I'm having some decision issues and I was hoping to get some outside perspective.
I currently have a 2011 15" MPB, which is running perfectly well with a 500GB 7200RPM drive and 8GB of RAM, and the matte high resolution screen. This fall, I will be transferring from a community college to a four year school that's about half an hour to an hour away by bus and walking. I love my MBP but the sucker's heavy and I am tiny (and have had medical issues for the past year so am still quite weak), and carrying it around all day along with my textbooks would be miserable at best.
At the moment, the classes I'll be taking won't require much in the way of computing power, but later ones will require some (Astronomy major). I have a 3rd generation iPad and cheap keyboard that I can carry instead, but it will limit me on what I can do.
Alternatively, I've considered selling the MBP to get a new Air, which at the specs I'd want (RAM, hard drive, and processor) and with the education discount would be $1749 (plus tax, and can I get $100 off instead of getting the gift card?). At home I have an external monitor so the screen size change wouldn't be a big deal.
So my main questions:
1. Would a specced out Air be sufficient as a primary machine? I use Creative Suite regularly and play World of Warcraft, but that's the most graphically intensive things I use.
2. Would it be worth it? There's a wide range of prices on my area's Craigslist right now so I'm not sure what I'd be able to get for the MBP. I just don't want to go through all of the trouble and cost of ordering it and migrating everything only to feel like i downgraded and/or didn't get my money's worth. I mean, on the MBP I can crank WoW up to high, but then again, I'm not a hardcore gamer so going from 60 FPS to 40 likely wouldn't faze me.
Thanks for the help!
I currently have a 2011 15" MPB, which is running perfectly well with a 500GB 7200RPM drive and 8GB of RAM, and the matte high resolution screen. This fall, I will be transferring from a community college to a four year school that's about half an hour to an hour away by bus and walking. I love my MBP but the sucker's heavy and I am tiny (and have had medical issues for the past year so am still quite weak), and carrying it around all day along with my textbooks would be miserable at best.
At the moment, the classes I'll be taking won't require much in the way of computing power, but later ones will require some (Astronomy major). I have a 3rd generation iPad and cheap keyboard that I can carry instead, but it will limit me on what I can do.
Alternatively, I've considered selling the MBP to get a new Air, which at the specs I'd want (RAM, hard drive, and processor) and with the education discount would be $1749 (plus tax, and can I get $100 off instead of getting the gift card?). At home I have an external monitor so the screen size change wouldn't be a big deal.
So my main questions:
1. Would a specced out Air be sufficient as a primary machine? I use Creative Suite regularly and play World of Warcraft, but that's the most graphically intensive things I use.
2. Would it be worth it? There's a wide range of prices on my area's Craigslist right now so I'm not sure what I'd be able to get for the MBP. I just don't want to go through all of the trouble and cost of ordering it and migrating everything only to feel like i downgraded and/or didn't get my money's worth. I mean, on the MBP I can crank WoW up to high, but then again, I'm not a hardcore gamer so going from 60 FPS to 40 likely wouldn't faze me.
Thanks for the help!
