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MacBook Air is enough for a work machine

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Re: MacBook Air is enough for a work machine

#181

Post by m0nastic »

phamilton wrote: post #142
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.

All 3 of the main PC manufacturers (Dell, HP, and Lenovo) make such a system:

HP Z-series (I like the Z600[1]), or the Lenovo Thinkstations (C20[2] is currently my favorite workstation, as it's tiny but still can have dual Xeons).

[1] - http://shopping1.hp.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/WFS/WW-USS...

[2] - http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPo...

Re: MacBook Air is enough for a work machine

#182

Post by mickael1 »

rudiger wrote: post #121
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…

New MacBook Pro models are shipping with TRIM support for bundled Apple SSDs.

It's also possible to change the plist files to get TRIM support on third party SSD's. I am currently running a Intel 320 SSD with TRIM enabled on my Macbook (according to System Profiler). The utility can be found here http://www.groths.org/?page_id=322

Re: MacBook Air is enough for a work machine

#183

Post by uptown »

dasil003 wrote: post #171
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…

What about the warranty?

Hard drives are considered a user-serviceable component, so the aftermarket SSD is fine. It's the optibay drive which won't fly if he ever needs to receive service. The easy fix for that is to remove the optibay, and re-install the optical drive before service before bringing it anywhere for repair.

Re: MacBook Air is enough for a work machine

#184

Post by spicyj »

achompas wrote: post #132
calebhicks wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

X-25M. It's not the latest and greatest, but I got it for $170 after a sale and mail-in rebate. If you've got more cash to spend, you may want to look at the new 310, or 510. There are other great SSD makers, but I chose Intel based on the price and general high reviews.

Wow, that's apparently a great deal on the X-25M--they were retailing for $220 at NewEgg. I'm waiting to see what comes out in the next few months, as apparently OCZ and Intel are building drives with the new SandForce chipset. Don't know if the improvements will be significant, though...

The Intel 320 Series is very similar to the X25-M (just the next generation; practically the same controller) and is cheaper as well.

Re: MacBook Air is enough for a work machine

#185

Post by tricky »

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…

Anyone have experience with the knockoff optibay adapters on ebay? They're cheap (~$10 to $25) - [edit: never mind, that's what he means by $20 brackets.]

Re: MacBook Air is enough for a work machine

#186

Post by oemera »

alsocasey wrote: post #175
oemera wrote: post #172

I think I'm really late into this and nobody will read my comment but I will give it a try. Six months ago I had a iMac 24" and a MacBook Pro 13" for studying and portability. I noticed after I bought my MBP that I didn't use my iMac as I thought to be using. Not because it was slow or bad or something. No it was just horrible to synchronize both devices with my work and study related stuff (Yeah I know now better th…

All these pros, except weight, is really just down to the SSD - which you can get in any MBP trivially. 1. With an SSD, any current MBP would feel just as snappy. 2. Can't get around that - though I seldom feel my 4lb MBP is too heavy. 3. I've always had this, I call it Sleep. 4. My 13" i5 gets me >7Hrs. 5. Eclipse/XCode - will run just as fast with an SSD. Compile times - no contest, i5 beats the crap out of a 1.3-1…

You might be right and maybe a MBP just fits your needs even better than a MBA could. I just wanted to demonstrate that a MBA is pretty good for development too.

Re: MacBook Air is enough for a work machine

#187

Post by masomenos »

Cushman wrote: post #145
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.

I'm at 3.5+ years on my current white macbook, and finally about ready to get a new one. Use it most of the day, most days for web and misc development.

Thinking a macbook pro with SSD & 8GB has a chance of lasting even longer.

Re: MacBook Air is enough for a work machine

#188

Post by laut »

lightoverhead wrote: post #178
laut wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Macs "just work" for things where Linux doesn't. Photoshop doesn't run natively on Linux, that's alone is enough for many to choose OS X over Linux. For many people the price difference (if it's there) doesn't matter.

that's the software not the machine. Can pc run photoshop?

Mac OS X is the only unix based OS that runs Photoshop natively. Macs are the only way to run Mac OS X except if you make a "hackintosh".

Linux is not as user friendly and integrated with the hardware as Macs. There are certain apps that are only available for Mac. Those are some of the reasons.

Re: MacBook Air is enough for a work machine

#189

Post by codenerdz »

shawndumas wrote: post #43
bergie wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm the only one in our company not using any external monitors. The added screen real estate would be nice, but the downside is that then you have a different setup in the office and on the road. I rather get used to a single screen I always have with me.

Use an iPad as a touchable external monitor... http://avatron.com/apps/air-display

This is basically a disguised VNC display. I test drove this app(or its clone) last year and it was noticeably laggy. Maybe things have changed since then...

Re: MacBook Air is enough for a work machine

#190

Post by Cushman »

masomenos wrote: post #187
Cushman wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'm at 3.5+ years on my current white macbook, and finally about ready to get a new one. Use it most of the day, most days for web and misc development. Thinking a macbook pro with SSD & 8GB has a chance of lasting even longer.

Oh, without a doubt— I'm on the third year with this MBP, and I ran my old iBook even longer than that. They're great machines, and they do last forever.

The point is more that rather than running one machine into the ground until it's thoroughly obsolete (three years give or take) and then paying full price for a new one, one could resell a year later when it's still worth nearly what you paid for it and upgrade to the newest model. The price per year works out to be more or less the same, but you have cutting-edge hardware year after year rather than spending two years out of three in comparative obsolescence.

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