Will MBA 2013 be good for me

[Flowiee]

Hello,

Looking to upgrade from my windows laptop for a macbook. The new Macbook Air looks very nice for me, but my question is ; does it holds for my daily use.

Im a Mechanical Engineering student, so I need:
- Autodesk Inventor (3d drawing program)
- word, excel, powerpoint etc.
- daily surfing on internet, multiple tabs.
- Maschine software (DJ/music softwareprogram)
- playing a few games, like Guildwars 2. (at normal quality/ good fps)

Because it's mostly to take with me I prefer the Air above the Pro. But should I take the i7 or will i5 will be fine?

Hope that someone can help me

Kind regards,

Frido Tims

 

[Flowiee]

bump

 

[CKA]

Hello,

Looking to upgrade from my windows laptop for a macbook. The new Macbook Air looks very nice for me, but my question is ; does it holds for my daily use.

Im a Mechanical Engineering student, so I need:
- Autodesk Inventor (3d drawing program)
- word, excel, powerpoint etc.
- daily surfing on internet, multiple tabs.
- Maschine software (DJ/music softwareprogram)
- playing a few games, like Guildwars 2. (at normal quality/ good fps)

Because it's mostly to take with me I prefer the Air above the Pro. But should I take the i7 or will i5 will be fine?

Hope that someone can help me

Kind regards,

Frido Tims

Just my 2 cents, if you need for those of software like 'Autodesk Inventor', I believed i7 is much better. However, the drawback is shorter battery life. Moreover, you may want to upgrade memory as well.. 4G may be okay for today but for tomorrow, it probably won't.

 

[Flowiee]

Just my 2 cents, if you need for those of software like 'Autodesk Inventor', I believed i7 is much better. However, the drawback is shorter battery life. Moreover, you may want to upgrade memory as well.. 4G may be okay for today but for tomorrow, it probably won't.

Hi,

Yeah, forgot the mention that I will upgrade it to 8gb ram definitely.

I really like the battery life of the i5, but I really dont know if I need the i7 for 3d-drawing in Autodesk Inventor.
Hope someone can help me!

 

[neteru]

I really believe the pro is a better computer for you and will be the same price as a maxed out air. If you want to game the video card (even casual) you want to go with the pro. If you can wait, you should see what apple will release in October.

I dont have the 2013 MBA, I have the 2011, and its slow using Photoshop, After Effects, etc...and WoW would not play. Could be the 4GB but Im waiting to upgrade to the new Macbook Pro as the air is not something I could grow with. I use the Macbook Pro at work and the performance is great. As a ME you probably need the power of a pro. Once you max out the MBA the prices will be the same. Just my 2cents

 

[nikebofod]

think so,Yeah, forgot the mention that I will upgrade it to 8gb ram definitely.thanks

 

[Flowiee]

I really like the Air abov of the Pro because of the portability and the battery life. Doesn't need a Retina screen for instance.
I can wait untill the MBP Haswell comes, but I'd like to buy a macbook in the next few weeks-2months.

I'm leaning to the i5 processor because of the battery life, but i7 is also an option aswell.
Can someone tell me what they exactly mean with light-, medium and heavy workload?
Because mainly school work is light workload i guess? The difference in battery isn't much at light workload. But what do they mean with the others?

 

[Akaba]

I would consider with the other posters that for the complex stuff, you cannot have enough RAM/processor. That points definitively to the PRO.

When it comes to light, medium, heavy, why not network with your fellow engineer students and check for explanations with them?

 

[Flowiee]

Iv'e looked up some prices here in the Netherlands for another comparison between the 13" Air/(R)MBP.

Macbook Air:
1,7 Ghz i7
8gb ram
128gb ssd €1298

Macbook Pro:
2,9 i7
8gb ram
128gb ssd €1532

Retina Macbook Pro:
2,5 i5
8gb ram
128 ssd €1438

What's the price difference worth it? I think the Pro is out of my budget, but if its really so much better, also with the cons like portability and battery life, i could pick the Pro.

But the main question, will the i7/8gb/128gb Air will the macbook for me and my demands?