Computer Geeks Help

[G G]

Hey friends. I bought a MacBook Air with an intel i5 processor in early 2020. It's 16 gigs of memory and a 256 hard drive.

I don't do any intensive stuff on it, mostly web, YouTube videos, occasionally YouTube TV, Amazon Prime Video. I have a couple simple spreadsheets for work that I edit monthly and print. Email, etc. Don't do any photo editing to speak of and if I edit a photo it's done with apple photos app, no video processing or anything like that.

I don't necessarily need more storage since my 256 hard drive has way over a 100 gigs free. I use the setting whereby most of my photos and documents are stored on iCloud.

I do usually have safari set to have 5 tabs open all the time. It's the 5 websites I interact with the most and of course one of them is CA.

I am considering buying the new MacBook Air M3 which would be a huge upgrade.

With the AI built into the system coming in Mac OS Sequoia, I am not sure which configuration to get.

The Base model of course has 8 gigs of unified memory with 256 gig ssd. Watched videos on YouTube about it and there are tons that say that the base model is fine for most people that do what I do with a laptop. Then there are others that say you really should upgrade to the 16 gigs of unified memory and 512 gig ssd. The difference in price is $400. It's $200 for 16 gigs, and $200 for the 512 gig ssd.

I do tend to keep laptops for as long as possible, and am only upgrading because my MacBook is the last model made before Apple introduced the M silicon, and it won't be able to do the AI that is baked into the new Mac OS arriving in the fall.

AI isn't something that I will probably use much, but I do like to stay somewhat up to date on hardware.

Any insight or experience anyone has had will be helpful in deciding which one to get.

Thanks!!!!!

[Mikepd]

Originally Posted by G G

Hey friends. I bought a MacBook Air with an intel i5 processor in early 2020. It's 16 gigs of memory and a 256 hard drive.

I don't do any intensive stuff on it, mostly web, YouTube videos, occasionally YouTube TV, Amazon Prime Video. I have a couple simple spreadsheets for work that I edit monthly and print. Email, etc. Don't do any photo editing to speak of and if I edit a photo it's done with apple photos app, no video processing or anything like that.

I don't necessarily need more storage since my 256 hard drive has way over a 100 gigs free. I use the setting whereby most of my photos and documents are stored on iCloud.

I do usually have safari set to have 5 tabs open all the time. It's the 5 websites I interact with the most and of course one of them is CA.

I am considering buying the new MacBook Air M3 which would be a huge upgrade.

With the AI built into the system coming in Mac OS Sequoia, I am not sure which configuration to get.

The Base model of course has 8 gigs of unified memory with 256 gig ssd. Watched videos on YouTube about it and there are tons that say that the base model is fine for most people that do what I do with a laptop. Then there are others that say you really should upgrade to the 16 gigs of unified memory and 512 gig ssd. The difference in price is $400. It's $200 for 16 gigs, and $200 for the 512 gig ssd.

I do tend to keep laptops for as long as possible, and am only upgrading because my MacBook is the last model made before Apple introduced the M silicon, and it won't be able to do the AI that is baked into the new Mac OS arriving in the fall.

AI isn't something that I will probably use much, but I do like to stay somewhat up to date on hardware.

Any insight or experience anyone has had will be helpful in deciding which one to get.

Thanks!!!!!

Greg, I upgraded my MacBook Air in January shortly before the announcements of the new M3 models, but knew through the rumors and tech sites that a new model with the M3 chip was coming. I bought an M2 MacBook Air with 8GB memory and paid to upgrade the HD to the 512GB SSD, over upgrading the memory.

My view is anything that I might do that needs extensive memory (16GB) would be on a desktop where heat dissipation and power regulation is much better than any laptop. Also all the features of Sequoia will work with any series the Apple Silicon chips (M1, M2, or M3), and since Apple is still supporting MacBook Air models with Intel chips, I foresee the M2 being supported for years to come.

So for me, the deep savings of last years model with little to no noticeable differences than this years models, and the dependability of adding Apple Care for three years, which still put me ahead of the pricing on the new models, made it an easy decision.

For what it sounds like you'll be doing, the base model with the M3, or even the M2 chipset, sounds like it would be fine, and if you wanted to upgrade something at time of purchase, I'd go with the larger hard drive over upgrading the memory. The only time I'd suggest to upgrade the memory with what you're doing, is if you went with a MacBook Pro for its display features.

[G G]

Originally Posted by Mikepd

Greg, I upgraded my MacBook Air in January shortly before the announcements of the new M3 models, but knew through the rumors and tech sites that a new model with the M3 chip was coming. I bought an M2 MacBook Air with 8GB memory and paid to upgrade the HD to the 512GB SSD, over upgrading the memory.

My view is anything that I might do that needs extensive memory (16GB) would be on a desktop where heat dissipation and power regulation is much better than any laptop. Also all the features of Sequoia will work with any series the Apple Silicon chips (M1, M2, or M3), and since Apple is still supporting MacBook Air models with Intel chips, I foresee the M2 being supported for years to come.

So for me, the deep savings of last years model with little to no noticeable differences than this years models, and the dependability of adding Apple Care for three years, which still put me ahead of the pricing on the new models, made it an easy decision.

For what it sounds like you'll be doing, the base model with the M3, or even the M2 chipset, sounds like it would be fine, and if you wanted to upgrade something at time of purchase, I'd go with the larger hard drive over upgrading the memory. The only time I'd suggest to upgrade the memory with what you're doing, is if you went with a MacBook Pro for its display features.

Thanks Mike, that is about what I was thinking. And since I have my MacBook set to store all my docs and photos in iCloud I am gonna get the base model M3. If it gets too overwhelmed in a couple years I will just sell it for a very good price and upgrade again. Thanks for the input.

[Mikepd]

Originally Posted by G G

Thanks Mike, that is about what I was thinking. And since I have my MacBook set to store all my docs and photos in iCloud I am gonna get the base model M3. If it gets too overwhelmed in a couple years I will just sell it for a very good price and upgrade again. Thanks for the input.

Makes total sense! Also since you're using an Intel MacBook like I was previously, the [newer] Mac Migration Assistant makes it super simple to transfer what is on your current MacBook to a new MacBook, as compared to even five years ago.

[G G]

Originally Posted by Mikepd

Makes total sense! Also since you're using an Intel MacBook like I was previously, the [newer] Mac Migration Assistant makes it super simple to transfer what is on your current MacBook to a new MacBook, as compared to even five years ago.

Probably being hard headed but I tend to just set it up as new and let it sync with iCloud and then just reinstall the 4 or 5 non-apple programs I have.

[Mikepd]

Originally Posted by G G

Probably being hard headed but I tend to just set it up as new and let it sync with iCloud and then just reinstall the 4 or 5 non-apple programs I have.

Migration Assistant does it all for you, and even transfers the programs.

Here are some simple instructions and a video walk through.

[G G]

So just for an update. I found the MacBook Air M3 with 16 gigs of Unified Memory and 256 gig ssd drive and ordered from Amazon for $1225 plus tax with a $60 gift card that applied off the price. Looking forward to gettin rid of the slowness of the early 2020 air I now have with the intel chip.

[G G]

Posting from the new MacBook Air M3 and it's ridiculously faster than the intel I5 I had.