OK Mac Girls......

nun69

nun69

New member
tell me the difference between the Pro and the Air? other than the CD drive, do I HAVE to have a pro? I have an amazing desktop and 1TB EHD and I hardly EVER use my disc drive, so wondering if I need to have one if I upgrade to a Mac laptop :)
 
I think the Pro is more powerful than the Air. I got the new MacBook Pro with Retina display and I think that's the only Pro version that doesn't have the CD drive. It also doesn't have a hard drive; it has solid state memory like a flash drive. The only moving part on my laptop is the fan - which is really quiet and doesn't come on very often. I haven't missed the CD drive yet. The only time I think I'd really want one is if I ever start working with video, I'll probably want to burn DVD's then. If that happens, then I'll get an external drive to be able to do that.

Do you plan on scrapping on your Mac Laptop?

ETA: And I'd just like to say that I was very excited to see "Mac girls" and realize that I'm finally one!! :thumbup:
 
Yeah - I'm not sure you'd love scrapping on an Air - it just isn't as powerful. My hubby has one for work, and he LOVES it. It's an amazing, lightweight wonder. But, if you're doing stuff that uses the processor a lot (like scrapping), it might slow down quite a bit. I love my Macbook Pro. We've been talking about upgrading the hard drive to a solid state drive like the new ones have just help with performance and to keep the fan from needing to come on as often as it does now. But, I have a fast processor and 8 GB RAM, so I'm very happy with it.

If I were you, I'd just check out what the options are on an Air as far as processors and RAM go. If you're going to be scrapping, you'll want those to be as high as possible.

And, I can't remember the last time I put a disc in my puter. I don't think you need to worry about having a drive at all.
 
well this is the specs on the 13" pro
•2.9GHz dual-core Intel Core i7 processor (Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz)
•4MB L3 cache
•8GB of 1600MHz DDR3 memory
•750GB 5400 RPM hard drive
•13.3" (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen display with support for millions of colors
and the 13" air....
•1.8GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 (Turbo Boost up to 2.8GHz)
•3MB shared L3 cache
•4GB of 1600MHz DDR3L onboard memory
•256GB flash storage
•13.3" (diagonal) highesolution LED-backlit glossy widescreen display with support for millions of color
•Intel HD Graphics 4000
•Dual display and video mirroring


note: I can get them for the same exact price, so I am pretty sure that is a no brainer!
 
Oh - well, if you can get either one for the exact same price, then I would definitely go for the Pro. Having the faster processor, extra RAM, and bigger hard drive . . . yeah, like you said . . . it's a no brainer.
 
So for hijacking your thread, Angie... :) I'm a wanna be MacGirl and hopefully will be in a year or two...

For those of you with solid state hard drives... my hubby has been doing research (total PC guy that is now getting into Macs because he is sick of fixing everyone's PCs) and he read that if you do a lot of data swapping that solid state hard drives won't last as long... have you heard anything about this? With all the downloading, unzipping, scrapping, and deleting that I do weekly - I'm a bit nervous about that...
 
Sorry for hijacking your thread, Angie... :) I'm a wanna be MacGirl, too, and hopefully will be in a year or two...

For those of you with solid state hard drives... my hubby has been doing research (total PC guy that is now getting into Macs because he is sick of fixing everyone's PCs) and he read that if you do a lot of data swapping that solid state hard drives won't last as long... have you heard anything about this? With all the downloading, unzipping, scrapping, and deleting that I do weekly - I'm a bit nervous about that...
 
Last edited:
Rebecca, 'data swapping' or paging refers to the operating system using the hard drive (or solid state drive) as virtual memory (RAM) when there isn't enough RAM in the system. I doubt that the hard drive usage we put our computers through with digital scrapbooking would even come close to the amount of paging the OS does in the background. I think the best thing to do would be to get the highest amount of RAM that is offered, which would reduce the amount of paging the OS would do. As far as whether data swapping reduces the life of a solid state drive - I really couldn't say. I can't imagine that it would be good for a computer with a regular hard drive either because the paging would keep the hard drive spinning, which puts stress on the drive as well as generating additional heat which isn't good for the machine. Maybe someone else has more info than I have.
 
I've never heard that Rebecca, but I've also never done any research about it. I'll definitely do a little more research before I switch out my hard drive, that's for sure. The last thing I want is for my hard drive to die quickly - especially since those solid state drives are a lot more expensive.

ETA: I posted at the same time as Kate, but now that I've read her response, it all makes sense. And, my computer geek husband agrees. Paging would create a lot more stress than you could ever create yourself. And, yeah, I would think that all the deleting and moving stuff around would stress out a regular hard drive as much or even more than a solid state drive.
 
Last edited:
i have an air (i also have a mac desktop that i use for scrapping). i love the portability of it and the lightness. but it's really not all that powerful. plus, unless you're somewhere that you can have guaranteed wifi, you're kinda sunk. cause it doesn't have an ethernet port (i had to buy an adaptor). i do love my little "mac netbook" as my family calls it cause it's so little. it's awesome for traveling and such. but i would buy the pro if i was doing it over.
 
MamaBee said:
So for hijacking your thread, Angie... :) I'm a wanna be MacGirl and hopefully will be in a year or two...

For those of you with solid state hard drives... my hubby has been doing research (total PC guy that is now getting into Macs because he is sick of fixing everyone's PCs) and he read that if you do a lot of data swapping that solid state hard drives won't last as long... have you heard anything about this? With all the downloading, unzipping, scrapping, and deleting that I do weekly - I'm a bit nervous about that...
Click to expand...

I haven't heard that either. Most of what I've seen seems to say that the technology is still too new to really know for sure but that the SSDs seem to last about the same or a bit longer than a normal hard drive. But most people say the speed boost that comes with a SSD Is WELL worth the upgrade. Really it's like any technology - its not a matter of if it'll fail, it's a matter of when so having proper backups is key. My regular hard drives seem to last right about 2.5 years so if I can get that from the SSD coming in my new MBP, I'll be happy.
 
Well, now my hubby is all interested in this, and he's been researching. From what he says, SSDs kind of have a certain lifetime that is predetermined. They can only be erased a certain number of times and then they die. But, since they don't have all the moving parts that regular hard drives have, they will last a lot longer for an average user than regular drives do. It seems that people who are using them for huge systems - like hospitals, universities, big corporations, etc. - need to keep the life of the drive in mind when designing their systems, but their performance in hugely enhanced when they use SSDs. Hubby works for a big hospital system here in SLC, and they are putting solid state drives in everything now. And, like Lynnette says, ALL drives will fail eventually, so you need to have a backup no matter what. And, from what I gather, SSDs don't fail because of wear and tear like normal drives might. They fail because they've hit their life expectancy.
 
Thanks - girls... that makes sense, so much so that I wonder if I got hubby's questions wrong... hahahah. :D So I asked him to verify... he said what he read was that there is a limitation to the number of times data can be written to a bit before it dies... its the same for a regular hard drive, but they can handle higher levels of rewrites than what a solid state can... So, that holds with what your hubby heard, too, Lydia!

Now... is that 500GB enough? I have that now and I'm full... and the 1TB makes it go way out of budget...
 
It makes sense that there would be a limit to the number of times data can be written to a bit. I wonder what that limit is and what the lifespan of the drive will be. I'd imagine that it's not as big of an issue with the regular hard drives because they reach mechanical failure before they reach the maximum number of 'writes'.

I got the biggest drive I could in my MacBook Pro which at the time was 750 GB. I think I'm okay so far, but I know I'll have to delete some of my older supplies sooner or later - or at least move them to an external drive. Not ideal, but I can't stop buying supplies :D
 
FlirtatiousBrat said:
get an EHD Rebecca for your scrap stuff :) minimal cost and plenty of room left on your mac
Click to expand...

I know... I have like two of them but never remember to use them... and then if I do, than it's stuff that I don't have backed up on crash plan... You designers just have to stop cranking out such awesome kits that I think I must keep them all!!!! :D:D
 
so I have another MAC question (as I played with today at the navy exchange).....I noticed all the "accessories" that go with them...so what else will I HAVE to have to be happy?

1. windows for MAC?
2. EHD for MAC (I currently have an EHD, but will it work with a MAC)
3. do I need a mouse?
4. what else?
 
I was wondering about those things, too, Angie, and it turns out that so far I haven't picked up any software or accessories for my MBP besides the Adobe software for scrapping. I think most EHD's will work with a Mac, although you may have to reformat it. I don't remember which is which, but one format the Macs will read and write and the other they'll just read. What really surprised me is that I don't even use a mouse with my MBP; I just use the touchpad - even for scrapping. I hardly ever used the touchpad on my PC laptop, but for some reason, I'm really comfortable with the touchpad on the MBP. I think it's a bit bigger and there are two & three finger swipes that make it easier to do more things with it.

ETA: So far I haven't even purchased Office, but I'll probably get it eventually. So far the Mac has let me look at any office document I've tried to open and if I want to edit one, I've uploaded it to Google Docs and worked with it there.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Community platform by XenForo® © 2010-2026 XenForo Ltd.
Back
Top