MAcBook Air Advice please.....

[DaveB@Vagbremtechnic]

Ok

Compaq laptop is on life support riddled with malware, stripes screen and a Whiney fan.....

Can't be arsed as I use it very infrequently since the IPad turned up two years ago, there are some PC applications on there for work that I need.

So got a bit of a stiffy for a MacBook Air, so the questions are as follows.....

1. Which HD decided on an 11" any downsides to this? Battery is less but much better than the 30 seconds I have now
2. processor upgrade required?
3. I'm thinking 256gb SSD upgrade and leaving it at 4GB ram its £80 to upgrade to 8gb
4. definitely need IOS and Windows 7 on the same machine what's the differenc e between parallels and boot camp
5. Need a soft case which one? Any other essential point of sale required purchases
6. Essential apps.
7. I have an IPhone 5 and an IPad 4 any benefits to having all three remotes? Any hidden goodies?
8. I have a student mate who reckons he may be able to get it cheaper, how much cheaper is it? Any warranty issues? Do I still get a VATinvoice or is it VAT free?
9. Windows is very big would I get away with a 128gb machine running both OS's
10. Apple store or eBay?

All answers grateful, I spend a lot of time lugging this widescreen second hand crap laptop around with me just in case ....would be nice to have something Bijou and compact and light - the hosties got one and its ace, she uses it more like an IPad. So sold just which one and config please.

Decided its coming and have an appointment at Apple on Monday to swap the IPhone 5 for one that works......so thinking I might get one then.

[edd666999]

biggest hdd you can afford. the 128gb wont be enough.

4gb will be fine in osx and win7.

apple give student discount thats why he will be able to get it cheaper, not sure about vat invoice as it will be marked as a student purchase.

Im not sure how tech based you are Dave but give me a shout if you want a hand with anything as i do it as a day job :) and im round the corner.

[Deako]

1. Which HD decided on an 11" any downsides to this? Battery is less but much better than the 30 seconds I have now

No downsides unless you need a bigger screen. I find 13" a very sweet size on a Macbook, especially the air as the footprint isnt much bigger overall.

2. processor upgrade required?

The standard CPU should service all your needs imo. With the SSD and ram, its very speedy. Have a play in the apple shop on a standard spec machine.

3. I'm thinking 256gb SSD upgrade and leaving it at 4GB ram its £80 to upgrade to 8gb

256gb should be fine. If you intend to do the ram, upgrade at build on an air. I believe its soldered on.

4. definitely need IOS and Windows 7 on the same machine what's the differenc e between parallels and boot camp

Parrallels allows you to run windows vm and apps in the Mac OS. Boot camp allows you to boot into a secondary OS. I prefer boot camp to get the full windows experience.

5. Need a soft case wich one? Any other essential point of sale required purchases

Any neoprene soft shell will be fine, but consider how you carry it. Most dont have handles on them. I have a nice samsonite memory foam case for small laptops.

6. Essential apps.

Depends what you are doing to be honest Dave.

7. I have an IPhone 5 and an IPad 4 any benefits to having all three remotes? Any hidden goodies?

You can use an iPad as an extension of the display. There are some good utilities out there to do this.

8. I have a student mate who reckons he may be able to get it cheaper, how much cheaper is it? Any warranty issues? Do I still get a VATinvoice or is it VAT free?

Student discount is much better than just getting the VAT back via Business purchase. You also get an extended Applecare warranty inclusive in the price. Dont spec this at the time of build if you are using a student "method" of purchase.

9. Windows is very big would I get away with a 128gb machine running both OS's

Id go for the larger drive if you are planning on running a lot of windows apps personally. Depends how much media you are going to bring along from the old device, and whether you store it on a NAS or external hard drives etc.

10. Apple store or eBay?

Apple store with student discount.  

[Mikeygtir]

ive got a 13" MB Pro Retina and the only reason i got it really was because it was shiney..

the OS takes some getting used to if your used to W7..
I run W7 Ultimate on bootcamp.. and for the Apple OS i use a 1TB HDD for the time machine

If your going down the bootcamp route for your windows my advice would be, decide what you want to do with windows so you can allocate enough space for bootcamp.. i didnt the first time round and it was a PITA to increase the allocation but i got there in the end..

Mikey

[monte]

Definitely Apple store with student discount. 

I got a top of the range MBA 13" and took my nephew along.

He was doing a part time course at uni and he didn't even have his student union card with him. In fact all he was going to show the apple guys was an email saying his card was in the post, but they didn't even want to look. 

Instead of £1700 I paid £1200
   

[garrardrj]

Definitely Apple store with student discount. 

I got a top of the range MBA 13" and took my nephew along.

He was doing a part time course at uni and he didn't even have his student union card with him. In fact all he was going to show the apple guys was an email saying his card was in the post, but they didn't even want to look. 

Instead of £1700 I paid £1200
   

So what discount is that ? Looks like 30% , do they get that on everything Apple make ?

[JPC]

The highest edu discount is around 13-14 %

[rich83]

Remember that EDU discount also knocks of about 200quid from the extended apple care. 

[garrardrj]

The highest edu discount is around 13-14 %

So how does the poster drop from £1700 to £1200 ?

[n13cah]

I got about 12% off using the student discount last year. Also you get a £70 itunes card at the moment.

[DaveB@Vagbremtechnic]

Bought it today, wasn't particularly comfortable blagging student discount when I've not sat an exam in 15 years and the last one 10 years before that.

Went for a 13" 256gb 4GB ram model, Luke quite right about the 11" which I initially thought might do but 13" looked the better bit of kit.

Initial thoughts are its ace, it picked up notes and calendars from my iCloud account and started receiving iMessages during setup. Not had a play yet, it got dropped off with the IT guy to put the new Windows 7 pro install on it and organise a VPN into the server for me. Foam case from apple store wasn't bad value at £25.

So thanks for all the advice folks

Got back to the office and Liam who's on day release reckoned he could have got another £200 off with 15% student discount and there is £70 free too.......didn't realise he could get discount and he's across the office!

 

[monte]

Remember that EDU discount also knocks of about 200quid from the extended apple care. 

Yes Rich, I got top spec with extended apple care and £70 worth of iTunes cards (good for purchasing word and office software and loads of apps etc)

I know before discount it was £1680ish and I paid I think £1236.

I can find the receipt on my MacBook when I get back home from holiday 


Well done on your purchase Dave. I'm sure you'll love it! 

[Deako]

Bought it today, wasn't particularly comfortable blagging student discount when I've not sat an exam in 15 years and the last one 10 years before that.

You can order using student discount via the web too. Oh we'll, glad you are happy with the purchase.