How does Apple make MBA so thin?

I'm going to compare the MBA 11 to Alienware m11x. The m11x is significantly thicker. Both have similar CPUs so I believe that can be factored out.

The MBA uses SSD whereas the Alienware uses 2.5" HDD, so this can account for part of the difference in thickness.

On a side note, the Alienware's GPU is significantly faster, so I guess that would require a larger heatsink and fan? Is there anything else?

 

Yes. Open the m11x and you'll see. Cooling system, AlienFX lighting, metal construction, VGA port, DisplayPort, HDMI Port, Firewire, 2x sound out, mic in, SD card slots, Firewire port, 4 USBs...

The two SSDs that I have are both pretty much the same thickness as my HD. On the other hand, I don't think macbook air has a classic SSD inside.... I believe they integrated it onto the motherboard to make it thinner? That could be the main reason. Upgradeability is non-existent, but you get size reduction.

 

The MBA uses a mini PCI-Express SSD drive, eliminating a major source of the thickness. Also the MBA has very few connectors, even cheapo notebooks in the 279-300 range have more connectors. Also has LED backlit screen making it thinner/lighter than traditional CCFL. Again ULV Intel Core 2 processor, not to mention Apple is behind the design..

 

They are different sizes because of design and engineering. And they are designed / engineered differently because they were designed for different audiences.

Apple specifically wanted to make the MacBook Air as thin and light as possible. So they engineered their laptop in that way, and made sacrifices to get their laptop into that form factor. As unreal mentioned, the MacBook Air doesn't have HDMI, Display Port, Firewire, multiple USB ports, AlienFX lighting, multiple audio ports, etc

Alienware wanted to make their M11x a portable gaming machine. So they put a more powerful GPU in there, put in an audio chip capable of surround sound, put in lots of connectivity options, a metal chassis, Alienware design, etc.

You will also notice that the Alienware M11x made several sacrifices as well. In order to keep it down to its current size, it doesn't have an optical drive and it has a relatively small 11.6" LCD screen.

 

Correct. It may be worth noting that Dell's Adamo XPS is still thinner than the new MBA. It's been discontinued, though, since there seem to be not that many PC customers who want to make the trade-offs that come with these ultra-thin/light machines, at the pricetag they're associated with.

 

And in all fairness, nobody who wanted an ultra-svelte and sexy laptop would buy Dell. Sony and Apple have always had excellent engineering when it came to miniaturizing laptops.

 

Hence the fate of the Adamo XPS. I would still take a Dell any day over a Sony cause it's Sony.

But you always paid a premium for light and portable.

 

^^^ Hey, what's wrong with Sony? Apart from their notebooks costing an arm and two legs, and their poor C. Service (from what I heard) they're fine.

 

I can attest to the poor customer service, though I rarely need it (actually never... I just feel like since I paid for it I may as well bother them with stupid questions once in a while.)

And my sony was priced very competitively, no more expensive than the dell counterpart. I picked Sony because they were willing to ship it to me expedited.

 

What is with the fuss over the thinnest laptop?
Is it the same fuss over the thinnest woman?
If that is the case you can have the thinnest woman then.
I have other criteria for woman benchmarks.

 

Sony are beautifully engineered. But that's where the good things about Sony end.

They have a million screws for no apparent reason. Sony specifically designs notebooks to aggravate technicians. Also the fact they are ultra proprietary doesn't help. Their customer service sucks. And ordering parts/warranty work is terrible to say the least. Plus you pay a premium for all this grief?

Sure I would take a free Sony notebook, but my 10+ years fixing notebooks experience I would never go out and buy a brand new Sony.

Thin notebooks are for a different niche. They don't care about the highest end processors, but don't want the lowest end. They typically care about good battery life. And most of them don't mind paying a little bit (or in some cases alot more lol).

 

At least as far as Apple is concerned, that's a fairytale, as is generally the case with the stories about the superior engineering from Apple. You may recall that the original MBA was a plain disaster because of its inadequate cooling. My experience with Sony hasn't been great, either. So, yes, I strongly disagree on the sentiment above, as a matter of fact, I would have gotten a Dell over any of the two others you mentioned, had I be interested in getting that kind of a machine. Of course, keeping in mind that these ultra-light machines are always somewhat anemic performance-wise, I opted for a full-size laptop instead. Ultra-light is cute and all, but at the end of the day, I need functionality.

 

There is a difference between the buyer's perception of what manufacturers make small and thin laptops, and whether those manufacturers actually deliver good products.

I was talking about perception... when someone says "small, thin, sexy laptop", I immediately think of the Sony Vaio Z series and the Apple MacBook Air.

Yes, I agree that the perception of Apple products is way over-inflated compared to what they can actually deliver. I'm sure people out there have the perception that the Apple iPhone is so awesome, that it can cure cancer if you just download the right app for it.

 

I think you might be forgetting that MBA also lacks an Optical drive.
That alone reduces it's thickness by a good deal and could easily improve cooling while reducing energy usage.
Apart from that, MBA generally uses low powered C2D cpu and integrated graphics (along with other aspects that allows Apple to reduce the thickness).

Generally speaking, once optical drives are phased out (netbooks not withstanding) I think you will also notice thickness reduction in standard laptops.
In addition to that, if manufacturers would get up the decency to give us laptops with integrated storage (and ability to add more in the form of SD cards or RAM sticks), it really wouldn't be that much of a problem to further reduce the thickness.

Passive cooling will be viable for 'high performance' laptops.
In fact, I'd dare say it's been viable for some time now, but due to 'money' and 'costs' we won't be seeing it that soon.

Take a look at SSD's.
Already out in the market for 2 years and prices are still sky-high.
You can't really expect to get an SSD for laptops with capacity of 1TB short of selling your body parts or having a large amount of cash on your hands.

The reason technology is changing so quickly is because it's not really innovation we're seeing.
Rather, they are putting out into the market outdated/refined (from the manuf. perspective) technologies.

If they started manufacturing the most advanced laptops tomorrow, the kind of 'leap' you'd effectively see would result in something we won't really see in the consumer market for at least 10 to 20 years (and that's being generous).

 

Using RAM or SD cards for storage isn't really the best idea. RAM dies as soon as you cut power to it and memory cards are slow as hell. Also there's the fact that integrated storage can't be upgraded.

As to the passive cooling thing, it's possible with very low power chips but that's about it. If you've seen the size of passive heatsinks designed for use in desktops then you'll see what I mean, even taking into account the fact that desktops use a little bit more power they're still huge. So the answer is that, yes, it is possible, but not unless you want a wimpy chip or don't mind the idea of having a fist sized heatsink sticking out the back.

 

Well to add to the passive cooling, it also depends on the design of the notebook. Many netbooks as far as I was concerned were passively cooled. I haven't personally seen the passive cooling for the MBA but I'm sure Apple wouldn't release an untested product..

 

Lol... uhm... weinter, what are your criteria for your 'plumper' notebooks?


Brawn, to answer your question:
Apple simply doesn't care to offer a cool running system because most of it's users do not know/care how destructive heat can be to a computer system - nor will they attribute the inevitable throttling to the 'sexy' design.

(The old "'How can the cute/pretty/sexy blonde/brunette/redhead be so mean?' syndrome).

While it is technically possible to build these systems as Apple has shown, it doesn't mean that they can be used as fully as slightly bigger but much better cooled designs.

In this case, 'thin' is it's own reward.

 

I don't mean I want plump notebooks.
Slim but not overly slim that it looks like I can break it easily.
THAT my friend is malnourished.
You need a healthy balance.
When you have small systems the maximum thermal capacity drops and that is a design fault if you push the system to the maximum envelope.

 

The Macbook Air is very well made and is not the kind of slim notebook that will break in your hand. I would take a Macbook Air over almost any slim/ultra portable today (course they start at 999 which is cheap for this category) I believe Apple has gone in the right direction in designing the slimmest and lightest notebooks without breaking the bank.

That would slim notebooks that you are talking about that break by sneezing at them are the Z series Sony notebooks which are horribly and cheapily built. I've done 20+ screen replacements from 2007-2010 models. You know the plastic tray that holds your chocolates? Now imagine twice that thickness and that's a Sony Z series bezel. And the fact you are paying 1200 to 2600 (my work has a version for 2650 dollars?!) for cheapily built crap angers me.

 

Are you certain it will never overheat?
I dare say just by running Intel Burn Test it will overheat.
I don't even need to say run Intel Burn Test + Furmark concurrently.
Thermal issues during intensive usage is a almost guaranteed unless you use it like a iPad.

 

Yeah, but we're talking mac here. I'll refrain from a stupid joke with my criteria for women though as it might incur an infraction.

 

they are able to make the Mac Air by using non standard components, and positioned the electronic components in such ways to maximise usage of all empty spaces. <-- this is expensive process, as all the non standard components cost more to procure, which could raise the price of the Mac Air by a significant amount if the Apple is not well vertically integrated with the various components manufacturers. Basically, Apple made enough of the Air to spread the cost of using these non-standard components.

Basically, Apple engineers design the laptop from outside in (so the case sets the framework for everything else), while most other laptop manufacturers design the laptop from inside out.

 

The new MBA actually uses a dedicated Nvidia Geforce 320M GPU (which is roughly twice as powerful as Arrandale's integrated graphics based on benchmarks I have seen in reviews online). The old MBA used the Nvidia 9400M chipset instead of intel's chipset (which had inferior integrated graphics).

I have always been a PC user, but a MacBook Air with LightPeak will be hard to resist in ~1.5 years

Lightpeak will make multiple I/O ports unnecessary. Just connect to an external dock via Lightpeak which has enough throughput to handle display, data transfer, and networking simultaneously.

 

i'd like to note that the m11x also lacks an optical drive yet it is still quite a bit larger

 

The new MBA uses an integrated 320M.

NVIDIA GeForce 320M - Notebookcheck.net Tech

 

but M11x uses standard off-the-shelf components, where you can upgrade relatively easily and inexpensively. Also, Alienware is not about thinness but rather its processing/gpu power, and also the distinctive alienware look. What you are comparing, is like saying why Rolls Royce cars is not as sporty or svelte looking as Porsche Panamera...

 

Well it does a good job for relatively light gaming rig, although I find the lighting to be vulgar...lol

 

Eh, don't most docks run off USB 2.0 now anyhow?