MacBook Air Upgrade

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patrickstarr

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#280622 29-Dec-2020 17:08

Hello everyone, I am just wanting to know if anyone can recommend a place to get my MacBook Air upgraded in Wellington? I have the default specs on, and I want to upgrade as I'm forever running out of space, thank you!.

l43a2

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#2627894 29-Dec-2020 17:16

what year is it?

Linux

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#2627895 29-Dec-2020 17:17

Buy the new M1 powered Macbook air

patrickstarr

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#2627896 29-Dec-2020 17:18

l43a2:

what year is it?

Oops sorry forgot to add this, it is an early 2015 model

Mehrts

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#2627901 29-Dec-2020 17:31

I think you'll be shocked at how much it'll cost to upgrade the internal storage as Apple's Solid State Drives (SSDs) aren't just the standard ones which you'll find in other machines, and that's the only thing which can be upgraded. RAM is soldered on to the motherboard.

In my opinion, the best way to add storage to that machine is to do it externally, either via a simple external USB SSD (Or HDD if speed isn't crucial), or via network shared storage (even a Raspberry Pi with USB SSD/HDD is more than capable of achieving this. There are plenty of easily configured systems for this such as Open Media Vault.

A big plus for networked storage solutions, is that backups are seamless and occur in the background with zero interruption to your work. I hope you're already making regular backups, if not, start now!

patrickstarr

388 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2627905 29-Dec-2020 17:35

Mehrts:

I think you'll be shocked at how much it'll cost to upgrade the internal storage, and that's the only thing which can be upgraded. RAM is soldered on to the motherboard.

In my opinion, the best way to add storage to that machine is to do it externally, either via a simple external USB SSD (Or HDD if speed isn't crucial), or via network shared storage (even a Raspberry Pi with USB SSD/HDD is more than capable of achieving this. There are plenty of easily configured systems for this such as Open Media Vault.

A big plus for networked storage solutions, is that backups are seamless and occur in the background with zero interruption to your work. I hope you're already making regular backups, if not, start now!

I use my laptop a lot mobile, so not a lot of the time it'll be set in one place, I've been thinking about just maybe upgrading to a iMac and use that as my main source of computer or just upgrade my MacBook.... I do video editing as well, there's a sale on at Noel Leemings off their laptops/iMacs so maybe I should go down and have a look.

KiwiSurfer

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#2627906 29-Dec-2020 17:36

Linux:

Buy the new M1 powered Macbook air

M1 chips has compatibility issues with certain software -- suggest checking https://isapplesiliconready.com/ to make sure the apps you want work fine on M1 chips.

Mehrts

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#2627907 29-Dec-2020 17:39

There are further remote solutions such as setting up a VPN on your machine to allow you to communicate with your home network whilst working abroad, however these can begin to get unnecessarily complicated & performance can't be guaranteed.

There is still the option of replacing your current drive in the MacBook Air, but only you will be able to decide if the price is worth it or not.

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#2627915 29-Dec-2020 18:05

KiwiSurfer:

Linux:

Buy the new M1 powered Macbook air

M1 chips has compatibility issues with certain software -- suggest checking https://isapplesiliconready.com/ to make sure the apps you want work fine on M1 chips.

M1 chipped MacBooks use Rosetta in Big Sur to emulate non-silicon ready software. In most cases, this emulated software runs faster on M1 MacBooks than on the equivalent Intel MacBooks.

I can’t think of any software that is flat-out incompatible with the M1 - happy to be educated otherwise. My challenge excludes M1-ready software relying on intel (unconverted) plugins.

antoniosk

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#2627923 29-Dec-2020 18:50

There’s only a couple,of things you can do:

1. Update the storage. Look for OWC brand sticks, and consider whether there’s enough value there for you

2. update the battery. 6 years is a long time, but also accept that whatever you get will be a third party Battery of origin unknown. Battery shipments internationally are a no go, so I’m not sure how the ones available in Nz and Australia to NZ a shipment are making it.

you’ll be up for about $400+, and all the work will be by you, but it’s not hard, there are good videos on YouTube and your machines working life might be extended by another 2 years or so. Really the biggest issue is speed and software - every os update I’ve ever seen just gets bigger and bloatier regardless of vendor. The new M1 chips might allow apple to jettison code in the future, but that will only be when they fully dump intel - 2 years max - coinciding with you needing a new machine

________

Antoniosk

froob

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#2627939 29-Dec-2020 20:03

We have one of these in the household, and I added more storage through a micro sd card permanently loaded in the sd card slot. It sits in an adapter that is flush with the case of the laptop, so the card can't be bumped. Not the fastest storage, but adequate for offloading photos and documents, and fairly cheap.

I think this is the adapter we have: https://shop.baseqi.com/products/macbook-pro-mini-drives

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#2627986 29-Dec-2020 23:08

froob: We have one of these in the household, and I added more storage through a micro sd card permanently loaded in the sd card slot. It sits in an adapter that is flush with the case of the laptop, so the card can't be bumped. Not the fastest storage, but adequate for offloading photos and documents, and fairly cheap.

I think this is the adapter we have: https://shop.baseqi.com/products/macbook-pro-mini-drives

This.

I’ve used this solution for several clients suffering from the feeble capacity of stock Mac SSD. It’s a very handy solution that’s easily managed. As a low cost yet effective method of simply adding storage capacity to your Mac, it’s hard to beat.

Most MacBook users object to the exorbitant charge for a standard NVMe with Apple’s own proprietary NGFF port on it. I haven’t yet seen viable reasoning for doing this, outside of the usual avarice.

NVMe drives are one of the greatest performance enhancing developments in consumer computer history. The performance is 20x mechanical HDD yet the cost is less than a traditional HDD of equivalent capacity. Except if you have a Mac... Because Apple.

The cost-effective solution to this is to purchase an NGFF to NVMe adapter for around $20 - 30. Fit that to your Mac SSD port, now slot in your newly purchased industry-standard NVMe drive.

Comparison - PB Tech offer a 480GB NGFF to fit Apple laptops - $360.
They also sell a Samsung 970 Evo NVMe 500GB SSD that requires an adapter to fit the Mac - $109.

Megabyte - so geek it megahertz

jarledb

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#2627993 29-Dec-2020 23:56

patrickstarr:

I use my laptop a lot mobile, so not a lot of the time it'll be set in one place

I have the new Macbook Air M1 and I am very happy with it. Excellent battery life, no fan, lightening fast and works with everything I am using.

If you are doing video work with Apple software (Final Cut etc) then this will be faster than almost any Intel Mac you can buy.

Would hold off on getting an iMac until the new M1 iMacs are released, probably sometime in 2021.

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