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Run Windows ARM on the entry level 15 inch Air?

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Cape Dave

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Nov 16, 2012
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I do not do much but browse and WordPress, but I do like to run Windows ARM with Parallels. Still do not do any video editing or anything more than watch YouTube in Windows. But I do really like things to be SNAPPY! I would LOVE to avoid the dreaded heavy tax on Apple upgrades just this once. Is there any hope for me?
 
8GB of RAM for both your host and guest OS is going to be a tight squeeze, leaving each with 4GB of RAM. Unless you’re doing very light work or playing retro games, I can’t imagine it being “snappy.”

What do you have now that you’re Windows ARM on? You could get an idea of what the performance would be by configuring it with 4GB and seeing if it still meets your needs. (I’d also check Disk Utility to make sure 256GB is enough storage for both your Mac and Windows environments.)
 
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Rnd-chars said:
8GB of RAM for both your host and guest OS is going to be a tight squeeze, leaving each with 4GB of RAM. Unless you’re doing very light work or playing retro games, I can’t imagine it being “snappy.”

What do you have now that you’re Windows ARM on? You could get an idea of what the performance would be by configuring it with 4GB and seeing if it still meets your needs. (I’d also check Disk Utility to make sure 256GB is enough storage for both your Mac and Windows environments.)
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I had run it on a mac mini m1 which I just sold. But that had 16GB, and seemed to work great! I get your point and agree. I might be well advised to go for the 16GB :( All I do it be in WordPress Admin, 20 browser tabs open, and maybe some youtube music video playing in the background. Light by most standards I would guess.
 
Or get the base one you thought you wanted for Mac stuff AND, for about HALF the price, order a separate Windows PC with the same RAM & SSD specs that you can also upgrade over time. There's lots of little Mac Mini-like PCs that are quite good. Strip off the big Apple margin and let Capitalism competition drive down the price of key components like RAM & SSD and you can buy a LOT of PC for not so much money.

OR match what you would spend for that Mac and buy a pretty powerful PC.

Windows ARM is fine but full Windows is compatible with everything. Silicon basically begs for "old fashioned bootcamp" in the form of a separate PC. Consider it. I faced the same "both worlds" need and opted to go this way. I'm quite happy to have dedicated machines for both platforms. Having both in one box was fantastic for many years but that ship has now sailed.

Option 2: I presume you probably have an Intel Mac now. So buy your Silicon Mac and consider re-purposing the old one as your Windows PC. Even if it is very old, at least Windows 10 should install on it.
 
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It is more of a want than a need with me. I like working in Windows, and I like the new 15 Air laptop. MacOS is not for me. Samsung has some intriguing laptops I may look at if I go to Best Buy :)
 
I'd go with 16GB. For what you are describing 24GB would be overkill, but 8GB would be a bit tight, especially since the base Airs have somewhat slower SSDs than the 512GB and higher models.
 
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Cape Dave said:
It is more of a want than a need with me. I like working in Windows, and I like the new 15 Air laptop. MacOS is not for me. Samsung has some intriguing laptops I may look at if I go to Best Buy :)
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Sounds like you like the Air for aesthetics but really want a Windows laptop. If that's true, I wouldn't pay the steep Apple Tax to end up with only Windows ARM running on it... and that with the annual Parallels fee. Instead, I'd look around for the best attempt at a clone of Air... and/or stand by for a month or two to give the copy machines an opportunity to make something that looks similar but is a PC. Somebody will take a good shot at it if it isn't already out there.

I did only a very quick search for PC laptops that look like MB Air and found 2 from Lenovo C740 (left in pic) and Acer Swift 3 (right)... with many more matches I didn't even open...

LenovoAcer.jpg


Apple fans will vomit, ridicule, etc (because "only Apple can make a great computer" :rolleyes: ) but no one should be overly influenced by what total strangers think.

A real PC is going to overcome all the Apple lockdown (and added tax on those components) too. So these questions/recommendations of "more RAM" and "more SSD" will be much cheaper if you buy PC instead of Apple. If macOS is not for you, I would NOT buy a Silicon Mac.

If you must have an Apple machine to convert only to a Windows machine, perhaps look backwards to the latter Intel MBs and track one of those down. They will run at least Windows 10 just fine.
 
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KPOM said:
I'd go with 16GB. For what you are describing 24GB would be overkill, but 8GB would be a bit tight, especially since the base Airs have somewhat slower SSDs than the 512GB and higher models.
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Yup, I agree. I have had 16GB for so long with all my computers :)
 
HobeSoundDarryl said:
Sounds like you like the Air for aesthetics but really want a Windows laptop. If that's true, I wouldn't pay the steep Apple Tax to end up with only Windows ARM... and that with the annual Parallels fee. Instead, I'd look around for the best attempt at a clone of Air... and/or stand by for a month or two to give the copy machines an opportunity to make something that looks similar but is a PC. Somebody will take a good shot at it if it isn't already out there.

A real PC is going to overcome all the Apple lockdown (and added tax) too. So these questions/recommendations of "more RAM" and "more SSD" will be much cheaper if you buy PC than buy Apple. If macOS is not for you, I wouldn't buy a Silicon Mac.
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Samsung has a very interesting line out. With OLED screen. I would love to see that! I think it might also be 16:10. I use or need portable PC so rarely this is more of a "hobby exercise" for me. I appreciate all the comments.
 
Also please don't do it on a 256GB SSD. You're going to run out of space real soon if you have to store a virtual machine.
 
Cape Dave said:
Samsung has a very interesting line out. With OLED screen. I would love to see that! I think it might also be 16:10. I use or need portable PC so rarely this is more of a "hobby exercise" for me. I appreciate all the comments.
Click to expand...

I only really took a quick search for PCs that look like MB Air. There's probably many out there. I suggest you do the same kind of searches and you'll probably find an ideal machine that- for a Mac budget- can likely end up with more RAM and more SSD for a quite capable machine.
 
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Cape Dave said:
Samsung has a very interesting line out. With OLED screen. I would love to see that! I think it might also be 16:10. I use or need portable PC so rarely this is more of a "hobby exercise" for me. I appreciate all the comments.
Click to expand...
16:10 is a better ratio for screen space than 16:9, but even better is 3:2. The Huawei MateBook 16 looks good, has lots of vertical screen space, and a reasonable price.

i would go for the MacBook Air myself as I much prefer macOS, but if you prefer Windows, I suggest looking elsewhere.
 
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Windows 11 runs better on my M2 13” Air than it does on my high spec’d X1 Carbon ThinkPad.

I’m using Parallels (which is absurdly expensive but seamless) and have 24GB of memory. Based on experience, I wouldn’t go lower than 16GB when running a VM.

As ARM based processors get more widely adopted on the PC side, I hope Apple will consider bringing back Bootcamp.
 
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