Macbook Air

[Maguspk]

A friend is offering to sell his 13" Macbook Air for $750 with the following specs:
Intel Core 2 Duo @ 1.86 GHz
2GB DDR3 SDRAM @ 1066 MHz
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M
128GB SSD for storage
I think this is an older model of the Air, not the ones currently on the Apple store, but still good nonetheless. I have about 4 days to make this decision.

I did some research and this appears to be well under the price for comparable Air's from apple and even Amazon used prices (around 200 bucks cheaper). Before I continue, I consider the Air to be a netbook since it's specs don't lend it to doing anything more than browsing the web if you want the battery to last anywhere longer than 3-4 hours. With that having been said, I look at the following netbooks as a comparison. To me I think the extra 250 bucks for the Air is a fair tradeoff for the thinner design, better CPU and better storage (SSD). Am I crazy? I've been doing a ton of research just googling and browsing Amazon, Newegg, etc. reading review after review. I am considering partitioning most of the Air HD for a Windows 7 installation, literally using the Air for it's design alone.

Here are the netbooks I used as a reference on Newegg due to their decent reviews:
If anyone knows of better comparisons which would be comparable to the Air or these netbooks at better prices that'd be cool. Mostly I just want confirmation that I'm not making an impulse sale, I don't want to drop money on something and regret it later.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834220806 ASUS $489.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834220805 ASUS $499.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834220859 ASUS $399.99 (same model as previous link but actually ~100$ cheaper, no significant differences in specs, actually a better HDD...wtf?)
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Port%C.../dp/B0041O425K Toshiba Portégé $813.94 (beefier specs, seems light, seems too good to be true maybe? air is thinner but specs are relatively weaker)

Some background...
I am going to be doing some traveling soon and I need a laptop for just browsing the web and maybe watching video, absolutely will not be doing anything even slightly demanding such as gaming or processing video. The most intense thing I may do is SSH or remote desktop into another machine while listening to music and writing in Notepad++ and running Firefox/Chrome. Screensize is not a factor for me really, in fact, I'd prefer smaller laptops just for the portability. The idea of a 17 inch beast and having to lug it around is laughable, that is not what laptops are about to me.

This is mostly just to ensure I'm not making an impulse decision. If I feel others find my rationale reasonable I can make my choice more confidently. Thanks in advance, I appreciate any opinions, expert or novice.

[Ratatapa]

Don't old Macbook Air are really weak compared to newer models, I know they are pricey but the newer are much better if you can save some money

[Maguspk]

From the specs the only difference from previous generation seems to be the video card, which isn't going to affect my workflow significantly anyway since I believe they are integrated. Do you have a link or some sort of resource to substantiate your statement? I gotta make a decision soon but I don't want to miss out on this potentially good deal...

[Ratatapa]

I'll try to refind the link I had

But as far as I remember you need to get the 13 inches to have the best performance due to the upgradable CPU and memory

[Maguspk]

Ya the offer is for the 13 inch model which I believe is from the last iteration because it's basically equivalent to the cheaper of the two 13 inch options on apples site at the moment with a slightly weaker graphics chip. Keep in mind the offer is for 750 dollars which compared to the 950 or so from other sources seems like a good deal to me.

[Ratatapa]

sorry for the wait, here you go

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3991/a...nch-reviewed/1

[Weltall]

DDR3 or not, I have no idea why anyone would buy a machine with only 2GB RAM. Running XP I guess? lol

I would save, if you want a MAC, or buy a better machine for the same price that isn't a MAC.

[Maguspk]

I really am just attracted to the form factor and the price seems very reasonable from comparing to the links I posted. It's not like 1500 bucks like the cost would be if I bought it from apple, or even 950, we're talking 750 which is just a little more than the average netbook and it's definitely more powerful than the average netbook. All the netbooks I find which are small/light enough to compare to the air are all like 500 bucks for the cheap intel ARM processors and 1 GB of ram, small screens, etc. I only have like 2 days left to make my decision.

[Isiolia]

DDR3 or not, I have no idea why anyone would buy a machine with only 2GB RAM. Running XP I guess? lol

I would save, if you want a MAC, or buy a better machine for the same price that isn't a MAC.

2GB is still functional, particularly if you're just doing light tasks.

we're talking 750 which is just a little more than the average netbook and it's definitely more powerful than the average netbook

Eh, you could buy 2-3 netbooks for 750, if you shopped around, though it does depend on the ones you like. I wouldn't buy a netbook right now though, not until Fusion rolls around. It does land you in the range of plenty of basic laptops though. Really comes down to the form factor. If you just want a basic not-too-big laptop, you could get something like a Vostro 3400 (fast ship config atm is $584 with a 2.4Ghz i3 and 3GB of RAM) and put the difference towards a nice SSD. Probably won't get a 120GB+ one for $150ish, but the Intel 80GBs are close, or you could easily get a 60GB for that. That said, the original Air's SSD is not really on par performance-wise anyway.

[wyrmtung]

Yes, that is a good price for an Air with those specs. I work for Apple and we can buy refurb units at some pretty good prices (like 25-50% less than the public.) Your friend's offer is similar to what I can get so I would say it is a good deal.

I've been doing a ton of research just googling and browsing Amazon, Newegg, etc. reading review after review. I am considering partitioning most of the Air HD for a Windows 7 installation, literally using the Air for it's design alone.

...

Some background...
I am going to be doing some traveling soon and I need a laptop for just browsing the web and maybe watching video, absolutely will not be doing anything even slightly demanding such as gaming or processing video. The most intense thing I may do is SSH or remote desktop into another machine while listening to music and writing in Notepad++ and running Firefox/Chrome. Screensize is not a factor for me really, in fact, I'd prefer smaller laptops just for the portability. The idea of a 17 inch beast and having to lug it around is laughable, that is not what laptops are about to me.

This is mostly just to ensure I'm not making an impulse decision. If I feel others find my rationale reasonable I can make my choice more confidently. Thanks in advance, I appreciate any opinions, expert or novice.

You don't need to "partition most of the Air HD for a Windows 7 installation."

1. You can do all the things you intend on doing in OSX (and, call me crazy, you might actually like OSX.)
2. You only need to partition about 16GB for W7. You can either use Boot Camp (a feature included in OSX) which allows you to boot your system in Windows, or you can use an emulator like Parallels or VMware Fusion which will run your Windows program in a window without leaving the OSX environment.
3. I have W7 installed on my MacbookPro but I have not found a need to go into Windows for the last 5 years. If you allow yourself to embrace the OS then you will find that everything you used to do can still be done. This is true whether you're switching to Mac or vice versa.

As for HD space, with the Air it is relative. The designers of the Air probably never intended the Air to be your sole computer. That's why they never put in an optical drive into it. The designers envisioned their users accessing your main computer over a WiFi network to use the other computer's optical drive and access the other computer's HD space. You can buy an external optical drive and external HD so that the Air can be your only computer, but I think the makers of the Air knew that most people buying the Air probably already have a computer in their household.

[Ohemgee]

The stock $999 Macbook Air looks so tempting to buy.

I'm limiting my Windows usage to my desktop (its a gaming rig).

My personal use Dell with Ubuntu does everything I need it to do.

I have a Cr-48, and I looooooooooooooooooooooove it to the point that SSD + lightweight makes the stock air looks amazing