Advice on using Macbook Air as a PC

I really like the Macbook Air and think its the best value for an ultra thin laptop. However, I'm a PC user with a bunch PC software (Office, Turbo Tax, SAS, WoW), and don't want to pay for the Mac versions. Therefore I was thinking of getting the Macbook Air and using Bootcamp.

However, my concern is that with only 120GB hard drive, is it doable to have both operating systems on it + software? What if I wiped the Mac OS and just put Windows. Would you guys recommend that?

Thanks for your help.

 

I would think that most (if not all) will recommend that you do not get a mac if you want to use only windows. With that said, OpenOffice is free and almost identical (and compatable) with all MS office stuff, and WoW cds work on mac and pc. Dont know about TT or SAS.

 

Macs are pretty good with Windows but there's one mayor problem: battery life.

Running Windows on a Mac you'll get about 30% less battery life.

 

windows works fine on mac laptops, but defeats a lot of the portability... negating the point of the macbook air.

 

40% is probably closer. My MBP gets over 7 hours in OS X, 4 hours in Windows.

This may also have to do with the display driver. In Windows the display is twice as bright, and stays readable at only stripe.

Edit: when accounting for brightness 30% seems accurate to me

 

Apple doesn't provide drivers for the battery controller for the enclosed-battery MBPs. There's your problem.

 

why not adamo or Sony Z? might work better if you are looking for full time windows machine!

 

True. Or Sony TT.

 

I don't get it why a SONY or Adamo?
They are worst in terms of value.
Acer Timeline is cheaper and has better battery life not sure how service standards match up but built quality is good.

 

If you plan on getting a MacBook Air and installing Windows on it, you'll probably want to see if there is some sort of third-party hard drive upgrade that you can get as Apple only offers a 120GB HDD or 128GB SSD in the MacBook Air. Some would also suggest that you use an external hard drive for Windows, but that would kind of negate the portability of the MBA. If you intend on using Windows as your primary OS and will settle for nothing other than a MacBook Air, then you could shrink your OSX partition down to a mere 15-20GB and use the rest for Windows. I, however, would recommend dividing it evenly or just getting a thin-and-light Windows-specific machine.

 

it may be cheaper, but it comes with the cost of BQ, Screen,etc.

you can not upgrade HD on air.

 

We're talking about premium laptops using premium materials here. Status plays a part too for most buyers of these class laptops.

Acer Timeline offers tremendous value for the price, but it's mostly made out of plastic.

I agree on the build quality. But reviews indicate that Dell is using sub par displays on the Adamo. They are in the same league as the Timeline. Nothing like Macbook Air or TT.

 

really? thats bad...I was hoping to get one...

 

If you insist on looks Aspire 3935 looks non-plastic however for most of you here I believe Acer != Premium regardless of what laptop they make.

 

It may be another display lottery. check the review on notebookcheck for more info.

Agreed Acer 3935 uses good materials. But it weighs the same as a Macbook Pro and here in the Netherlands it costs the same.

 

Cost the same?
Can't be it is a lot cheaper here around few hundred dollars cheaper compared to Macbook Pro .
971 USD here while a Macbook (no pro) cost around 1.1K USD

 

I see the price dropped. It was € 1100 before, now it's € 935.

MBP has a far superior display though. I pad about € 935 for my MBP using student discounts.

The Acer 3935 does not have a digital video output. Big mistake by Acer imo.

 

Hello,

I have bought a Macbook Air in Nov. 08. it's the basic version but with a 128 Go SSD.
I run both MacOS X and Windows XP (through Bootcamp and Parallels). I think I have allocated something like 30 Go for Windows hard drive, but it depends what your needs are. Retrospectively, I might have allocated a bit more room for the Windows partition given that stuff there is easily accessible even when you are in MacOS, whereas the opposite is not true.
The only downside is that when you backup your Mac with Timemachine, you can't backup the Windows partition (or at least, I have been unable to...)

I think it is clearly better to have the SSD version since the 4200rpm HD is quite slow. However, even with the SSD, when I run Parallels and a few programs, such as Firefox, my MBA tends to freeze. I guess that's because there's only 2Go of RAM...

But please, please, do NOT uninstall MacOS!!!

 

That's scary. I guess the 2GB of RAM might be a bigger constraint than the HD capacity.

I checked the specs, I definitely think that the MBA is a better value than the comparable Dell or Sony models.

Thanks for the advise everyone. I might wait until Windows 7 comes out and then get the MBA. I heard that it is less taxing on battery life.

 

For normal use 2GB is fine and won't stutter. Parallels is a memory eater.

Depends on what you're looking for. Sony TT has twice the battery life of MBA, a display with 100% gamut, an HDMI port and an optional Bluray player.

But yeah it's expensive.