Macbook Air vs Pro

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Wills1

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#113075 4-Jan-2013 18:43

13" Not looking at the retina models as they are out of my budget. But trying to decide between them. I was all set on an air model until I found out that the ram is soldered in, so no future upgrades possible. Is 4gb of ram enough for a macbook? Having never owned an apple computer I'm not sure. It will be used for general internet activity. Plus photo editing and family video work. I would also look at the iWork package as well. Any advice would be appreciated

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#740246 4-Jan-2013 18:48

4GB is fine that is what mine has

billgates

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#740248 4-Jan-2013 18:50

The Pro uses the mobile processors which are faster than the ULV's that MacBook Air uses. Unless you are doing some fairly heavy video and photo edition, I would recommend the MacBook Air. I have seen Windows ultrabooks running i5 CPU with 4GB RAM and running Visual Studio 2010 and 2012 along with SQL 2010 and 2012 Developer edition running simultaneously without any performance issues. ULV CPU's inside ultrabooks like Air are pretty grunty. Battery life is better and weight of the device is also much lighter.

Do whatever you want to do man.

macuser

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#740264 4-Jan-2013 20:16

If you're doing serious video/photo work, 4GB will simply not be enough, 4GB is sweet for every day tasks, but for video suites you should be looking at 16gb - mostly to give you some headroom for large files. Remember you can buy the pro system with 4GB and then buy 3rd party memory from a pc store, you can pick up 16GB (2x8GB) of MBP ram for around $130 delivered.

magu

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#740271 4-Jan-2013 20:42

I'm in a similar position, but I am a regular user of Aperture for photo processing. I'm between the Retina and the Air, though.

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Wills1

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#740273 4-Jan-2013 20:44

macuser: If you're doing serious video/photo work, 4GB will simply not be enough, 4GB is sweet for every day tasks, but for video suites you should be looking at 16gb - mostly to give you some headroom for large files. Remember you can buy the pro system with 4GB and then buy 3rd party memory from a pc store, you can pick up 16GB (2x8GB) of MBP ram for around $130 delivered.

Thats what I was wondering.

I'm assuming if I upgrade the ram I would void the warranty. Can I take it to any pc store to get the ram upgraded?

I'm also now thinking the 500gb HDD might be more practical seeing as this will be the family pc, rather than transferring media to a portable drive.

lxsw20

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#740274 4-Jan-2013 20:53

The Air has a better screen res and SSD. Out of the box the base Air is much quicker than the base Pro simply because of the SSD.

If RAM is critical to you, then order one with 8GB rather than 4.

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macuser

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#740275 4-Jan-2013 20:55

Wills1:
macuser: If you're doing serious video/photo work, 4GB will simply not be enough, 4GB is sweet for every day tasks, but for video suites you should be looking at 16gb - mostly to give you some headroom for large files. Remember you can buy the pro system with 4GB and then buy 3rd party memory from a pc store, you can pick up 16GB (2x8GB) of MBP ram for around $130 delivered.

Thats what I was wondering.

I'm assuming if I upgrade the ram I would void the warranty. Can I take it to any pc store to get the ram upgraded?

I'm also now thinking the 500gb HDD might be more practical seeing as this will be the family pc, rather than transferring media to a portable drive.

Nope, you're allowed to swap ram - long as you don't do any damage you will be sweet - they include instructions in the owners manual. The MBP's hdd is also user accessible, provided you follow apple's instructions you will be able to upgrade and replace your MBP HDD (to say an SSD in a few years).

Krishant007

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#740307 4-Jan-2013 22:32

I would recommend the MBP for your case. Highly recommend you upgrade the RAM. and Yes you can do this yourself without voiding warranty as stated previously.

I have a MBP from 2009 atm and I have upgraded the RAM to 8GB from the original 4gb. I have noticed that it doesnt slow my computer down when multiple programs are running.

You have mentioned that you will be doing some photo editing and that software will definitely take up some RAM space so best to have at least 8GB.

I would normally recommend a MBA for an average user whose primary use is general internet, movies, music chatting, word etc. Even some programming can be done on the MBA without issues - but if you want to do things like editing images and some heavy programming - best to get somethng with more power.

and yes, its also true that the screen on the MBA is also better than MBP - the resolution is higher. But you can always connect to an external monitor :)

Hope that helps.

myopinion

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#740325 4-Jan-2013 23:14

Go for Pro 13" retina. I upgraded from an Air and it is much faster more ram and the fans never get loud enough to hear. The Air used to be really loud when playning any flash video.

MikeB4

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#740341 5-Jan-2013 06:31

If you order some MacBook Air models through the Apple online store you can order them with 8GB of Ram

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

khull

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#740365 5-Jan-2013 09:01

Hidef photo editing will definitely consume more memory - while 4GB is enough for every day use, you may find it lacking at a later stage.

I have 16GB on my pro as I run different virtual machines at the same time. So it really depends on the user.

But I would recommend 8GB

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macuser

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#740366 5-Jan-2013 09:07

KiwiNZ: If you order some MacBook Air models through the Apple online store you can order them with 8GB of Ram

You do pay over double the market rate for the privilege though.

I think that people would expect their Apple computer to last 4-5 years, in that time with a MBA they are not going to be able to make any modifications to their machine, meaning that with all the OS upgrades and software updates the thing is just going to seem slower and slower over time, not to mention when file sizes naturally increase that HDD is going to get limited fast. I also imagine that as this is a family machine they will have multiple users, so it's not just the OP's files, but the whole families too.

magu

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#740385 5-Jan-2013 10:15

In my case, a Retina 13" with 8GB RAM will be better. I can then upgrade the SSD later on.

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macuser

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#740386 5-Jan-2013 10:26

magu: In my case, a Retina 13" with 8GB RAM will be better. I can then upgrade the SSD later on.

MBP Retina has non standard components like MBA, so you won't be able to upgrade any internal components down the line.

magu

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#740387 5-Jan-2013 10:28

macuser:
magu: In my case, a Retina 13" with 8GB RAM will be better. I can then upgrade the SSD later on.

MBP Retina has non standard components like MBA, so you won't be able to upgrade any internal components down the line.

The SSD is replaceable, according to OWC.

"Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads." - Doc Emmet Brown

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