup at home for video editing/3d modelling and a MBP that I took into the office everyday. One day the G5 died and I never bothered to repair it since the MBP was much faster. Ever since then I just couldn't see the justification to have more than one computer when laptops were fast enough for what I was doing.
Expressly for that purpose, I agree.
My PC is 10 years old, it's due for an upgrade but am not in a hurry. It doubles as my DVR and my DLNA server. At one point it was my web server also. I remember at one time when I was building my video library, it was also my video encoder machine where I can leave it running 24x7 100% and not have to worry to stop it so I can surf freely and whatnot if that was my ONLY machine.
All in all, if possible I like to have a convertible for fun driving and another SUV for real cargo and entire family. A tool for the right job.
The MacBook Air is the only computer I use. I'm using it for photo editing, digital painting, light-to-medium video editing/encoding, and daily things like web browsing, email, music.
I went with a Mid 2013, 13-inch, 256 GB, 8 GB RAM model and I'm loving it. The storage isn't really an issue for me, but I've gone ahead and purchased one of those Nifty MiniDrives and I'm carrying my entire iTunes library on it, saving me 64 GB of space on the internal storage. I also have an external, USB 3, 2 TB Hard Drive as well for storing my edited video.
The 2013 MacBook Air is a great machine.
I went with a Mid 2013, 13-inch, 256 GB, 8 GB RAM model and I'm loving it. The storage isn't really an issue for me, but I've gone ahead and purchased one of those Nifty MiniDrives and I'm carrying my entire iTunes library on it, saving me 64 GB of space on the internal storage. I also have an external, USB 3, 2 TB Hard Drive as well for storing my edited video.
The 2013 MacBook Air is a great machine.
I was worried about the lack on memory when i got my MBA too. However I found a pretty sweet product. Its the WD Mycloud. Its an external hard drive that you can connect to from anywhere in the world, not only from your computer but your phone, tablet or any other computer. As long as you have internet or on our local network it can be accessed. My wife is a photographer so it really helps that she can instantly transfer pictures to the hard drive in the field. It has drag and drop capabilities and is expandable. Plus its not that expensive, I think it was around 130 for 2tb.
I have 4 Macs. Mini was my first.
I use the MBA as my personal "at work" computer, though when I bought the Mini, I worked at a company that was all Mac, and I had a MBA as my desktop/WFH computer.
I use the MBA as my personal "at work" computer, though when I bought the Mini, I worked at a company that was all Mac, and I had a MBA as my desktop/WFH computer.
This is exactly what I've dedicated my 2008 15" MBP to. But last week the battery totally died. It will not charge at all. I'm not going to pour any money down the hole of a 6 year old computer, something else is bound to fail and it's just not worth it. I am still using it with the power supply, but that magsafe connector is really easy to jar loose. One day that will happen while it's writing to disk and that will probably completely hose it.
I've been using my 2011 13" Air with a 3TB external, 24" 1920x1200 matte screen, apple kb+magic mouse since I got it 95% of the time, and it's been great.
I just need the battery replaced..
I just need the battery replaced..
My MacBook Air is my primary machine at home. I connect it up to a larger monitor, keyboard, Magic Trackpad and various other peripherals and use it as nice dual headed workstation. Handles everything I've ever thrown at it.
I do all my computing exclusively on MBA 2013. Mostly write CFD codes with OPENFoam. more than enough power.
Full-time graphics professional working on printed material in Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign CS6* and I have absolutely no issue with a 13" MBA (8Gb RAM, 500Gb SSD) as my sole machine. Drives a 24" Cintiq as the primary monitor, plus wireless KB and mouse. Needs a USB hub because of the shortage of ports, and I have a rolling archive program moving stuff to an external drive, but I'm generally very happy with it.
Cheers
Jim
*Adobe will have to pry my perpetual license from my cold, dead hands.
I use a MacBook Air as my main computer, it replaced my Mac mini which I loved but I wanted something portable.
I did try using it in clamshell mode with a monitor and apple wireless keyboard and mouse. I didn't like having the mac closed up or all these wires sticking out if it.
Now I just use it as it is, I can use my Apple TV for a bigger display if I need it. And I have all my iTunes and movies on an external drive.
I did try using it in clamshell mode with a monitor and apple wireless keyboard and mouse. I didn't like having the mac closed up or all these wires sticking out if it.
Now I just use it as it is, I can use my Apple TV for a bigger display if I need it. And I have all my iTunes and movies on an external drive.
I've used my 2011 MBA (4GB RAM, 256GB SSD) for almost 3 years as my only machine, and I'm an iOS software developer and music producer.
It's a perfect setup because when I have to travel to clients, I can take everything with me (without having to sync a separate machine) and when I'm working at home or in the studio I can use it with a 24" monitor, external hard drives, etc.
My 2013 MBA has been my main machine since I bought it at launch last year. The key for me was to max it out on specs to have as much on board storage as possible.
The only consideration I've had is that I've been considering external storage lately as I'm starting to run into storage issues, but have yet to decide on a proper solution. I'd like to take advantage of the fast I/O options like USB3 and thunderbolt, but I'm really a "grab and go" type guy and love being able to quickly disconnect the cables at my desk and throw the MBA in my bag. It comes with me at least 3-4 days in a typical week and having to eject the external storage would be a pain for as much as I connect/disconnect from my desktop setup. That and the thunderbolt port being tied up by my monitor preventing me from getting gigabit ethernet access.
The only consideration I've had is that I've been considering external storage lately as I'm starting to run into storage issues, but have yet to decide on a proper solution. I'd like to take advantage of the fast I/O options like USB3 and thunderbolt, but I'm really a "grab and go" type guy and love being able to quickly disconnect the cables at my desk and throw the MBA in my bag. It comes with me at least 3-4 days in a typical week and having to eject the external storage would be a pain for as much as I connect/disconnect from my desktop setup. That and the thunderbolt port being tied up by my monitor preventing me from getting gigabit ethernet access.
Don't need 2 monitors and was worried about putting extra strain on the air by making it run 2 monitors
The MacBook Air has an integrated GPU, which means the 4 or 8GB memory available to the system must be shared to the graphics system (on a MacBook Pro or iMac, the graphics card has its own dedicated memory leaving the system RAM untouched).
Running a MacBook Air in clamshell mode reduces the memory requirement of the graphics system, since it's working with fewer pixels, so there is a performance benefit. Whether or not that's noticeable depends entirely on what type of activities you're doing.
For day to day usage I suggest that convenience takes priority. If you are working with large files, or playing a full screen game, for example, the benefits of running the Air in clamshell mode may be more tangible however.
Good point. Though I have to say, I'm working on print projects and retina-quality publications for iPad in CS6, so I'm handling fairly large documents and, whilst not doing anything as processor-intensive as chewing through large video files or full-screen gaming, I haven't seen any performance hit compared to the MBP I used to use in an identical configuration.
Cheers
Jim
I had used a 11in Air with 256GB SSD \ 8GB RAM connected to a bluetooth keyboard, mouse, and 27 inch IPS monitor as my main desktop for almost two years. It worked extremely well for daily writing, surfing, coding, running a W7 VM and light gaming.
I've since added an iMac to the mix so I can run more VM's and game more. Air was nearly perfect and I could easily see myself going back to that machine full time at some point.
I've since added an iMac to the mix so I can run more VM's and game more. Air was nearly perfect and I could easily see myself going back to that machine full time at some point.
My 13" i7 8 gig 512 gig MBA sits on a Rain Design mStand, is connected to an HP 23" E231 monitor (via a Thunderbolt -> DVI adapter), an Apple bluetooth keyboard and Logitech M555b bluetooth mouse.
A great home office setup for me, and when I travel it's a matter of unplugging the Thunderbolt adapter & putting the MBA into my bag.
It's not the only machine in my home office, but it does get used more than the others.
A great home office setup for me, and when I travel it's a matter of unplugging the Thunderbolt adapter & putting the MBA into my bag.
It's not the only machine in my home office, but it does get used more than the others.
I use a Mid 2013 MBA with a 256GB SSD as my primary workstation. I find if I'm good about cleaning and archiving projects I never have an issue but when I'm out on the road I carry a extra 64GB USB3 thumb drive just in case space issues come up. Backing up to a Time Capsule also makes the cleaning easier as if I make a mistake I can go back about 2 years on that to find old files.