Macbook Air

HI Guys,

Im thinking of buying a 13" Macbook Air while in Florida at Christmas. I am currently in seminary and i like the weight of the Air due to long periods of walking to Uni. Is the 4gb ram sufficient to run Logos 5? I know i can buy a Pro and upgrade it however I just like the look and feel of using an Air. What do you guys think?

Blessings.

Paul

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Mike Binks

Hi Paul

Ram is the one thing that you really cannot add later. 4gb might be sufficient but I chose to go the extra mile and that would be my advice if you can find the extra cash just now. My experience of the Air has been a joy.

However you must realise that I have not run Logos etc on a 4gb machine and I may not be even seeing much benefit from my extra bucks - just now.

Patrick S.

The MacBook Air, both 11" & 13" are great machines. We got our daughter a 2011 model 11" for university which she connects to large monitor in her room, she loves it.

The considerations with the Air — made all more relevant because they cannot be upgraded afterwards (SSD for 2012 Airs perhaps in future) — are processor, RAM & storage.

Basically you want to get as much as your budget can stretch to, to go to 8GB RAM is only $100 extra, to go to an i7 processor is only $100 extra. Once you have purchased machine though it is impossible to change.

The i5 + 4GB RAM Air should run Logos 5 OK, but the i7 + 8GB RAM unit will do it better. For storage depends on your Logos library size but it will be anywhere from around 6 - 20 GB, mine is 13 GB and I don't have anywhere near the biggest library.

The better performance of Logos 5 will help.

Pedro

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/423205#Comment_423205

4GB is more than enough, runs without any. problems on i5, 128 GB SSD and 4Gbram

Mark Nigro

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/423730#Comment_423730

I always recommend more RAM whenever possible. It allows you to run more apps if needed, and simply gives your machine some breathing room. Plus you do not know what your requirements will be down the road. With the AIR, once purchased, you CANNOT upgrade the RAM. 8 GB gets my vote.

Andrew Mercer

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/423960#Comment_423960

I'm running it on the 2011 11" MBA with 4GB of RAM. Much snappier than Logos4 was. I have the 1.6HGhz i5 processor. I might also add that its speed increases when using a dedicated monitor and the lid of the MBA is closed.

Mitchell

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/423972#Comment_423972

Keep in mind that the SSD makes the speed penalty for running out of RAM a lot less drastic. More is always better, but in reality you'll probably be fine with 4GB.

Graeme Adams

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/423972#Comment_423972

I'm running it on the 2011 11" MBA with 4GB of RAM. Much snappier than Logos4 was. I have the 1.6HGhz i5 processor. I might also add that its speed increases when using a dedicated monitor and the lid of the MBA is closed.

Andrew, I'm looking to upgrade my mac, possibly to a Mac Air, that sounds like an interesting set up you have, best of both worlds, highly mobile and a big monitor at home or office. Thanks for posting, would never have thought of that.

Dug out this info on the set up if others are interested.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3131?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

Paul Bradley

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/423990#Comment_423990

Thanks guys for all your help, much appreciated!

Paul

Mike W

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/423979#Comment_423979

Keep in mind that the SSD makes the speed penalty for running out of RAM a lot less drastic. More is always better, but in reality you'll probably be fine with 4GB.

The only thing with this is that SSDs have a lower number of write cycles than mechanical disks (when they do fail you can still read them so your data is safe). I would not want to count on one for a swap drive. I have 8gb of ram and activity monitor never shows Swap space being used. It routinely shows a little over 5GB used (Logos, Pages, Safari, Mail, and Calendar running). Unless money is really tight I think the 8gb upgrade would be advisable simply to extend the life of that expensive SSD. I believe that SSDs on current Macbook Air's can be upgraded later whereas memory cannot.

Alan Macgregor

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/424065#Comment_424065

My MBA (spec below), which I use for academic work only, runs L5 happily and sweetly. It just works. I use Mellel as my Word-processor and have not noticed any performance issues.

Enjoy.

Every blessing

Alan

Mitchell

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/424077#Comment_424077

I use Mellel as my Word-processor

Apologies for the threadjack, but I've never heard of that software before and on a quick Google search, it looks interesting. What are its advantages over Word and Pages, in your usage?

Mike W

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/424109#Comment_424109

I use Mellel as my Word-processor

Apologies for the threadjack, but I've never heard of that software before and on a quick Google search, it looks interesting. What are its advantages over Word and Pages, in your usage?

For one thing, Millel handles original languages better than Word or Pages.

Andrew Mercer

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/423990#Comment_423990

I'm running it on the 2011 11" MBA with 4GB of RAM. Much snappier than Logos4 was. I have the 1.6HGhz i5 processor. I might also add that its speed increases when using a dedicated monitor and the lid of the MBA is closed.

Andrew, I'm looking to upgrade my mac, possibly to a Mac Air, that sounds like an interesting set up you have, best of both worlds, highly mobile and a big monitor at home or office. Thanks for posting, would never have thought of that.

Dug out this info on the set up if others are interested.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3131?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

Graeme - I was running a Quad Core 2008 MacPro with muilpe cinema displays - whilst nice, I was getting frustrated with two computers weven though I was using Dropbox and iCloud for syncing files. After going to just the MDA and a Thunderbolt Cinema Display, I couldn't be happier. In saying that, I'm waiting for my 480GB SSD from OWC and then I'll be really happy [:D]

Alan Macgregor

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/424149#Comment_424149

For one thing, Mellel handles original languages better than Word or Pages.

That's why I use it for academic work. [:D] It also synchronises nicely with Bookends a useful bibliographic/citation manager/organiser/creator.

Every blessing

Alan