MBA as your Main Computer?

[DollaTwentyFive]

Had an iMac and the MBA. Was tired of trying to keep everything in sync. I ended up selling the iMac and going with the MBA with the thunderbolt display. Love it as my only machine. On the desk most of the time but portable when I need it to be and no need to sync files.

My usage isn't demanding so I have never had an issue with the MBA as my only machine.

 

[kamuix]

My 2010 mba is my main rig after my 2005 mbp took a bullet in graphics card. I have it hooked up to a dell 24 inch widescreen, with a razer black widow ultimate keyboard, and a cyborg rat 7 mouse. I also have a usb hub that is used to plug in the keyboard and mouse. My mba is in clamshell mode and the fan doesn't spool as much, unless I'm watching youtube videos. If it does get hot, I have a laptop cooler under it that seems to do the trick in lowering the mba fans rpm.

 

[yusukeaoki]

If your computer demands arent has high, it is possible.
In my case the Air isnt enough so I bought a iMac 27in and MBP 17in as well.
(Especially because I use it for photoshop, Final Cut, etc)
But if its just for emailing, easy browsing, etc, it wouldnt have a problem.

 

[onthecouchagain]

Folks, I just set up my 2011 13" Air with a free Acer monitor that I got, and honestly, things look slightly blurry, especially text. I'm not sure if it's my imagination or not, but things are just a little grainier than I'm used to. EDIT: I'm using a DVI cable, btw.

My question is, is it the monitor? It's this one: http://www.amazon.com/Acer-S201HL-20-Inch-Widescreen-Ultra-Slim/dp/B003UVCSZ6

Or is it the Air itself? I already have the resolution set at its highest available option (1600x900).

 

[yusukeaoki]

Folks, I just set up my 2011 13" Air with a free Acer monitor that I got, and honestly, things look slightly blurry, especially text. I'm not sure if it's my imagination or not, but things are just a little grainier than I'm used to.

My question is, is it the monitor? It's this one: http://www.amazon.com/Acer-S201HL-20-Inch-Widescreen-Ultra-Slim/dp/B003UVCSZ6

Or is it the Air itself? I already have the resolution set at its highest available option (1600x900).

Reading the top review on Amazon, it seems like the monitor.

 

[onthecouchagain]

Reading the top review on Amazon, it seems like the monitor.

So do I understand correctly, if a monitor has a higher resolution, the screen quality when the Air is connected to it will be sharper and better?

How high resolution does the Air support?

And does the Air support HDMI?

 

[onthecouchagain]

I'm looking at the Thunderbolt display, and I'm awfully tempted. Especially since there are refurbished ones from $849. It's still a hefty price tag, and I can't help but feel for a few hundred dollars more, I could get full fledged iMac. But I'd lose on the display size. Plus, it might make my Air somewhat obsolete (I also own an iPad).

Anyone want to share their opinions of the TB Display vs. an iMac?

I also have to factor in what the 2012 iMac might bring, with all these rumors of retina displays...

 

[yusukeaoki]

So do I understand correctly, if a monitor has a higher resolution, the screen quality when the Air is connected to it will be sharper and better?

How high resolution does the Air support?

And does the Air support HDMI?

Well for HDMI, you would need Thunderbolt to HDMI converter.
And MBA should support up to 2560x1440 since the Apple Thunderbolt Display is set to that resolution.

 

[thekev]

If your computer demands arent has high, it is possible.
In my case the Air isnt enough so I bought a iMac 27in and MBP 17in as well.
(Especially because I use it for photoshop, Final Cut, etc)
But if its just for emailing, easy browsing, etc, it wouldnt have a problem.

I don't think I'd ever want to own 3 computers. Since your sig suggests both are 2011s, may I ask how your 17" mbp compares to the imac in terms of speed in those applications?

 

[njean777]

It pretty much is my "main computer" I have a gaming pc, but it is strictly used only for gaming. I barley even use the web or read emails on it aside from multiplayer games (gaming Pc). I use my air for everything else like photo editing, web, work, school papers, etc.

 

[appleguy123]

I use a MacBook air i7 13" as my main computer. It's been absolutely fantastic for most tasks. The only problem I've had with it is it takes forever to edit hd video, but I didn't buy the computer expected to do this very often.

I want to sell my 17" 2009 MacBook Pro for a Thunderbolt display, but I want to see what Apple does at WWDC first.

 

[yusukeaoki]

I don't think I'd ever want to own 3 computers. Since your sig suggests both are 2011s, may I ask how your 17" mbp compares to the imac in terms of speed in those applications?

Speed isnt much different since they are both HDD and not SSDs.
But the speed of conversion such as to H264, iMac is faster by couple of seconds.
The geekbench score is only different by about 2000 points.
On my MBP, I get around 10,000 and for iMac about 12,000 to 13,000.

 

[thekev]

Speed isnt much different since they are both HDD and not SSDs.
But the speed of conversion such as to H264, iMac is faster by couple of seconds.
The geekbench score is only different by about 2000 points.
On my MBP, I get around 10,000 and for iMac about 12,000 to 13,000.

Thanks. I was wondering about that. SSDs really don't make much of a difference on intra application performance if you have a lot of ram. I don't think I'd buy a machine with less than 32GB or so these days if I intended to use it for work. It'll be cheap enough soon on any machine, and it's just enough to keep me from having to be concerned too much with background tasks when I have to run them.

 

[yusukeaoki]

Thanks. I was wondering about that. SSDs really don't make much of a difference on intra application performance if you have a lot of ram. I don't think I'd buy a machine with less than 32GB or so these days if I intended to use it for work. It'll be cheap enough soon on any machine, and it's just enough to keep me from having to be concerned too much with background tasks when I have to run them.

Yeah tbh, iMac is style. Its not the most powerful desktop.
That is why I built one Windows PC and a hackintosh (well in the process).
I would of went for a Mac Pro but the price is way out of my range.
You can build a better one with a price of iMac and better than the low end Mac Pro.

 

[jimboutilier]

The MBA can be a terrific primary computer for many

The key to a MBA being viable as a primary computer or you being happy with it as a primary computer is knowing your needs and its limitations.

Its a fantastic mobile platform for routine, light computing tasks that most people spend the majority of their time doing. But you need to remember it has a fairly lightweight cpu and graphics capability, has limited memory, and has limited storage capacity. The more you push those limitations the less happy you will be with it.

I find the MBA a fantastic machine for the majority of my computing tasks (and its much faster and more capable than I would have expected), and while I'm happy with it as my primary computer its not my only computer. Unfortunately there are some things I do a relatively small percentage of the time that exceed the MBA's capability (cpu, graphic,s ram, storage capacity) so I do have a Mac Mini as well (which I can remotely access if need be).

The few things I do that I do not find the MBA well suited to:
- Running multiple virtual machines
- Heavy video processing and transcoding
- Manipulating large photo libraries with high resolution RAW images
- Heavy multitasking (as opposed to task switching)
- Moving large amounts of data around (USB drives and USB or wireless ethernet just don't do it).

Hope this helps

 

[displayator]

I use a MBA 13" Late 2008 as my main dev machine

I still use a MacBook Air (13", 1.86 c2d - 128GB - 2GB) from 2008 as my main/only machine.

I made an iPhone & iPad app on it as well as a Java application. Nowadays I develop python web applications on it and it is mostly fine as long as the cpu intensive events don't last too long. This old model seem to overheat easily, even though the inside of the case and the fans are free of dust. Apple replaced the screen after one of the hinge broke last year (it was still under warranty). I used a full HD external screen a few time, but that seems to be a bit too much for the GPU. An external 1280x1024 was fine though.

I just can't wait for the 2012 MBA I'll probably get a maxed out 11" and an external screen.

 

[KohPhiPhi]

Had an iMac and the MBA. Was tired of trying to keep everything in sync. I ended up selling the iMac and going with the MBA with the thunderbolt display. Love it as my only machine. On the desk most of the time but portable when I need it to be and no need to sync files.

Exactly my same case: I had an iMac 27" and I decided to change it for a MBA 13" hooked to a 27" apple display. It works like a charm (see my signature).