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MBA Ram and SSD question

M

Misgreen

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 24, 2015
13
0
I'm planning on upgrading from a late 2011 MBP to the 13" MBA. I will primarily use the machine for web surfing, email, YouTube, and some photoshop use with the possibility of putting more of the creative suite on later. I'm in college so budget is a factor.

Should I go with the 4 or 8 gb on the ram?

Also 128 SSD vs. 256? The hard drive upgrade is about $200, but these days you can get an external 3T for less. I'm inclined to feel like I should save the money on the SSD for other upgrades.

Also what are your thoughts on AppleCare? I had it on my Pro and hardly used it.
 
Be aware you *cannot* upgrade RAM at all in a MBA, and while you can upgrade the SSD, it is a bit of a pain.

So, pretty much what you walk out of the store (or get shipped to you) is what you are "stuck with" for the life of your laptop.

How long do you plan on using it? if you plan on keeping it longer than 2 years, I would definitely go for the RAM upgrade...there are easy ways to get more external storage, so the SSD upgrade would definitely be optional (out of curiousity, how much of your HD are you using right now?).

re: AppleCare...when you say "hardly ever use it" what do you mean? If it is a question of price, look at B&H Photo for the cheapest price on AppleCare.
 
Misgreen said:
I'm planning on upgrading from a late 2011 MBP to the 13" MBA. I will primarily use the machine for web surfing, email, YouTube, and some photoshop use with the possibility of putting more of the creative suite on later. I'm in college so budget is a factor.

Should I go with the 4 or 8 gb on the ram?

Also 128 SSD vs. 256? The hard drive upgrade is about $200, but these days you can get an external 3T for less. I'm inclined to feel like I should save the money on the SSD for other upgrades.

Also what are your thoughts on AppleCare? I had it on my Pro and hardly used it.
Click to expand...

IMHO getting 8GB and 256GB is the only way to go, as has been stated RAM cannot be upgraded on MBA's and the SSD upgrade would be expensive and void the warranty. The cost difference is minor, if cost is your consideration then look on Apple's online store for their refurbished models and perhaps you will find what you want.
 
blesscheese said:
Be aware you *cannot* upgrade RAM at all in a MBA, and while you can upgrade the SSD, it is a bit of a pain.

So, pretty much what you walk out of the store (or get shipped to you) is what you are "stuck with" for the life of your laptop.

How long do you plan on using it? if you plan on keeping it longer than 2 years, I would definitely go for the RAM upgrade...there are easy ways to get more external storage, so the SSD upgrade would definitely be optional (out of curiousity, how much of your HD are you using right now?).

re: AppleCare...when you say "hardly ever use it" what do you mean? If it is a question of price, look at B&H Photo for the cheapest price on AppleCare.
Click to expand...

My goal is to have it longer than two years. Upgrading a computer every couple years is expensive. Sounds like the 8 gig is the way to go.

I called tech support a couple times immediately after buying the computer, and my power cord broke outside of the extended 3 year warranty.

What are your thoughts on external hard drives?

I want to say I'm using 500 gigs of HD space on MBP, but I also have a lot of games downloaded. I don't plan on redownloading all of those.
 
Unless Apple has changed their practices, you have the entire first year of ownership to purchase AppleCare. I was actually 2 days past my 1 year warranty's expiration date when I bought it for my laptop but they still sold it to me.

Also, even though the SSD is technically upgradeable in the 2013 or later MBA, no one has any for sale. Only the SATA models of 2010-2012 currently have third party SSDs available for purchase.
 
PBG4 Dude said:
Unless Apple has changed their practices, you have the entire first year of ownership to purchase AppleCare. I was actually 2 days past my 1 year warranty's expiration date when I bought it for my laptop but they still sold it to me.

Also, even though the SSD is technically upgradeable in the 2013 or later MBA, no one has any for sale. Only the SATA models of 2010-2012 currently have third party SSDs available for purchase.
Click to expand...

I think that's still Apple's policy. Which would certainly be helpful. Ignoring the fact that the internal SSD is technically upgradable, what about an external drive like Segate? Thoughts?
 
If you are going to do photo processing and other things in the future, go for 8GB RAM and 256GB storage. If you don't need them now, you'll need them in the future.
 
Misgreen said:
I think that's still Apple's policy. Which would certainly be helpful. Ignoring the fact that the internal SSD is technically upgradable, what about an external drive like Segate? Thoughts?
Click to expand...

I have an external 2TB hard drive (Western Digital, I believe). Gets about 95MBytes/second read/write so not too shabby over USB3. That time I forgot to pack it sucked though.
 
Meister said:
The OP didn't give any info on his use.

For general advice on RAM read here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1756865/

SSD size depends on various factors, only the OP knows.
Click to expand...

He did though: I will primarily use the machine for web surfing, email, YouTube, and some photoshop use with the possibility of putting more of the creative suite on later.

Plus he said he'd keep it for longer than 2 years, so obviously he'll want something that will still be useful and not suck at memory performance.

Back to OP, I'm making the same recommendation for my brother in law. He's doing online courses, along with producing some video, though not necessarily in huge 1080P vids. I've made the recommendation of a MBA with the same config - 13 / 1.6 / 8, though I recommend the 2.2 i7 if he wanted something longer term. Either way, an i5 with an SSD and 8 GB memory should last him much much longer on a Mac than something of a similar configuration on Windows. Can pretty much say the same thing to OP.
 
aesc80 said:
He did though: I will primarily use the machine for web surfing, email, YouTube, and some photoshop use with the possibility of putting more of the creative suite on later.
Click to expand...
You are right. I have to read more carefully :eek:

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aesc80 said:
Back to OP, I'm making the same recommendation for my brother in law. He's doing online courses, along with producing some video, though not necessarily in huge 1080P vids. I've made the recommendation of a MBA with the same config - 13 / 1.6 / 8, though I recommend the 2.2 i7 if he wanted something longer term. Either way, an i5 with an SSD and 8 GB memory should last him much much longer on a Mac than something of a similar configuration on Windows. Can pretty much say the same thing to OP.
Click to expand...
Very good advice for the OPs usage!

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aesc80 said:
Plus he said he'd keep it for longer than 2 years, so obviously he'll want something that will still be useful and not suck at memory performance.
Click to expand...
What do you mean?
 
Meister said:
What do you mean?
Click to expand...

In that I meant when keeping it for a longer time, especially as we climb the 64-bit OSX world, we'll start finding more applications taking up vital memory space. I'm willing to bet the next 2 revisions of OSX (and any upgraded apps along with it) will eat that 4GB memory array alive once we get there. Add to the fact that the memory is soldered, it's just much more savvy and less regretful to simply order 8 GB today.

I would know!!! (<-- ordered a late 2013 iMac 27" ... with a 1 TB HDD - you have no idea how bad I want to crack that open and stick an SSD!!! lol)
 
aesc80 said:
Back to OP, I'm making the same recommendation for my brother in law. He's doing online courses, along with producing some video, though not necessarily in huge 1080P vids. I've made the recommendation of a MBA with the same config - 13 / 1.6 / 8, though I recommend the 2.2 i7 if he wanted something longer term. Either way, an i5 with an SSD and 8 GB memory should last him much much longer on a Mac than something of a similar configuration on Windows. Can pretty much say the same thing to OP.
Click to expand...

Just so that I'm clear, 13' MBA, 8 gig Ram (not sure what the 1.6 refers to). And how much SSD? 128 vs. 256?

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z31fanatic said:
If you are going to do photo processing and other things in the future, go for 8GB RAM and 256GB storage. If you don't need them now, you'll need them in the future.
Click to expand...

This is a really good point. In two years, how much crap am I going to want to save on my machine.
 
Misgreen said:
Just so that I'm clear, 13' MBA, 8 gig Ram (not sure what the 1.6 refers to). And how much SSD? 128 vs. 256?
Click to expand...

1.6 as in the 1.6 GHz i5 Core processor. And yeah, looks like 256 GB would be your magic number.
 
Misgreen said:
Just so that I'm clear, 13' MBA, 8 gig Ram (not sure what the 1.6 refers to). And how much SSD? 128 vs. 256?

----------



This is a really good point. In two years, how much crap am I going to want to save on my machine.
Click to expand...

I have a mid-2012 MBA and 256Gb is really barely enough, would certainly not have wanted to go lower than this! 8Gb RAM is also very sensible and upgrading from a 1.6Ghz CPU the i7 is also a no-brainer IMHO, as this laptop needs all the help it can get in the CPU department.
 
oxfordguy said:
I have a mid-2012 MBA and 256Gb is really barely enough, would certainly not have wanted to go lower than this!
Click to expand...

I definitely see the point here. I think I'm just still having a hard time with the idea of paying an extra $200 for 128 extra gig of internal storage when externals are so much cheaper. It's definitely a convenience thing.
 
Misgreen said:
I definitely see the point here. I think I'm just still having a hard time with the idea of paying an extra $200 for 128 extra gig of internal storage when externals are so much cheaper. It's definitely a convenience thing.
Click to expand...

Maybe cheaper if external HDD, but external SSDs aren't cheap either!

Sure you can use an external HDD (I use a 1TB USB 3.0 G-Drive with my MBA for storing movies and the like), but you won't get the same performance as internal SSD storage, nor the convenience. I certainly wouldn't put any applications on an external drive
 
oxfordguy said:
Maybe cheaper if external HDD, but external SSDs aren't cheap either!

Sure you can use an external HDD (I use a 1TB USB 3.0 G-Drive with my MBA for storing movies and the like), but you won't get the same performance as internal SSD storage, nor the convenience. I certainly wouldn't put any applications on an external drive
Click to expand...

Good to know! Thanks! :) I was thinking about external HDD. I didn't know external SDDs were a thing. I'm not exactly the most versed in tech language and specs.
 
To store files (pictures/movies/music/...) and use it sometimes, external HDD should be fine.
Search for USB 3.0 and if you want just to plug in usb, search for 2,5" disk. 3,5" need more power (AC) and it's bigger, but maybe little cheaper and with higher capacity.

- 2,5" up to ~1 TB
- 3,5" up to ~4 TB

Photoshop & college -> buy 8 GB ram, best choice 256 GB SSD (if you don't have money, you can get more space with external drive)
 
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bits said:
To store files (pictures/movies/music/...) and use it sometimes, external HDD should be fine.
Search for USB 3.0 and if you want just to plug in usb, search for 2,5" disk. 3,5" need more power (AC) and it's bigger, but maybe little cheaper and with higher capacity.

- 2,5" up to ~1 TB
- 3,5" up to ~4 TB

Photoshop & college -> buy 8 GB ram, best choice 256 GB SSD (if you don't have money, you can get more space with external drive)
Click to expand...

You can get 2TB USB 3.0 external drived now, e.g. http://www.seagate.com/gb/en/external-hard-drives/portable-hard-drives/standard/backup-plus/

Bu it's annoying to have to always plug this in access all your music etc.
 
oxfordguy said:
You can get 2TB USB 3.0 external drived now, e.g. http://www.seagate.com/gb/en/external-hard-drives/portable-hard-drives/standard/backup-plus/

Bu it's annoying to have to always plug this in access all your music etc.
Click to expand...

Oh, 2TB, good to know, thanks.

Therefore I recommend as the largest built SSD.

If you need something to college, you can take with you MBA & 2,5" external drive. If you got a NAS drive (larger, heavier) connected to your network via ethernet cable it may be a little difficult.
When I was studying, I always took with me external disk & pendrives (participated in projects that require it). Then I put in the MBP 2011 second drive (SSD 256GB + 750GB HDD). Yes, it's annoying to have always connected drive to your laptop, but for college I think it will be very useful.
 
Thanks all! I really appreciate the help. I think ill go with 8 ram and 256 SSD.
 
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