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It depends whether it's going to be your main computer or not.

If I was getting a secondary computer, I'd go for the 128gb as I don't need to keep everything on it.

If it was going to be my main/only computer I'd get the 256gb.
 
This thread reminds me of a study the UK government did some years ago (that cost 000's of £) to find out why people broke the speed limit.

The answer: to get there quicker.
 
My base 2010 air was good enough speed/space wise for the most part but I always wanted to have a windows 7 partition and a windows 7 VM along with a few movies here and there. And I hated to pick and choose which adobe app to install then find out later I needed something I opted out to save on space. So when the new air came out I upgraded to the ultimate. So far so good!
 
Personally I've decided going for the 128gb. The $300 I save will be saved for a future cinema display with a firewire external HD hooked up to it.
 
i went with the 256 because:
-it will be my main 'daily' machine with an external screen when i'm at home for the next 2 years
and for me me the daily requirments where: surfing, e-mail, contacts+calender, a few photographs, storing tvshows/movies in 720p/1080p on the go, 10-15 gb of music in itunes, some little coding + development

-so far on my current old gaming pc i'm using (as replacement for my too small and slow mac mini) i've also a 256 GB harddrive but have also lots of games so i know that without the games i'll have plenty of space left on the Air with the 256

-the biggest chunk will be the dvd rips i'll copy over ... and with a bigger drive i i'll have to do less copying back and forth with external drives

-for me it's also some sort of future proofing to operate my machine more freely and if the situation arise to copy suddenly 40 GB of whatever files that i don't have to free up space again

-fewer occasions to boot up the more electrcity hungry PC to do something HD intensive

-regarding the price i didn't found it _that_ big after i had taken a look at the price difference between 128 and 256 drives, especially after i'm on the edu discount (which also made my I7 upgrade easier to stomach with being 87€ euro)

in total with apple-on-campus discount and converted from € to $ i paid 1.679$ (without tax ... which of course here is astronomic ;) ) for my 256GB i7 which i found "OK" considering Apple historically screwing europe over
 
This thread reminds me of a study the UK government did some years ago (that cost 000's of £) to find out why people broke the speed limit.

The answer: to get there quicker.

(disclaimer: off-topic)
Or to hit the apex (the point where the car is closest to the inside of a turn) at high speed to drift through a corner while preserving a high exit speed?
 
i am still stuck in the same boat. i have until monday to decide so i will be all over these forums getting all the info i can.

obviously i am leaning toward 256 because of the size of the drive and the increase resale value later down the road when i decide to sell and upgrade. thing is on my old MBP which has 120 gb hd, i used half of it comfortably. i also have a 500 WD portable external.

at this point most of you would tell me to just go for 128, but i am starting to get into photography so i will need the extra space for that.

i just hate that $300 price tag...
 
I was all set for the MBA 11 with 128 GB SSD, but got a chance just now to get an MBA Ultimate 256 SSD i7 through work :D - so sort of happy :p

I would have been quite contempt with the 128 GB SSD for my needs.
I have all my Lossless music at home on my TimeCapsule and external drive connected to my Sonos-HIFI system.

On the fly I keep my music collection in my iphone 32 GB and my iPod Nano Touch 16 GB - so no need for iTunes library on the MBA.

I do most of my webdesign and Photo work on my iMac 27 Ultimate + ACD 27 at home.

I run Win 7 25% of the time on my iMac - but don't really need to run Win 7 on my MBA, because OSx is just fine for Pages, Numbers, email and blogging :apple:

So 128 GB SSD would be just fine for my needs.
Now that I got the MBA 13 Ultimate through work, I might just run a little bit of mild Photoshop and Aperture on it, but only for fun and because I now have the space for it.

So as many say - 128 GB SSD is just fine for MBA used as secondary computer.
256 GB SSD is most likely needed for MBA used as main computer.
 
Because of my 117gb lossless iTunes library.

Only 117gb? :D I'm at over 100gb in ~256-320kbps. Adding in my FLAC/Lossless would make that unimaginable. And add in standard JPEG+RAW :eek:.


On topic: I chose the 256SSD because:
1. Like others said, you can never have too much space
2. No chance to upgrade in the future, no set prices for Thunderbolt externals
3. $300 is actually not unreasonable
128 is around ~200 vs ~450 for 256. Yes it's about $50 more but that is just theoretically since you can't really upgrade on your own. (And the company that does it charges a lot more than $450.)
4. Bigger SSD = faster speed
5. Going to have the laptop for a while, and even if I sell the 256 helps resell value.
 
I ordered the the 256 since in Denmark with education discount the difference was only around 170$, and I got a card for free to App Store of a value 80$ dollars or so. Also I just prefer the bigger model, since I have a lot of music, movies and I play 1-2 games ;)
 
People who are justifying an extra $300 for 128gb to store media content are foolish. You can set up a 4tb NAS and remote access your media content with $100 to spare.
 
People who are justifying an extra $300 for 128gb to store media content are foolish. You can set up a 4tb NAS and remote access your media content with $100 to spare.

Assuming you had internet access to gigabytes of content. Its six of one, and half a dozen of the other. Some of us prefer to have the stuff with us and not rely on crappy wifi somewhere, or spotty 4G coverage with data caps. Others prefer to develop a storage strategy that moves content back and forth from their portable devices to their home storage. Whatever floats your boat.

If I could have 2TB SSD on my MacBook Air, I would. If I could afford it too. :p
 
Ummm, ok. I guess then to end the hate Apple should turn into a non-profit organization and pay you to use their stuff? :confused:

I didn't say nor imply that at all, you did. I can hate the fact that my favorite football team didn't make it to the Superbowl, that doesn't mean the games they played weren't fair.

Not to mention, the guy didn't say "i hate apple" he said he hates the $300 price tag. Is it fair, sure, that doesn't mean I have to love spending the money.
 
external storage means carrying around another device.
cloud storage means you need an Internet connection.

one can be a PIA while the other may not be available.

If I decide to make the MBA my primary machine than the storage space becomes more critical. If I end up keeping my 06 MacPro, and use the MBA as a secondary computer than I probably would have made out with he 128GB.
 
i am still stuck in the same boat. i have until monday to decide so i will be all over these forums getting all the info i can.

obviously i am leaning toward 256 because of the size of the drive and the increase resale value later down the road when i decide to sell and upgrade. thing is on my old MBP which has 120 gb hd, i used half of it comfortably. i also have a 500 WD portable external.

at this point most of you would tell me to just go for 128, but i am starting to get into photography so i will need the extra space for that.

i just hate that $300 price tag...
I paid $400 for a OWC 100GB Sandforce when they first came out ($4.00/GB). The $300 premium to upgrade from 128 to 256 works out to $2.34 a gig. Still expensive but getting better.
 
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