11" Air + 27" Thunderbolt display

k++ · 24 Dec 2011 at 15:16

I'm thinking of getting a macbook air 11" and the 27" thunderbolt display, but I'm a little concerned about the performance.

I went to an apple store today and was hoping to see a similar setup, but the best I could find was a mac mini connected to this display. I noticed that animations were often quite jerky, and that was simply maximising, minimising windows. I didn't check the mac mini spec though

When testing the air by itself it was flying, much quicker than my original 20" intel imac.

Does anyone have this setup and can they confirm the performance? Is it usable day to day? Does it drive you nuts?

Unfortunately I cannot wait for a refresh, I'm getting this with my works salary sacrifice scheme, the deadline is the end of January.

Disco Boy · 24 Dec 2011 at 16:56

The air has intel HD 3000 graphics. I would be very surprised if this wasn't capable of doing basic things at 2560x1440.

I'd struggle to justify spending £900 on a monitor when I could buy a small imac for £100 more though... but that's your decision obviously.

rogan · 24 Dec 2011 at 16:57

my friend uses the lastest 13 air with a cinema 27" and it flys, not sure if the TB takes more powering and the 13" is a fair bit more powerful than the 11

im sure with the 13 itll be lovely, cant comment on the 11

Hxc · 24 Dec 2011 at 17:27

I use a 24" monitor with 1080p on a standard 4gb 11" air and it absolutely flies. Obviously not the same res but... it's one hell of a little machine. I don't miss a real desktop at all.

k++ · 24 Dec 2011 at 17:40

Disco Boy said:
... I'd struggle to justify spending £900 on a monitor when I could buy a small imac for £100 more though... but that's your decision obviously.

It was a struggle, but I won eventually

It's not a huge amount monthly and there are N.I + Tax savings too (not huge, about same as refurb savings).

rogan said:
my friend uses the lastest 13 air with a cinema 27" and it flys, not sure if the TB takes more powering and the 13" is a fair bit more powerful than the 11

Sweet! The difference is just the cpu really, and the amount of shared ram so I'm hoping it can drive the display just as well. Does your friend notice animations being choppy at all? The mac mini struggled slightly just to maximise a safari window.

Hxc said:
I use a 24" monitor with 1080p on a standard 4gb 11" air and it absolutely flies. Obviously not the same res but... it's one hell of a little machine. I don't miss a real desktop at all.

It will be my main machine, so great to hear it's up to the job. I'm not a power user really, but will be in Intellij IDEA quite a bit and it can be a ram monster at times. What monitor are you using? The desktop real-estate is quite important to me when docked.

Of course.... The other option is a 27@ iMac and a 16GB iPad 2

I'm like a kid in a fruit store; One that only sells apples.

rogan · 24 Dec 2011 at 17:44

if u think ull need ram get a 13" pro?

k++ · 24 Dec 2011 at 17:52

rogan said:
if u think ull need ram get a 13" pro?

Considered it, but my girlfriend has the pro and it weighs too much. I would love to wait for a refresh of the airs hoping they have 8GB, but if I can cope with 2GB on my ageing iMac, 4GB should suffice for a few years.

It's a balancing act, not helped by the short timespan I have to take advantage of the offer. Wish I could trial all the options at home for a week each.

Hxc · 24 Dec 2011 at 19:00

k++ said:
It will be my main machine, so great to hear it's up to the job. I'm not a power user really, but will be in Intellij IDEA quite a bit and it can be a ram monster at times. What monitor are you using? The desktop real-estate is quite important to me when docked.

I er, I can't even remember what monitor I have, it's at uni and I am home for xmas at the moment. But it runs perfectly and will happily have 1080p video playing on the 24 while I browse the web on the laptop screen. I am not a heavy user but will be starting a course involving Matlab in january so that's when the test will really show, I suppose.

The SSD is what really makes these machines, it really is lightning fast and using HDD based machines, well, you can really feel it after using an air for a long time.

Battery life is also fantastic, will get 4hours with music and web surfing, and I get over 6 using it as a pure document processor with Word in fullscreen mode and brightness on low.

Literally a brilliant machine, there is absolutely no way I would have any other sort of computer now. Will be interesting to see what the next refresh brings and whether it'll be worth selling mine, as I probably won't lose much using the edu discounts.