Computer Geeks Help

G G · 06-15-2024, 06:32 AM

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!!!!!

06-15-2024, 06:32 AM	#1
G G BR549 Join Date: Oct 2008 First Name: Greg Location: Taylor, FL. Posts: 12,723 Trading: (10)	Computer Geeks Help 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!!!!!