MBA purchase question and external HDD

[i-sidd]

Hi all,

I had thought that when the time comes to replace my macbook I would go with a MBP, but now i feel liek I shoudl get the MBA because of SSD. I don not need a laptop so that I can carry it around, becuase it will be used at home most of the time on my lap.

Now the only thing with MBA is space and cost.

I want to get the 128gb ssd with 8gb ram. I want to know what external HDD shoudl I get as I want the itunes and iphoto library to be in the external drive.

Shoudl I get a usb 3.0, thunderbolt or SDD external drive. SOrry for the noob questions, but which of these is teh most cost effectiev solution.

 

[dlimes13]

Hi all,

I had thought that when the time comes to replace my macbook I would go with a MBP, but now i feel liek I shoudl get the MBA because of SSD. I don not need a laptop so that I can carry it around, becuase it will be used at home most of the time on my lap.

Now the only thing with MBA is space and cost.

I want to get the 128gb ssd with 8gb ram. I want to know what external HDD shoudl I get as I want the itunes and iphoto library to be in the external drive.

Shoudl I get a usb 3.0, thunderbolt or SDD external drive. SOrry for the noob questions, but which of these is teh most cost effectiev solution.

I have the 13" MacBook Air w/ 8 GB RAM and the 128 GB SSD. Your best bet is a USB 3.0 external hard drive. I have this 2 TB:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236187


Of course, there are plenty of 1 TB one's out there that are more cost effective, like:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136996


I recommend a Western Digital USB 3.0 drive because they are quality products and the best warranty.

 

[Weaselboy]

Thunderbolt and SSD, while very fast, are probably overkill for what you are doing and also very very expensive.

Just grab whatever USB 3.0 external drive you like. They will all work once you format them to Mac OS Extended.

The only real choice is if you want a smaller "portable" drive that can be run off a USB cable only. Or do you want to get a full sized "desktop" external drive that requires its own power cable. The latter will be somewhat faster.

If you get a "desktop" full sized drive, there are 5400RPM and 7200RPM drives, again with the latter being faster.

I have been using this one from Western Digital.

You don't need to buy a "Mac compatible" advertised drive. Those are just preformatted for the Mac and you can do that yourself with any drive.