Macopinion

The Road Warrior Mailbag - May 5, 2008

MacBook Air Thoughts

From Darren

I am the "poster child" for a potential MBA user. I currently transport a MBP 2.2 from the office to home and back every day, and at both sites I have an external monitor, a wireless connection, and one USB cord (w/ hub) that I plug in to get my workstation up and running. Generally I use MS office apps (although migrating to 2008 has been difficult), with a mix of other stuff thrown in for good measure. However, the current MBA offering doesn't really work for me, for slightly different reasons than you suggest.

1) 2 GB RAM. For some people, this may be enough, but I often have to fire up VMWare's fusion to access some screen sharing software (or potentially a VBA Excel macro), and 2 GB is just not enough in these circumstances. Take out the 144 MB for video, and 1.8 GB just doesn't get me there, especially with 5 or 6 apps open (mail, safari, word, excel, ppt are minimums). This, by far, is the most significant limitation, and seems so silly given the extremely low prices of RAM these days. Couldn't apple had just gone w/ 4 GB and be done with it?

(As a side note, the migration to Office 2008 has lowered the RAM requirements of Office apps significantly. I know that is due to the lack of Rosetta translation, and it may make 2 GB "sufferable" in these circumstances - although I have found 2008 to be very bug ridden and weakly performing at this point.)

2) 1.8" HD. While the 80 GB capacity is more or less OK for most Office needs, the speed leaves a lot to be desired. Before moving to the Mac, I used a IBM/Lenovo X41T, which had a similar 40 GB drive. The drive was definitely pokey on startup and switching apps, and really hampered what was otherwise an excellent design. I am sure the 80 GB is a bit faster, but during some time using the Air at an Apple store, I found this to be a big detractor. Combined with more memory page outs due to the aforementioned 2 GB ceiling, this is a significant, deal stopper issue. (I do realize that the SSD is available, but it's way out of my price range.)

Those are the two main detractors--honestly, I could live with one, but not both. Things that have gotten lots of press, like the lack of FireWire, ExpressCard slot, or removable battery, are just not major issues for those that commute with their laptop. Sure, I miss them, but they are really not part of my daily work flow. Even the 1.6 Ghz processor is serviceable - sure it will be slower, but is it really that noticeable compared to the 2.2?

My wife has an original MBP with a 2.0 Core Duo, and most benchmarks put the Air on par with that machine. From a processor perspective, the Core Duo is more than fast enough for general office tasks, so I can't imagine that the MBA would be noticeably slower in that regard.

If Apple corrected those two main deficiencies, I think I would be first in line to pick up a MBA v2.

Hi Darren;

I agree with you on both points, and I did mention them briefly in the article, although my main focus was on what it likely to come with the MacBook Air Revision B, which I'm expecating to be mainly a switch to Penryn-based COUs.

I'm currently running a 1.33 Ghz 17" PowerBook with 1.5 GB of RAM and an 80 GB 4,200 RPM hard drive, and neither spec. is really enough.

I often have 20 or more applications open (although I don't use MS Office and avoid Microsoft software in general unless there is absolutely no alternative), and I expect that 2 GB on a MacBook or MacBook Air would be even less satisfactory than 1.5 GB on the G4, what with the Intel architecture and vampire video on the MacBook machines. Unfortunately, Apple has always tended to be stingy with standard RAM.

And from what I've been reading, the SSD option, even if the cost were not prohibitive, doesn't offer much performance gain over the conventional hard drive in the MacBook Air. It's advantage is no moving parts.

Charles

MacBook Optical Drive Noise On Wakeup

From ncousmc

Hi Charles,

After a long sabbatical from the Mac world (three years) I have gone ahead and bought a black Penryn Macbook. I do have a quibble with my purchase- the DVD drive makes an ejection (whirring) sound whenever I wake the laptop from sleep. Is this normal?

I have owned a Pismo and a 550 Titanium PowerBook (still have both but currently have not been powered on in a while) and they have never made this sound.

Hi;

Welcome back to the Mac.

I expect the behavior you describe is normal. In my experience, some Mac laptops do it and others don't. My first Pismo didn't until I installed a firmware upgrade, after which the original tray-type DVD-ROM drive started making not only a momentary whir upon wake-up or startup, but also kicking the disk tray open. This was annoying until I upgraded to slot-loading SuperDrives, which still make the sound.

I've gotten so used to it that I hadn't really thought much about it for years.

My G3 iBook also momentarily activates its CD-ROM drive upon startup, but mercifully doesn't open the tray. My G4 PowerBook doesn't do it.

Charles

CM