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New MBA - A few questions

el-Capitan

el-Capitan

Senior member
Regarding the new 13" MBA. Dets here :
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/hom...ook_air/select

I hope someone here has the knowledge :

1. Can I upgrade the stock 4GB RAM to 8GB myself? Is there a second, unused slot?
2. The 128GB, can I take it out and put my own, larger one in? Will the stock one operate if plugged into any other - Win-based - machine?
3. Windows. Sorry, but I need Win7 for Outlook. Will this run fine, or will it be a mess like on my late 2007 13", e.g. half the battery time...

Any lead appreciated.

Otherwise, will also take a lead to a competing quality build (no Acer, HP, Vaio, Dell, plse)
 
1) if its like the other no, its directly soldered to the motherboard

2) nope, not unless the desktop has a mSATA connector on the board, not sure if there is a msata -> sata converter

3) Windows yes, battery life not sure not sure, but office 2011 for mac now has outlook as well. can get a trial here http://www.microsoft.com/mac
 
1: No, soldered
2: The only other system I know of that is using the same blade SSDs as the MacBook are the new Retina Pro, and the first Asus Zenbook
3: Outlook is in Office 2011, but otherwise, yes expect a big hit on battery life in Windows.
 
Damn. No good news here. I guess I will have to pay $300 for an extra 128GB SSD. *shudder*

Outlook 2011 < 2010. Unfort. I have tried with much patience. (we use a couple of plugins)
 
Regarding the new MBA, how much better performance could I expect with 8GB RAM vs 4GB? This would be my first Apple computer and I'm not familiar with RAM requirements for OSX and the like.

The MBA would be used as a basic laptop for internet, office, email, etc. Possibly some *very* lightweight 2D AutoCAD and 2D gaming. Nothing 3D.

I'm leaning toward the upgrade just for longevity.
 
BlueWeasel said:
Regarding the new MBA, how much better performance could I expect with 8GB RAM vs 4GB? This would be my first Apple computer and I'm not familiar with RAM requirements for OSX and the like.

The MBA would be used as a basic laptop for internet, office, email, etc. Possibly some *very* lightweight 2D AutoCAD and 2D gaming. Nothing 3D.

I'm leaning toward the upgrade just for longevity.
Click to expand...

4GB seems plenty for my Max OS Leopard (10.5.8 from 2007 or 2008?). I do some light video editing in imovie and it's fast. BUT I think the newer version of Mac OS are more hungry for ram.

For basic stuff my 2008 2.1Ghz C2D is pretty fast for mundane tasks.

It will feel a lot faster due to the SSD drive.

Koing
 
Get an ASUS UX31A once it's out? 13" 1080p IPS screen, excellent battery life, all aluminum too, SSD, IVB, etc etc.
 
Qbah said:
Get an ASUS UX31A once it's out? 13" 1080p IPS screen, excellent battery life, all aluminum too, SSD, IVB, etc etc.
Click to expand...
Asus just leapfrogged Apple since Cupertino didn't upgrade the MBA's display this year.
 
jpeyton said:
Asus just leapfrogged Apple since Cupertino didn't upgrade the MBA's display this year.
Click to expand...

Wow, the UX31A looks great, but I don't know if I'd want full HD on a 13" laptop. 1920x1080 just seems like overkill on such a small screen.

Wonder if the RAM can be upgraded on the ASUS Ultra-portables, or are they just like the MBA in that respect?
 
BlueWeasel said:
Wow, the UX31A looks great, but I don't know if I'd want full HD on a 13" laptop. 1920x1080 just seems like overkill on such a small screen.

Wonder if the RAM can be upgraded on the ASUS Ultra-portables, or are they just like the MBA in that respect?
Click to expand...
RAM is soldered on; sockets take too much physical space.

1080p on 13" is 169ppi. At native resolution with no scaling, that's on the edge of usability for most people. With scaling, it should work great, but I expect Windows 8 to have far better high-DPI scaling options than Windows 7.

Remember, Apple doesn't even offer a native resolution/no scaling option on the new Retina MBP, because icons/text would appear far too small to be usable on a 15" 220ppi screen. Their highest scaling option is 1920x1200: http://www.anandtech.com/show/5996/how-the-retina-display-macbook-pro-handles-scaling
 
el-Capitan said:
Regarding the new 13" MBA. Dets here :
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/hom...ook_air/select

I hope someone here has the knowledge :

1. Can I upgrade the stock 4GB RAM to 8GB myself? Is there a second, unused slot?
2. The 128GB, can I take it out and put my own, larger one in? Will the stock one operate if plugged into any other - Win-based - machine?
3. Windows. Sorry, but I need Win7 for Outlook. Will this run fine, or will it be a mess like on my late 2007 13", e.g. half the battery time...

Any lead appreciated.

Otherwise, will also take a lead to a competing quality build (no Acer, HP, Vaio, Dell, plse)
Click to expand...

1) No. As people have said, it is soldered on. Order 8GB now if you want 8GB. Same goes for the new Retina Pro.
2) Yes. OWC (macsales.com) sells upgrades. Upgrades are available here (SATAIII (6Gbps), up to 480GB, Sandforce-based):
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC/Aura_Pro_Express
On that page are also enclosures to convert the stock SSD to USB 2.0/3.0 or FW800 or eSATA. These would operate as normal external drives on another machine (USB 2.0 wouldn't be worth it, but USB 3.0/FW800/eSATA would work).

Also, apparently there are AIR=>SATA converters too. I can't vouch for them but it looks interesting.
http://www.ebay.it/itm/MacBook-Air-...ccessories&hash=item4ab48d63cd#ht_1746wt_1274

Another important note: These blades are not compatible with the Asus ultrabook blades. Neither ASUS NOR APPLE USE NORMAL MSATA CONNECTORS. mSATA is physically similar to miniPCIe, and the Apple and Asus blades are proprietary shapes.

The new MacBook Pro Retina looks like it has a similar blade, but the pictures online aren't enough to show compatibility. Apple's service provider page hasn't updated for the new Retina Pro. They probably use the same blade, but the layout of the SSD looks different in the pictures. We will have to see.

3) You can run Windows 7, but there's no AHCI and Apple doesn't optimize the drivers for Windows. However, they now have Outlook for Mac (included in Office 2011). It works pretty well (1000% better than Entourage).
 
Qbah said:
Get an ASUS UX31A once it's out? 13" 1080p IPS screen, excellent battery life, all aluminum too, SSD, IVB, etc etc.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, the UX31A is limited to 4GB of RAM if I remember correctly. I would love to be able to run a VM or two and that 8GB in the Air sure looks good from here. Would love the screen on the Asus though... :/
 
span01 said:
Unfortunately, the UX31A is limited to 4GB of RAM if I remember correctly. I would love to be able to run a VM or two and that 8GB in the Air sure looks good from here. Would love the screen on the Asus though... :/
Click to expand...

Yea, seems so. It's a bummer for people wanting to run VMs I bet. Let's hope once the models are released, ASUS will offer an 8GB version.
 
Qbah said:
Yea, seems so. It's a bummer for people wanting to run VMs I bet. Let's hope once the models are released, ASUS will offer an 8GB version.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I couldn't wait. I'm laptop-less at the moment so need one as quick as possible so I went for the 13" Air with the i5, 128GB SSD and 8GB RAM. $100 off the price with my student discount and another $100 gift card in the Mac App store was a pretty good deal 😀
 
PCTC2 said:
.
2) Yes. OWC (macsales.com) sells upgrades. Upgrades are available here (SATAIII (6Gbps), up to 480GB, Sandforce-based):
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC/Aura_Pro_Express
On that page are also enclosures to convert the stock SSD to USB 2.0/3.0 or FW800 or eSATA. These would operate as normal external drives on another machine (USB 2.0 wouldn't be worth it, but USB 3.0/FW800/eSATA would work).

Also, apparently there are AIR=>SATA converters too. I can't vouch for them but it looks interesting.
http://www.ebay.it/itm/MacBook-Air-...ccessories&hash=item4ab48d63cd#ht_1746wt_1274

Another important note: These blades are not compatible with the Asus ultrabook blades. Neither ASUS NOR APPLE USE NORMAL MSATA CONNECTORS. mSATA is physically similar to miniPCIe, and the Apple and Asus blades are proprietary shapes.

The new MacBook Pro Retina looks like it has a similar blade, but the pictures online aren't enough to show compatibility. Apple's service provider page hasn't updated for the new Retina Pro. They probably use the same blade, but the layout of the SSD looks different in the pictures. We will have to see.
Click to expand...

As a note, the new Airs (and the new Retina Pro) use a new connector for the drives. The pin-out is now different so the OWC upgrades won't work until they release a new version.

That also means that Air-to-SATA converter won't work either.

And the Retina Pro looks like it has a slightly different form factor, but has the same connector as the new Air.
 
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