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Here is the thing for me at least

If I would've bought a MBA from apple.com with 4 GB RAM, I should've paid instantly that means that I had to pay $1,400 usd because of 4GB RAM at the end of the month.

But I Went to one of apple dealers and I bought my MBA with 2 GB RAM for $1,300 USD BUT the difference is that I had the choice to pay in 12 months no extra tax.

This is how it works in México I dunno for US, but for me it's important not to pay $1,400 USD in one payment

And yes, It runs smoothly as I expected
 
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I'm very surprised that people don't understand how mac os x uses ram....The only time you will run into problems in general operation is if you have lots of programs currently open and you try and do something that needs a bit of ram....You can solve it by closing some programs.... Don't freak out when you see page outs. This is more than likely old inactive stuff being transferred to disk and providing it is < 20% of page ins you have plenty of ram. More is always nice but the wired ram is all that is needed by the OS to operate. The rest is OS X caching data making your OS experience faster.

In other words, if I want to keep lots of programs open and use processor intensive programs, then I need more RAM. Yep. I'll spend a few extra dollars for that :)

Again, I am not sure why you (and others) are all so hot and bothered about people wanting more RAM. Is there a RAM shortage I am unaware of, or is there something awful that happens if someone spends a little bit of extra money for more RAM? People spend more on bags and accessories than it would cost to upgrade the RAM...
 
In other words, if I want to keep lots of programs open and use processor intensive programs, then I need more RAM. Yep. I'll spend a few extra dollars for that :)

Again, I am not sure why you (and others) are all so hot and bothered about people wanting more RAM. Is there a RAM shortage I am unaware of, or is there something awful that happens if someone spends a little bit of extra money for more RAM? People spend more on bags and accessories than it would cost to upgrade the RAM...

Some people want more than twice the RAM they'll ever need for as long as they intend to keep the machine. Thus, the demand rises artificially and so do the prices. Something about putting more food on your plate than you're able to finish, I guess.

Ok, a MacBook Air can not have any post-purchase memory upgrades. If you're going with the base model of MBA 11", the price will be almost $1000. A RAM upgrade from 2 to 4 GB costs $100 extra, which is equivalent to 10% of the initial price. Now, there are mainly two reasons to upgrade the RAM.

I recommend the upgrade IF the additional RAM is likely to:
1: make the computer practically usable for at least 10 % longer than otherwise.
OR
2: keep the resale value at least $100 higher than otherwise.

If there are combinations of the two numbers above (e.g. 5 % and $50 respectively in this case) that apply, I would also recommend the upgrade. Condition 1 will probably not apply if you already intend to sell it on Craigslist at the next refresh, but number 2 might still apply nevertheless.

It would also in many cases take less than 10 % as a critical limit. If you go with the 11-inch 128 GB, the $100 upgrade is 8.3 % of the price (7.7 % if you upgraded the CPU). And with the 13-inch, it will be around 6 % (+/- 0.5 points, depending on your storage and CPU config)
 
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The 2GB of ram versions can't even handle a youtube video without choking. Go for more ram.
 
Wow... just wow.

2GB is more future proof. If you don't game much or do much of video editing, 2GB ram will last you. But, these tech crazy people cannot stop. They will cry for 8GB or even 16GB on MBA.

Funny thing is... they just open their wallets and willing to buy the refreshed model every year. So, why are they even bother with 2GB, 4GB or 8GB ram thing. You are going to buy a new one every year.

That is completely the opposite of what "future proofing" means. Future proofing is when someone gets a machine that will, in essence, be fully useful and compatible with EVERYTHING they want to do in the future. As long as the machine is alive and used, it should be able to do whatever they want to do with that.

For me, that would be 6 gigs of RAM. For others, that may be 8. For some, that may be 2. Also, the last part of your statement doesn't make sense. Why bother when you're just going to buy another machine? There are OTHER reasons besides RAM that people buy machines. With this generation, SNB processors are a major selling point. That and ThunderBolt (which isn't even used yet) is all that's added in the new MBP (right?).

It's really about longevity - especially if your RAM is not upgradeable. Even if you plan to move the computer on after a year of use, it'll be more valuable to the next user with 4GB.

Realistically your computer should be usable by somebody for 3-5 years - the more RAM it has, the less likely it will struggle with future software updates.

This. The MBA can't just have its RAM swapped out. For other notebooks, (MacBook and MacBook Pro), getting the baseline is fine because you can easily buy RAM from another manufacturer for LESS and upgrade it yourself. Logically there's no reason why one wouldn't just do this (if they're only upgrading the model for the RAM anyway).

For the MBA however, if I got one, I would have ordered it with 4 gigs of RAM as 2 is just paltry and IMO, if you only need 2 and you can't see why anyone would need more, you're obviously ignorant on the matter of computing and what all people do with these computers. There's more to these things than watching youtube videos, dvds, and surfing the net on Facebook. 4 gigs should be the baseline on ALL laptops, Windows and OS X alike, worth 400 bucks at least.

I don't get the obsession with RAM. Sure, avoiding too much paging will keep things nippy, but paging has been a part of OSes for donkey's years. Its not a big deal if you can't keep all your active apps in RAM - you haven't failed.

It isn't a big deal if I can't keep all of my active apps in RAM. You do understand having more RAM allows the system to stay "fresh" and fast while having more applications run right? On any given day, when I'm not even doing work, I use at least 2.2 gigs of RAM. That's BEFORE I start Parallels on my laptop.

Yea you can argue "well why not just close them?", because I'm obviously using ALL of those applications. Talk to anyone who codes and/or programs with large projects. People are always talking about wanting MBAs with at least 4 gigs because of the ability to work anywhere with coding and, from what I've read, that takes up a lot of RAM if you're working on a larger project.

It's extremely inexpensive when it's not a Mac :)

It's under 100 bucks for 8 gigs of RAM, where have you been? Hard drives are under 100 bucks for a great size... and aside from HDD and RAM, what else are you going to be upgrading yourself?

The 2GB of ram versions can't even handle a youtube video without choking. Go for more ram.

You're wrong. If you're going to support one position or state an argument, at least know what you're talking about.
 
You're wrong. If you're going to support one position or state an argument, at least know what you're talking about.

I'm flat out wrong, eh? What makes you an authority? Go and search this forum for countless threads about the 11" 2GB air having trouble playing YouTube videos, Comedy Central videos, anything streaming or flash based, basically, and you will see complaints of video stuttering, video not loading or buffering correctly as well as audio issues.

Sure, saying "youtube videos" was cryptic and blunt, but don't tell me I am wrong, because I am using that exact combo right now. And it either kicks on the fans at full speed, or just plain plays catch-up with most streaming (especially flash-based) content.
 
I'm flat out wrong, eh? What makes you an authority? Go and search this forum for countless threads about the 11" 2GB air having trouble playing YouTube videos, Comedy Central videos, anything streaming or flash based, basically, and you will see complaints of video stuttering, video not loading or buffering correctly as well as audio issues.

Sure, saying "youtube videos" was cryptic and blunt, but don't tell me I am wrong, because I am using that exact combo right now. And it either kicks on the fans at full speed, or just plain plays catch-up with most streaming (especially flash-based) content.

I've never had a problem with my 2gb and any streaming videos. But in hindsight I should've went with 4gb. If I'm using photoshop heavily it can take a hit whereas my MBP didn't. But I did get my MBA refurbished and there was no 4gb options other than the ultimate which was too costly.
 
This thread reminds me some car debates about engine power. Some people insist on asking why do you need a car with a lot of power and torque when the highest speed limit is 75 mph? My answer is always the same: the point is not to drive fast all the time just because you have a powerful car, but sometimes you might need to pass quickly another car when you are driving on a two-line road…:cool:
 
I'm at a loss why so many people are claiming that 2gb of RAM is just not enough. I'm curious whether more than 2% of all those people have ever surpassed their 2gb of RAM.

Like WTF is everyone doing with their MBA's that I'm not? 2gb has been just fine for just about 99% of everything people do on these machines (surfing, developing, playing games, minor video/picture editing)... I sense people are just jumping on a bandwagon and for whatever reason, its annoying me.

Now 64gb of ssd vs 128gb, I can understand.

... back to sipping my beer.

See, I don't know if this post is just trolling or if he's serious. Whatever the case, I took the bait. Have you ever tried to run anything that takes up full full screen? have you had more than 4-5 windows open? Ever try photoshop or imovie or anything that requires massive amounts of ram to function properly? Probably not considering you're claiming that 99% of the population don't do that. 4G of ram is pretty standard now adays in computers.

I mean hell, I just did a quick screen shot and look. Only 3 gigs free/inactive out of 8. 4gigs can be used easily.
 

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I mean hell, I just did a quick screen shot and look. Only 3 gigs free/inactive out of 8. 4gigs can be used easily.

This is the situation I'm in, I have to wonder if with 4GB the swapping would be that bad/noticeable?
 
This is the situation I'm in, I have to wonder if with 4GB the swapping would be that bad/noticeable?

Looks like you're running 4G's with double SSD's in a mbp. I'm assuming that you probably don't don't feel too much hdd grinding since you're on SSD's. As your SSD's are last gen, the air's should be somewhat faster than the old intel's and vertex 2's.

Probably 4gigs wont be as bad on an air just because the ssd will take over.
 
Looks like you're running 4G's with double SSD's in a mbp. I'm assuming that you probably don't don't feel too much hdd grinding since you're on SSD's. As your SSD's are last gen, the air's should be somewhat faster than the old intel's and vertex 2's.

Probably 4gigs wont be as bad on an air just because the ssd will take over.

Actually signature is old, I've upgraded to 8GB
 
I have 2GB of RAM in a 2008 MacBook Air 2,1.

This is my RAM stats after just using Safari, Mail, Reeder, and Twitter today.
Screen Shot 2011-07-17 at 3.01.33 PM.png
Terrible amounts of Page Outs, and Swap usage.

Absolutely nothing is wrong with this MacBook Air other than the lack of RAM. I get constant beach balls just reading the news.

Get 4GB you will regret it if you don't.
 
I have been working on my accounts this afternoon on my old RiscPC. RiscOS is loaded from a 4Mb ROM chip. I have a total of 32Mb RAM. The system feels really responsive. I just checked: the word processor is using just over 1Mb of RAM!! Where are we going wrong?
 
I'm at a loss why so many people are claiming that 2gb of RAM is just not enough. I'm curious whether more than 2% of all those people have ever surpassed their 2gb of RAM.

Like WTF is everyone doing with their MBA's that I'm not? 2gb has been just fine for just about 99% of everything people do on these machines (surfing, developing, playing games, minor video/picture editing)... I sense people are just jumping on a bandwagon and for whatever reason, its annoying me.

Now 64gb of ssd vs 128gb, I can understand.

... back to sipping my beer.

God I wish I had a beer right now... :(

Regardless, I'm a college student, and use my MBP for a ton of things. I was going to get an MBA back in May, but I decided not to for the RAM options they had in best buy. And it's definitely a good thing I went with the pro instead. I regularly only have a few hundred MB out of 4GB free
 
if you have an imac which stores all data for itunes, videos and iphoto; do you still think you should get 4GB in the MBA?
 
My work load on a portable usually results in mass paging after only half an hour... and that's with 4. I usually have no choice but to restart to gain back some responsiveness. 8 is the minimum I can use with out massive paging issues.

I use my Macs for audio production.

Translation... depends on what you do. Those who just browse the web and never do any real work could get by on 2 but MacRumors will tell them they NEED TO UPGRADE!!! :p

... off to buy beer. :D

Same here, I'm usually paging after 5 mins of opening something outside of safari.. of course the safari bug doesn't help.. i mean.. 800 mb to surf the web.. they better get on that!
 
sorry for the bump

I just ordered the 11" but couldn't afford the extra ram. I hope to use this as my main laptop for the next 3-4 years. I do just browsing, downloading music+movies, and use word+excel+powerpoint.

will this suffice? I imagine 2gb ram runs lion well or else apple wouldn't sell a machine with standard 2gb ram. that wouldn't make sense
 
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