MacBook Air is enough for a work machine • Hacker News Board

Re: MacBook Air is enough for a work machine

#141

Post by tomwans » Thu, Apr 28, 2011, 6:06 PM UTC

My 2008 (Core 2 Duo) MBP died last week and I figured I'd upgrade rather than repair it (I felt the Core 2 Duo was aging fast). I borrowed my mother's low-end MBA for the time being and Fell In Love. It was great for Xcode development/tricked-out Emacs for remote dev. (pretty much all you need).

However, I ended up with a tricked-out MBP 15" w/ SSD & Hi-Res screen - the reason is I need the peripherals &etc. for heavy apps like Logic. But let me tell you, if you're going MBP 15" - cough up for an SSD, but also ... get the Hi-Res screen. It's only $100 extra and you will feel as if you have an absurd amount of screen real estate.

Re: MacBook Air is enough for a work machine

#142

Post by phamilton » Thu, Apr 28, 2011, 6:06 PM UTC

veidr wrote: post #134

Workflows vary, of course. And yeah, for non-programmers, I think the Air is a great machine--good enough to be the primary machine for most people. But for full-time programming work, I think it is absolutely fucking batshit insane to use anything less than a modern 12-core Mac Pro with 32 GB RAM and an SSD RAID boot volume (at which point multiple 2560 x something monitors are de rigueur ). That's certainly true fo…

On a separate note, does anyone know where one can buy a 12-core, 32GB RAM, SSD RAID machine that's not made by apple? I've looked around and I can't find any. Blade servers, sure, but desktop workstations?

I think it's interesting how apple has claimed the ultra high end user market in addition to it's other markets.

Re: MacBook Air is enough for a work machine

#143

Post by Hoff » Thu, Apr 28, 2011, 6:08 PM UTC

Shamiq wrote: post #136

veidr wrote: post #134

Workflows vary, of course. And yeah, for non-programmers, I think the Air is a great machine--good enough to be the primary machine for most people. But for full-time programming work, I think it is absolutely fucking batshit insane to use anything less than a modern 12-core Mac Pro with 32 GB RAM and an SSD RAID boot volume (at which point multiple 2560 x something monitors are de rigueur ). That's certainly true fo…

May I ask what you do with the old machines?

The older Mac Pro machines might well see additional and continued usage as members of a distributed build farm using distcc via 10 GbE or gigabit network.

Re: MacBook Air is enough for a work machine

#144

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Apr 28, 2011, 6:09 PM UTC

veidr wrote: post #134

Workflows vary, of course. And yeah, for non-programmers, I think the Air is a great machine--good enough to be the primary machine for most people. But for full-time programming work, I think it is absolutely fucking batshit insane to use anything less than a modern 12-core Mac Pro with 32 GB RAM and an SSD RAID boot volume (at which point multiple 2560 x something monitors are de rigueur ). That's certainly true fo…

[deleted]

Re: MacBook Air is enough for a work machine

#145

Post by Cushman » Thu, Apr 28, 2011, 6:09 PM UTC

achompas wrote: post #42

My MacBook Air was $1,799 and the equivalent MacBook Pro (top of the line 15″, because why would you buy the 13″?) would cost me just over $3,200 (adding 3rd party SSD, Apple 8GB RAM and the Hi-Res screen). Man, this is disingenuous. 8GB RAM? As if you can't get it cheaper (or the MBA even offered 8GB RAM as an option)? Or as if the 15" MBP doesn't blow the Air out of the water in every other aspect? I bought a 13" P…

Are you sure you want to own your MacBook for 3 years?

The depreciation on Apple laptops is low enough that you can resell it and trade up to the latest refresh once a year for the same cost as trading up once every 3 years. If you're interested in the best bang-for-your-buck and can put up with the hassle, you should definitely think about it.

Re: MacBook Air is enough for a work machine

#146

Post by brk » Thu, Apr 28, 2011, 6:10 PM UTC

chime wrote: post #12

I use MBA (4GB RAM upgrade, 128GB SSD) for doing a lot of XCode development. XCode4 runs very smoothly and I've never had any speed issues with running the iOS Simulator. It's light, doesn't heat up, and is very stable. I gave up my http://chir.ag/stuff/5lcd.jpg setup for a single MBA and I couldn't be happier (my electric bill went down by $125/month). From personal experience I know that I'm more productive on 5 LC…

You can have multiple external monitors. Check out the Matrx dual/triple head to go setups. Been using a triple head for a while now.

http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/gxm/th2go/

Re: MacBook Air is enough for a work machine

#147

Post by kooshball » Thu, Apr 28, 2011, 6:10 PM UTC

JCB_K wrote: post #3

Playing back a 1080p h.264 video using the 24″ Cinema Display (in full screen), the computer drops a lot of frames doing this. That was the only thing that really surprised me.

I was really surprised here as well. Does any one else have any data points here?

How does it handle 720p contents?

Re: MacBook Air is enough for a work machine

#148

Post by alabut » Thu, Apr 28, 2011, 6:10 PM UTC

matthew-wegner wrote: post #103

Not MBA-related, but for MBP machines you can use an OptiBay bracket to pull out the optical drive and replace it with an SSD or HD. Couple notes on that: - The OptiBay is $80, but includes a USB enclosure for your SuperDrive to turn it into an external drive: http://www.mcetech.com/optibay/ - Cheap clone brackets are ~$20 on eBay, work just as well. - The original HD bay includes a sudden motion sensor to park the h…

I've got a similar setup and it got me thinking about buying a used mac pro tower to max out the 4 HD slots with SSDs and RAID them across. Anyone try that or know if the speed boost would be noticeable?

Re: MacBook Air is enough for a work machine

#149

Post by scott_s » Thu, Apr 28, 2011, 6:11 PM UTC

veidr wrote: post #134

Workflows vary, of course. And yeah, for non-programmers, I think the Air is a great machine--good enough to be the primary machine for most people. But for full-time programming work, I think it is absolutely fucking batshit insane to use anything less than a modern 12-core Mac Pro with 32 GB RAM and an SSD RAID boot volume (at which point multiple 2560 x something monitors are de rigueur ). That's certainly true fo…

I suppose this is because I work in the area of high performance systems research, but I never compile locally. All of my compilation and execution happen on a remote cluster. I've used a 13" or 15" Macbook Pro for all of my work for the past three years.

Re: MacBook Air is enough for a work machine

#150

Post by wyclif » Thu, Apr 28, 2011, 6:12 PM UTC

r00fus wrote: post #93

ascendant wrote: post #49

I was seriously entertaining the idea of getting a top-end MBA earlier this year (refurbed for $200 off) but then the new MBP's came out and I couldn't justify a 13 inch screen and a Core 2 duo when for almost the same price I could have the 15 inch screen and a Sandy Bridge Core I7. I got the MBP and truly love it. I imagine the lightness of the air goes a long way towards what makes it so popular but I don't really…

Glad you like the MBP, but if you don't have an SSD you're missing out. If you do, the prices are a lot more equivalent (ie, MBP+SSD is not cheap).

IMO the SSD is what puts the MBA over the MBP when deciding between the two. The big benefit is the battery life. The MBA is the first laptop I've ever seen where a programmer can work for what amounts to a full day on a single charge without any qualification.