Thinking of buying a macbook air

[SenecaBoy]

Well i have no mac exp. I have always been a pc user currently own 2 laptops that i use during my travels and powerhouse of a desktop

I own a dell inspiron 6400 laptop that has been a faithful work horse for me since 2006 (core 2 duo 2.16 t7400 processor, 2 gigs of ram, 256mb shared vram ATI x1400 and 160 gb hdd) I paid about $15xx including taxes in late 2006 and has been quite a great investment *knocks on wood*.

The other day my little cousin wanted a notebook so my uncle ended up getting her a macbook for xmas, since she was hell bent on one. While the sales rep was talking to my uncle, I started playing around with the macbook pro and the macbook air, I really like the weight saving design implemented on the macbook air, but was quite taken back by the price, 1599+ taxes or so for a core 2 duo 1.6ghz with i think 2gigs of ram, which is slower in a sense compared to my 3 year+ old dell inspiron 6400. if I wanted a 2.16ghz macbook air it will set me back well over 2500 dollars canadian, even a refurb one is over 2000 dollars.

I dont do a lot on my laptops like video editing or photo editing, i use my desktop for that, but at the odd time i like to play around with photoshop cs2 which i have right now on my dell and of course the usual office suite from Microsoft, emails (mostly web based), web surfing, some gaming (civilizations, sims 3), .net studio, and watching dvds. I do not think there is a compatible .net studio for mac os X is there?

I was thinking of picking up the 1.6ghz macbook air with a solid state drive just so that i can experience the Mac side of things, but i keep wondering if the $1700 or so it is going to set me back really worth the weight saving design, cuz specs wise I am not impressed and some of the above mentioned apps (esp the games and .net studio) run kinda slow / choppy on my 2.16 ghz core 2 duo 2gig machine.

Anyone with a macbook air care to let me know of your experience?

 

[Tony321]

I'll say thats kinda pricey for old technology.

 

[mochatsubo]

Lenovo x301 is an ultraportable with a similar design philosophy (i.e. "large" screen and full size keyboard). FYI.

Lots of good info on the Macbook air in this forum:

http://forums.macrumors.com/forumdisplay.php?f=122

Good luck,

-M

 

[WoodPeckr]

SenecaBoy

M$ is a RESOURCE HOG especially Vista, hence it requires a more powerful PC to run it effectively.
OSX and Linux run far leaner, therefore they can run much more effectively on a less powerful machine.

Windows 7 runs leaner than Vista.

If you really want to boost the performance of your dell inspiron 6400 laptop, pull out the HDD and put a SSD in its place. It will run far faster and boot up in about 10 seconds! Apps and browsers will instantly load. Shutdowns will be instant also. The HDD is the biggest bottleneck now for PCs.
SSDs will correct this lag and will be used more as prices fall on them.

 

[djk]

The Macbook Air is a niche product. You are giving up a lot for that portability. No firewire, one USB port, no dedicated ethernet port, etc.

IMO, a Macbook Air exists for those who love to show off or obsessed with portability at all costs. If you're tempted to switch, you should consider a Macbook Pro for your needs.

If you are interested, please PM me.

 

[Godiva]

i have the air, and I love it initially until the audio fails...its a $300-400 fix. apparently a lot of owners have the same issue but apple wont cover it..wtf

 

[SenecaBoy]

Thanks for the comments guys

M$ is a RESOURCE HOG especially Vista, hence it requires a more powerful PC to run it effectively.
OSX and Linux run far leaner, therefore they can run much more effectively on a less powerful machine.
Windows 7 runs leaner than Vista.

If you really want to boost the performance of your dell inspiron 6400 laptop, pull out the HDD and put a SSD in its place. It will run far faster and boot up in about 10 seconds! Apps and browsers will instantly load. Shutdowns will be instant also. The HDD is the biggest bottleneck now for PCs.
SSDs will correct this lag and will be used more as prices fall on them.

one of my main focus is also wanting to try out SSD vs the Serial Ata drives the laptops offer, maybe i will just rid myself of XP pro and run win 7 on the dell inspiron laptop

i have the air, and I love it initially until the audio fails...its a $300-400 fix. apparently a lot of owners have the same issue but apple wont cover it..wtf

oh no, that sucks, did not know about this, thanks for the heads up

The Macbook Air is a niche product. You are giving up a lot for that portability. No firewire, one USB port, no dedicated ethernet port, etc.

IMO, a Macbook Air exists for those who love to show off or obsessed with portability at all costs. If you're tempted to switch, you should consider a Macbook Pro for your needs.

If you are interested, please PM me.

Yeah i like the look of the Macbook pro as well maybe i will look into that more now since Godiva told me about the audio issues on the air. I will PM you before i walk into the store and pick one up, do you work at an apple store?

Lenovo x301 is an ultraportable with a similar design philosophy (i.e. "large" screen and full size keyboard). FYI.

Lots of good info on the Macbook air in this forum:

http://forums.macrumors.com/forumdisplay.php?f=122

Good luck,

-M

Thanks M, i will read that forums, i just want experience the mac world, not make a full switch, so since i know pc world and the pros/cons associated with it I would like to experience the Mac World

 

[WoodPeckr]

Thanks for the comments guys



one of my main focus is also wanting to try out SSD vs the Serial Ata drives the laptops offer, maybe i will just rid myself of XP pro and run win 7 on the dell inspiron laptop

XP Pro is not as big a RESOURCE HOG as Vista.
W7 should run good on your Dell laptop.
RAM is cheap, you should max your RAM out, you will think it's a new laptop.

 

[canucklehead]

If u want to try OSX .. buy a mini or macbook .. if u want to do video editing on the fly get a macbook pro.... SSD's can be put into almost any system and should work... not all SSD's are recognized by all controllers ... but make sure u can return it.
WP is right about Seven ... verses Vista.... but if buy a macbook u can have both installed and fully supported either running it natively, virtually, or via Wine ... i have a macbook air for one of my developers ..... but she complains it is too small all the time.

You will also need to buy new OSX compatible software too. ... CS video editing and such .... much bigger expense then just the macbook air

 

[SenecaBoy]

XP Pro is not as big a RESOURCE HOG as Vista.
W7 should run good on your Dell laptop.
RAM is cheap, you should max your RAM out, you will think it's a new laptop.

Can you believe on this dell platform 2gs is the max, or so dell told me..lol

 

[SenecaBoy]

If u want to try OSX .. buy a mini or macbook .. if u want to do video editing on the fly get a macbook pro.... SSD's can be put into almost any system and should work... not all SSD's are recognized by all controllers ... but make sure u can return it.
WP is right about Seven ... verses Vista.... but if buy a macbook u can have both installed and fully supported either running it natively, virtually, or via Wine ... i have a macbook air for one of my developers ..... but she complains it is too small all the time.

You will also need to buy new OSX compatible software too. ... CS video editing and such .... much bigger expense then just the macbook air

Yeah i was kinda figuring this was going to come into play somewhere, looks like i will just go the used or refurbished route, instead of getting new

 

[WoodPeckr]

Can you believe on this dell platform 2gs is the max, or so dell told me..lol

Well that sucks!
My almost 2 yr old Toshiba laptop came with 2 GB ram and ran Vista OK but when I maxed it to 4 GB it was noticeably quicker. Vista runs much better with more than 2 GB of ram.

FWIW prices have dropped in that 2 yrs.
I paid $600 for that Toshiba almost 2 yr ago.
Today for $500 in the US I can get a better a better Toshiba laptop with Win 7 & 4 GB ram with more features and better specs.

 

[canucklehead]

Yeah i was kinda figuring this was going to come into play somewhere, looks like i will just go the used or refurbished route, instead of getting new

Or get a macbook and use a 7D for your hd video ... the 7D can work over wireless or directly to a USB2 external drive... i used it for a short i made in Beijing in Sept... i had to buy a macbook as i did not take my laptop with me this time... it all worked out fine. But u can get a 6 to 8 month old MacBook pro for about 1200 to 1500 just before the UniBody Macbook Pros came out .... i thought they were better post unibody ....

 

[i am one]

Your Inspiron 6400 has a T7400 with an FSB at 667 MHz. The MacBook Air's processor runs at an FSB of 1066 MHz (this does make a performance difference) but is also a custom design specific for the MacBook Air that's also low voltage, and thus consumes less battery power. The thing about comparing strictly processor speeds between different processors is that it doesn't work. You have to take into account the front side bus, the onboard cache and the number of cores. That said, you can be assured that the MacBook Air is definitely faster than your Inspiron 6400. I actually have the exact same Inspiron 6400 as you, and believe me, that thing had great specs when it came out and is still better than the cheap laptops you see at Future Shop and Best Buy today.

Anyways, the MacBook Air hasn't had an update in six months, which isn't unusual for Apple, but the last June 2009 update didn't change much and it's lagging a bit behind the MacBooks/Pros and iMacs now. Don't buy one unless you absolutely need it. Wait 3-6 months for the next update.

 

[SenecaBoy]

Well that sucks!
My almost 2 yr old Toshiba laptop came with 2 GB ram and ran Vista OK but when I maxed it to 4 GB it was noticeably quicker. Vista runs much better with more than 2 GB of ram.

FWIW prices have dropped in that 2 yrs.
I paid $600 for that Toshiba almost 2 yr ago.
Today for $500 in the US I can get a better a better Toshiba laptop with Win 7 & 4 GB ram with more features and better specs.

Yeah it was kind of a shocker when dell told me oh well 2gigs is the max. I think windows 7 should give it some new life, XP is bogging it down.

Your Inspiron 6400 has a T7400 with an FSB at 667 MHz. The MacBook Air's processor runs at an FSB of 1066 MHz (this does make a performance difference) but is also a custom design specific for the MacBook Air that's also low voltage, and thus consumes less battery power. The thing about comparing strictly processor speeds between different processors is that it doesn't work. You have to take into account the front side bus, the onboard cache and the number of cores. That said, you can be assured that the MacBook Air is definitely faster than your Inspiron 6400. I actually have the exact same Inspiron 6400 as you, and believe me, that thing had great specs when it came out and is still better than the cheap laptops you see at Future Shop and Best Buy today.

Anyways, the MacBook Air hasn't had an update in six months, which isn't unusual for Apple, but the last June 2009 update didn't change much and it's lagging a bit behind the MacBooks/Pros and iMacs now. Don't buy one unless you absolutely need it. Wait 3-6 months for the next update.

Good thought on the FSB, did not think about that, just thought about the Core frequency

Yeah the more I read about these machines looks like it was just put forth as a Niche product, so that people can just flaunt look at how thin my notebook is. The audio issues coupled with some of the other issues such as non-swappable battry, 1 usb port, etc is not making me feel good about the product anymore.

I guess Macbook pro it is, i saw some refurb ones going in at around 1200 or so on apples site, i will keep researching

 

[WoodPeckr]

Yeah it was kind of a shocker when dell told me oh well 2gigs is the max. I think windows 7 should give it some new life, XP is bogging it down.

You just may need a re-format to clear all the crap out that builds up in XP.
When was the last time the HDD was formated?
A fresh format will make that Dell run like new again.

Good thought on the FSB, did not think about that, just thought about the Core frequency

This is where AMD excells over Intel.
The AMD processor in my Toshiba has a FSB of 1600.
AMD blows away the FSB ratings of Intel CPUs.

AMD TurionTM 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TL-60
2.0 GHz, 1MB L2 Cache, HyperTransportTM Technology FSB 1600MHz

AMD desktop Quads have a FSB of 3800.

Intel countered AMD with the i7 that eliminated the FSB by replacing it with something, I forget the name of, but has a FSB rating that comes out to > 4000.

 

[OddSox]

Often lots of good deals on used Macs over at http://www.ehmac.ca/classifieds/

 

[SenecaBoy]

Often lots of good deals on used Macs over at http://www.ehmac.ca/classifieds/

Thanks Oddsox

 

[whobee]

Too bad the Apple retail stores don't have sales like a Best Buy or Future Shop. I'm sure a sale on their laptops every so often wouldn't ruin the brand.