New MacbookAir suitable for me

T

Tryingthis

macrumors newbie
I want to buy a Macbook air 11" because of its portability, but I first want to gain some extra information about its performance.

Is this configuration of this laptop (i5 128GB, 4GB, 11") suitable for doing some matlab and maple tasks (especially matlab)? The system requirements for matlab are:

operating system:
Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion)

Mac OS X 10.6.4 (Snow Leopard) and above with Apple Java for Mac OS X Update 2 and above

Processors
All Intel-based Macs with an Intel Core 2 or later

Diskspace
with an Intel Core 2 or later
1 GB for MATLAB only,
3–4 GB for a typical installation

RAM
1024 MB
(At least 2048 MB recommended)

Is this possible? Or which configuration should you advise?

Thank you
 
Get 4GB of RAM. You will be happier.

I prefer the 13". A lot more screen to work with, and its just as thin as the 11".

For your use, i5 or i7 would work fine.
 
Tryingthis said:
I want to buy a Macbook air 11" because of its portability, but I first want to gain some extra information about its performance.

Is this configuration of this laptop (i5 128GB, 4GB, 11") suitable for doing some matlab and maple tasks (especially matlab)? The system requirements for matlab are:

operating system:
Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion)

Mac OS X 10.6.4 (Snow Leopard) and above with Apple Java for Mac OS X Update 2 and above

Processors
All Intel-based Macs with an Intel Core 2 or later

Diskspace
with an Intel Core 2 or later
1 GB for MATLAB only,
3–4 GB for a typical installation

RAM
1024 MB
(At least 2048 MB recommended)

Is this possible? Or which configuration should you advise?

Thank you
Click to expand...

hmmm... Mac OS X Lion, check. Intel Core 2 or later, check. 3-4GB diskspace, check. 2GB recommended RAM, check.

I'd say you're good to go. :D Even the base 2/64 model could handle this.
 
Okay. I'm taking a deep breath. Counting to ten. Another deep breath. Okay.

I know you're new to this forum, just signed up today.

But your question get me to think: What the *beeeep* *beep* *beeeeep* *beeeep*????

You managed to find the system requirements for Maple.

How hard would it be to go to apple.com, and look up the specs on the MBA? You would have had the answer to your question right away.

operating system:
Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion)
CHECK - quite obvious

Processors
All Intel-based Macs with an Intel Core 2 or later
CHECK - you get a CPU a generation or two newer than that

Diskspace
with an Intel Core 2 or later
1 GB for MATLAB only,
3–4 GB for a typical installation
CHECK - you wrote yourself that you go for the 128GB version

RAM
1024 MB
(At least 2048 MB recommended)
CHECK - you wrote yourself that you go for the 4GB version


Now, I know there'll be some friendly people on this forum, that'll go "Oh, be gentle, he's new here" or "how hard is it to ignore a post you don't like?" or "Sorry for all the idiots on this forum, most of us are friendly".

But the fact is, that these kind of questions are clogging the forum. It's like a new university student asking the math professor during class "What is 34*394?". It isn't a hard problem, the student could get the answer by using his own calculator. Instead he wastes the time of the entire class, where the time should be spend on more advanced endeavors. It's the same with this forum, stupid questions that could be solved with a simple google search by the OPs themselves are asked again and again, day after day, and the good threads where perspective and (some kind of) insight is provided is drowned.

So go ahead. Defend the newbies. But realize that you're reducing the average quality of threads on MR.

/rant off
 
One thing I would worry about though is screen size. I've never used Matlab but I know it's some kind of mathematical software. I have no idea how much screen space it needs to work efficiently, but I would try it out on another Mac (maybe a friend's) to see if you can work with the resolution.

If you can work it on a MacBook Pro 13" it should work on the 11" air too since you only have 32 pixels less vertically and 86 more horizontally.
 
Welcome to the forum from me a recent convert.

A dumb question is only dumb if its not asked !

I agree with searching online and you will find most answers are there to be found , but sometimes one needs some measurement from other mac users.

In the end forums exist to help the beginners and experts alike no matter what ones experience is.

This forums members helped me along to go out and buy a mba.
I did over 3 days of research and looking at demo models but I still wanted to bleed members for their advice and experience.

In the end a thread thats posted quickly slips down the forums and I cant see how it clogs the forums. If its a question you dont or cant help with then skip over it !
 
It's certainly suitable for what you want to do. You may want to consider the i7 for the 11". No you don't actually need it (as many here will I'm sure point out) however for the 11" there is approximately a 20% difference in performance between the two processors. On the 13" not as much 7.5-9% depending on which processor intensive app you're running.

Whichever you choose you will love it. :)
 
Thanks for the advice! I've got one more question. Is it also possible to run programs like solid edge on the mba. I've already seen that you need a virtual machine, but is this possible with the mba i5 4Gb RAM?
 
racketeer71 said:
Okay. I'm taking a deep breath. Counting to ten. Another deep breath. Okay.

I know you're new to this forum, just signed up today.

But your question get me to think: What the *beeeep* *beep* *beeeeep* *beeeep*????

You managed to find the system requirements for Maple.

How hard would it be to go to apple.com, and look up the specs on the MBA? You would have had the answer to your question right away.

operating system:
Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion)
CHECK - quite obvious

Processors
All Intel-based Macs with an Intel Core 2 or later
CHECK - you get a CPU a generation or two newer than that

Diskspace
with an Intel Core 2 or later
1 GB for MATLAB only,
3–4 GB for a typical installation
CHECK - you wrote yourself that you go for the 128GB version

RAM
1024 MB
(At least 2048 MB recommended)
CHECK - you wrote yourself that you go for the 4GB version


Now, I know there'll be some friendly people on this forum, that'll go "Oh, be gentle, he's new here" or "how hard is it to ignore a post you don't like?" or "Sorry for all the idiots on this forum, most of us are friendly".

But the fact is, that these kind of questions are clogging the forum. It's like a new university student asking the math professor during class "What is 34*394?". It isn't a hard problem, the student could get the answer by using his own calculator. Instead he wastes the time of the entire class, where the time should be spend on more advanced endeavors. It's the same with this forum, stupid questions that could be solved with a simple google search by the OPs themselves are asked again and again, day after day, and the good threads where perspective and (some kind of) insight is provided is drowned.

So go ahead. Defend the newbies. But realize that you're reducing the average quality of threads on MR.

/rant off
Click to expand...


Crack makes people say such unattractive things...
 
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