Need Advice For A New Air

[PutTheFBackIn]

So we’re purchasing a MacBook Air for my nephew. He’s going to be starting high school and ideally we want this computer to last all four years.

Through my own research, it seems like a no-brainer to skip the entry-level dual-core and go for the quad-core processor. I’m also thinking it’s probably best to go with 512gb.

Where I get conflicted is about the RAM. Is it worth bumping it up to 16? And what about the previous configurations I listed above? Would a dual-core do the job?

I would say my nephew is a casual consumer. He likes using YouTube and listening to music and doing some light web surfing. Of course he’s only 15 so that could potentially change and we don’t want to be completely blindsided if he starts getting into something like photo-editing or something.

Any and all suggestions are welcome. Thanks in advance!

 

[IngerMan]

Dear Uncle. 4 years is a long time, can you spring for 16GB.

 

[deeddawg]

See the various other threads discussing this exact question.

In summary tho:

Macs use virtual memory - if sometime the system needs more than the physical RAM, it uses the fast SSD to expand. Yes, it was noticeable back in the old slow spinning hard drive days - but isn't an issue today outside of specific use cases. 8GB is not a hard limit.

Few "general users" need more than 8GB nor will they within the next several years. Everything's 64bit now and there's nothing on the horizon for moving to 128bit OS or apps.

If someone doesn't know why they need more than 8GB, they probably don't.

It's easy to spend other people's money, so lots of folks will suggest spending $200 you don't need to spend.

No, it won't hurt anything but your wallet to upgrade the memory. It also won't ever come back in resale. IMHO for most folks it's a waste of money that could be better spent elsewhere.

 

[nill1234]

I went for 16 gb but my memory pressure is always low. I also went for 256 gb because i have an external ssd and this is only my side laptop for coding. I also have a desktop with windows and lots of ssd storage. In your case go for 512 and 8gb if this thing starts getting slow sell it an buy a new one and put ontop the 200$ of the ram upgrade.

 

[PutTheFBackIn]

Thanks for the replies. Will probably go with 512gb / 8 gb RAM / quad-core i5.