8gb vs 4gb ram MBA Mid 2012

I just bought an open box MacBook Air from Best Buy today and after everything it'll cost me $900. While I know I got a great deal I'm worried that the system only has 4gb of ram. I can buy the same computer from apple with 8gb of ram for $1200 but I'm not sure if it's worth $300. I know a fair amount about computers and I definitely would agree that at $100 to upgrade its worth jumping from 4gb to 8gb but what about for $300?
I'll mostly be using it for basic browsing and word processing and some light programming. I plan to build a more work-oriented desktop later this year but still I feel like maybe spending $300 could be a good move to ensure that the system is still usable 3 years down the line. What do people think? Is it worth spending the extra $300 for 4gb of ram?

Good choice. More RAM is always a good idea, but with the inclusion of flash storage in the MacBook Air 4GB should be more than enough for a while and $300 is a considerable savings.
I had to make the same choice and went with 4GB becasue my iMac is loaded with more than enough RAM and processing power for heavy tasks. I also read the AnandTech review of the new Air models and their speed tests showed that 128GB of flash storage provides a nice speed boost over the 64GB model; and it's only an extra $100. Double the storage and the speed boost is worth that upgrade fee over the base model.
Something else to consider, if anybody is looking for their laptop to be a desktop replacemement, the MacBook Air is not the way to go. And if you think you may need/want to upgrade the RAM in a year or two a MacBook Pro without the Retina Display would be the way to go.
Having said all that the 11' MacBook Air with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of flash storage is incredibly "snappy"!

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MBA (mid-2012) SSD failure after 8 weeks Hardware Test

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Failed to startup - Apple logo on grey screen appeared, then the spinning gear wheel, then a blank screen, then the spinning gear wheel, then a blank screen, repeating ad nauseum...
I reset PRAM and SMC - no change
I opened in Single User Mode to run fsck - no change, then in Verbose mode to see what messages appeared (flashing messages of appleid verification timeouts)
Disk Utility - no problems detected
DiskWarrior - no problems detected
Tech Tool Pro - (1) SMART check picked up 7 SSD failures/errors:
[Wear Levelling Count, Program Fail Count(total), Erase Fail Count (total), Power-off Retract Count, Media Wear Out Indicator, Total LBAs Written and Total LBAs Read all 7 FAILED], remainder of SMART tests passed, and SSD PASSED SMART check.
Then (2) Surface Scan checked all 236+million blocks, NO BAD BLOCKS identified/detected.
Very strange indeed!! - booted into Recovery Drive, verified and all ok, no problems starting from this partition! Problem lies on normal boot partition (of course...!)
Was able to boot from external ML HDD and was able to pull all files off Air (interestingly Carbon Copy Cloner reported one text file sitting on bad block and was unable to copy/clone)
Time to get serious: Spoke with Apple Tech here in Australia late on a Saturday pm (thanks Olin!)
Ran Apple Hardware Test in Extended mode [took me back to System 7 days with very old icon!!] - took around 1hr and reported error "4HDD/11/40000000 SATA(0,0)" so it looks like new MBA is heading back to Apple!
I am thinking about re-installing ML from the Recovery Drive in case I can get the MBA running again to make sure I have all my file backed up, but it looks like an 8 week old MBA is no more...
anyone else seen this in mew MBAs? would hate to think I am the only one! plenty of other discussions around this error on HDD machines, but haven't found anything for this error for a SSD.

I have a 15-inch, retina, 2.7 GHz, 16 GB RAM, 768 GB flash drive MacBook Pro notebook, running 10.8.2
I have noticed that if I run the extended hardware test while connected to the power supply I do not get the error 4HDD/11/40000000:SATA(0,0) but if I run the same test while on battery power I get that error.
Does the same happen to you?
Any idea of what the problem is?

Just got a MBA mid-2012 but bootcamp doesn't work

Hi, just got a MBA mid-2012 and it works beautifully until I try to download the "Windows Support Software" from Boot camp assistant, it keep prompting up message "can't install Windows Support software because it is not currently available from the software update server". As a matter of fact, I just need to install the network drivers in the mean time to get my other Windows softwares working and keep connecting to the world. How can I download the network drivers? Any idea?

For the fastest information... do a search before you post as it will answer your question much faster then waiting for someone to help.
Since the new computers have shipped the servers have crashed, the servers are down and Apple is in the process of updating the servers with the new drivers, the servers are overloaded with everyone downloading the drivers and you will just have to wait until they let up a bit so keep trying.......
Pick one you like best.......

MBA mid-2012 Display Port Support

I have a Mid-2012 MBA 13", with the maximum configuration 8 gb + 512, running OS X 10.10.3. I see that this CPU will not support 4K resolution but it is supposed to support WQHD at 2560 x 1440 using a Display Port monitor. I have bought three different thunderbolt-Display Port adapters and all of them support 1080p (and audio) on two different (HP and ASUS) monitors but while the preference panel shows the resolution 2560x1440 (under "scaled") and tries to use it as "default" the whole screen gets packed into the left ~20% of the screen. I switched all of the options on the monitor, including DP 1.1 vs. 1.2, and "pixel for pixel" (which shows the 1080p in the center of the screen).
What makes this more frustrating is I plugged in my old 11" 2011 MBA, and with the same cables etc. it is perfect, gorgeous, flawless at 2560 x 1440.
I plugged into a Thunderbolt monitor at a store and of course it works perfectly. Does this MBA not support WQHD using a Display Port cable? I know it won't work with HDMI either, I get the same 1080p but no options.
I upgraded to the 2012 model because the 2011 ran out of hard drive space and had recurring battery issues. I have several work locations and I need a solution that works without investing in several $1,000 monitors.

So it gets weirder. I tried the work-around of holding the option key when selecting "scaled" with an external display, and of course it shows lots of additional resolutions. The native resolution 2560x1440 still shows a jumbled mess at the left side, but the next resolution says it is 2048x1152, so I tried it and VIOLÅ it seems to trick the monitor into showing its native full resolution. The OSD on the monitor now says it is operating at the full resolution, but the Mac continues to believe it is 2048x1152.
Apple, is this a BUG or a FEATURE?

MBA mid-2012 does not see external display on wakeup

My mid-2012 MBA does not see external displays on wakeup. VERY annoying
I have a BenQ 24" HD display connected by HDMI and it is not seen by the Air on wakeup. I have to open the laptop, pull the mini-DV plug out 3 or 4 times before the display is recognised - some of the time. Most of the time requires a reboot with multiple cable/plug inserts.
What an absolute POS this mid-2012 MBA is! Apple finally fixed the garbage colours on external displays in 10.8.4 but the issue of recognisisng external displays remains. Its a crock. Totally regret buyiing this POS.
Have reset PRAM, SMS, cleared prefs etc etc ad nauseum. No solution with any of them. After almost a year of this garbage, the laptop is close to being thrown out as e-waste.

macbook pro 13" 2012
osx 10.8.4
adaptor
http://www.maplin.co.uk/mini-displayport-to-dvi-adaptor-454323
display: philips 230c1hsb
i have reset PRAM but nothing happens

Problems with Installing 4GB RAM on mid 2007 iMac

I ordered 2 X 2GB sticks of PC2-5300 DDR2 SODIMM RAM for my Boss's mid 2007 iMac from Crucial.com. Well they arrived a few days later and today I have been trying to install them for a few hours now without any luck. I have installed new RAM about 5-6 times without any problems before on different MacBooks and iMacs. After this install I plugged back into the wall and hit the power button, the iMac made a little noise (internal noise) then nothing, just a blank screen. I thought maybe the RAM was bad so I inserted 2 other chips (we ordered 4 X 2GB to upgrade 2 iMacs) and still no luck. After making sure the iMac would boot with the old RAM (which it did), I tried installing 1 X 1GB with 1 X 2GB and it booted up perfectly. I did this with all four 2 GB RAM chips to make sure they all worked and they did. Each time I successfully booted, I went to the system profiler to make sure it recognized 3GB of RAM and it did. So my question is why is this mid 2007 Aluminum iMac not working with 4GB of RAM, but it works perfectly with 3GB? Thanks in advance, sorry for the long question.

+It seems to me that it is not just a problem with the RAM but with the imacs themselves.+
How does this make any sense when one considers that Apple successfully specified, produced, sold and delivered all three iMac (mid 2007) models with an optional 4GB of RAM pre-installed?
In addition, Apple has, without issue, sold large quantities of that same RAM online and over-the-counter for customer upgrades. Much of all that 2GB, and the latest 4GB RAM, as usual, has been manufactured by Micron, the publicly owned U.S. manufacturing company parent of the Crucial direct sales division. The same type of RAM was also being provided to Apple by other manufacturers.
I received my two orders of upgrade RAM from Micron/Crucial even before I had purchased my 24-inch iMac, and it's worked great ever since I installed it. I also installed the second half of that order into my current MacBook, purchased a month after the iMac, and it's also been working great ever since. These are certainly superior Apple products.
Obviously there has been a change in RAM manufacturing design at Micron, probably due to their change-over to the costly, challenging high-tech 50nm and 40nm manufacturing technologies, and it is nothing more than Micron's problem.
Message was edited by: myhighway

Off-spec refurb 13" MBA (Mid-2012)

So, i recently purchased a Macbook Air (MacbookAir5,2) used here in Stockholm. What's weird about it is that it seems to be an 11" model but with a 13" screen. It came with a 64GB SSD and i've since verified with Apple that it indeed shipped with that. Also it has a 1.7 GHz i5-3317U CPU instead of the usual 1.8 GHz found in the 13" MBAs.
Has anyone else encountered this particular variation before?
It came with the extended AppleCare Protection Plan, which i've transferred with Apple and verified it's still valid. I also asked the first-line support tech at AppleCare Support about it, he agreed it was a strange beast indeed, but could offer no information save that it had been RMA:d at one point. Does this mean it probably is a factory refurb?
Going to investigate further with the original owner and a Senior Advisor at ACS.
rgds,
Krille

Thanks for the reply and tips on checking more about the battery info.
This is what I run 99% of time: Chrome, Microsoft Excel, Calendar. With wifi switched on.
It doesn't sound like application that will drain out power quicker, or does it?

MBA Mid 2012 - Bootcamp Win7: Headset Mic not recognised in Win7

Hi,
I have a MBA 13" (only had it about a week...). I put bootcamp on and Win 7 x64 ultimate. All is working really well except when I plug my headset in, Win 7 only recognised the headphones.
I have tried this in OSX and the mic work, its an Iphone compatible headset, so not only does the mic work but the volume buttons on headset work also. However, when I plug this in when in Win 7, no external Mic is detected.
Any ideas? I've tried reinstalling the Bootcamp audio drivers, no change. Unable to locate any online either...Cirrus Logic CS4206b (AB 86).
I have seen a few of these posts online, but from about 2 years ago... has this been fixed yet?
Thanks

Hi,
Thanks for your reply. The issue is with Windows, but it appears to be due to OSx drivers from bootcamp, that does not detect both input and output from the headphone jack. There are no drivers required, I have used this headset on various other Win7 x64 machines.
As above, it works fine in OSx, it is just that bootcamp drivers for the soundcard do not include that the hardware on my MBA allows both input and output from the same jack. Ms dont supply drivers for Bootcamp.
Thanks.

I thought the new MBA Mid 2012 would ship with ML OS X?

^ title.
I know you can download a copy of the new ML for free if you're eligble.
However, I thought the MBA would already come installed ML? Mine came with SL?

It wouldn't have come with Snow Leopard. If it doesn't have Mountain Lion then it would be Lion. You can check in  > About this Mac.
10.8 is Mountain Lion
10.7 is Lion
10.6 SL

MBA 13" (Mid 2012) 10.8.2 does not see other Macs

Hello all,
for some time now I have a strange problem with my 13" MBA (Mid 2012 - latest version) on 10.8.2. THe MBA generally works very well, fast, and stable. My only issue is that I cannot see or connect to other Macs in my home WLAN network (this worked seamlessly under 10.8.1) or elsewhere. The other Macs do not show up in the finder, and neither can I connect with them manually (via "Go to server...").
The only way to establish a connection is via creating a computer to computer network - which works perfectly but, of course, disconnects me from the internet which comes over wifi, so this is not a permanent solution.
Even stranger, there seems to be a problem with ethernet connections (via thunderbolt ethernet adapter), too. This connection work seamlessly with one of my other Macs (running on Lion - 10.7), but does not work with my iMac running on Mountain Lion 10.8.2.
I guess that something's wrong with the sharing routines on my MBA. Therefore I tried to install the 10.8.2 combo update but had to learn that this was not made for the 2012 MBA... :-(
So, what to do? Should I try a reinstall of Mountain Lion?
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Jan

Hello medeostrike,
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
For more information on this, take a look at:
Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964
Best of luck,
Mario

Macbook air mid 2012 slow usb 3.0 port

Hi there I got serious problems with my MBA mid 2012, i'm a professional photographer and i use my mac to choose and send photo live from the events , i had a 2010 MBA and changed only for the USB port to make my workflow faster but since the first day i didn't noted better perfomances than the other one , i changed several ( expensive) card reader from several brands ( sandisk, lexar , hoodman ) but nothing is always slow , cards are obviuosly always the fastest on the market ( generally sandisk). In the last months i also have a problem wih reader disconnected on thir own, due to this i've lost a couple of times the data on the cards.
Someone can help ??

So, now, it works again. It seems, that this solved my problem:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/18821708#18821708

HT1270 from where can i purchase 4gb RAM for my macbook pro 13'' mid 2012 model?????

from where can i purchase 4gb RAM for my macbook pro 13'' mid 2012 model?????

I would advise if you have to buy it get 8 or 16gb of ram. it will boost your preformance alot.
16 ($109)
http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Channel-SODIMM-Memory-CMSO16GX3M2A1333C9/dp/B006DI 9PG8/ref=sr_1_18?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1378735908&sr=1-18&keywords=Corsair+1 6
8gb ($50)
http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-1333mhz-PC3-10666-204-pin-CMSO8GX3M2A1333C9/dp/B00 2YUF8ZG/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1378735731&sr=1-1&keywords=Corsair+ 8GB+%282x+4GB%29
4gb ($33)
http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-ValueRAM-1066MHz-Non-ECC-Notebook/dp/B001PYDKWU/r ef=sr_1_48?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1378735625&sr=1-48&keywords=corsair+4gb+ddr 3+corsair

My macbook pro runs slow, iTunes videos keep stuttering. Nothing has worked to solve this issue. Macbook Pro 13-inch mid 2012 2.5GHz i5 with 8GB RAM upgrade.

Hello everyone.
I have been having this issue for a few months now and nothing works to resolve it. The biggest issue is that iTunes videos constantly stutter ever few seconds, the audio portion of the video is not effected. The most I have open at once is Safari, Skype, and iTunes, and possibly Open Office. Videos will even stutter with nothing else open other than iTunes. At times it sounds like the computer is running something in the background from hard drive noise.
I even upgraded the RAM to 8GB and it still has this problem! Nothing looks wrong in Activity Monitor other than occasionally the memory usage spikes up to 6GB, but even then the memory pressure graph is green. I dont understand how these non-intensive programs can use that much. The hard drive is barely 1/3 full.
Please help with a solution as nothing has worked so far. Thanks!
Macbook pro 13-inch mid 2012
2.5GHz dual core i5
8GB DDR3 RAM
500GB HDD
Intel HD graphics 4000

Please read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a diagnostic test. It won’t solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
The purpose of this test is to determine whether the problem is localized to your user account. Enable guest logins* and log in as Guest. Don't use the Safari-only “Guest User” login created by “Find My Mac.”
While logged in as Guest, you won’t have access to any of your documents or settings. Applications will behave as if you were running them for the first time. Don’t be alarmed by this behavior; it’s normal. If you need any passwords or other personal data in order to complete the test, memorize, print, or write them down before you begin.
Test while logged in as Guest. Same problem?
After testing, log out of the guest account and, in your own account, disable it if you wish. Any files you created in the guest account will be deleted automatically when you log out of it.
*Note: If you’ve activated “Find My Mac” or FileVault in OS X 10.7 or later, then you can’t enable the Guest account. The "Guest User" login created by "Find My Mac" is not the same. Create a new account in which to test, and delete it, including its home folder, after testing.

I have 2 Macbook Pros. One is a mid 2010, the other is mid-2012. I'm upgrading my 2012's memory which will free up the two 4GB ram chips in the machine. Can I use those chips to replace the two 2 GB chips in the 2010 Macbook Pro?

By upgrading my MacBook Pro mid 2012 computer to 16 GB I will have 2 - 4GB Ram chips unused. Can I put those 2 - 4GB chips into my MacBook Pro 2010 computer to replace the 2 2GB chips that are installed in that, which would upgrade its memory also.

You can install them but they will not work. The RAM specifications for those two models are different.
The 2010 MBP RAM specifications are: 204-pin PC3-8500 (1066 MHz) DDR3 SO-DIMM
The 2012 MBP RAM specifications are: 204-pin PC3-12800 (1600 MHz) DDR3 SO-DIMM
Ciao.

Mid-2012 MBA Battery Life + High RAM Usage

I recently purchased the lastest mid-2012 base model MBA brand new, factory sealed from eBay and started using it a few days ago. Overall its a great machine, however there were two things that were slightly bothering me;
1) Although the battery life is decent (around 5.5- 6 hours), on the system report page (see pic 1) , it said it only had 6128 mAh of charge remaining at 99%, even though the full battery capacity was 6527 mAh. Does this mean the battery capacity has already decreased after just 3 cyles or is this normal with lithium ion batteries? However, I don't know if this matters, but the place where I'm from suffers from frequent power cuts so I had charged the computer on a sine wave inverter a couple of times (AC current line). Could this have affected it in anyway?
2) The computer had shipped with OS X 10.8 and I upgraded to 10.8.2 the same day I started using it. While the computer doesn't feel sluggish at all (well, tbh I haven't run any heavy programs yet), even with very few of apps open, the RAM usage is very high (see pic 2)- It says I am using 2.92 GB of RAM, and have just 1.07 GB of free RAM. Is this a common problem in with ML? I was planning to install VMWare and CS6 but now I'm not too sure judging by the amount of free RAM I have atm. What should I do about it?
Pic 1
Pic 2
Would highly appreciate if any of you guys could help me out here. Thanks in advance !

I'm at 1.02 GB of wired RAM on a completely "naked" boot of OS X. I've got zero 3rd party apps installed or set to launch it's all core services of the OS only. Oddly enough, my 13" rMBP is at 1.18 GB off the same basic boot on 10.8.2 so it'll vary a little.
I also find that with Mt. Lion the reporting is on "tape delay" as I jokingly call it. For example when I start up an application it'll use "x" RAM and then after 5-10 minutes of just idling it'll then level out at "y" RAM. Where you have to be watchful is on 3rd party applications that will sometimes just start consuming RAM like that's it sole purpose.
On a side note, I've been fooling around with a free application on the App Store called "Memory Clean" that's suppose to take previously allocated RAM and free it up. So far so good, it's especially handy after I run a handbrake job or play some World of Warcraft where a significant amount of RAM is used. Definitely not a required application, OS X by default is quite good at freeing up and reallocating RAM but sometimes it doesn't always get the job done if you need it right now (for a VM).
In your full charge capacity photo the machine is running on battery power, although at 99%. On my MBA I get almost 280 mAh of usage between 100% and 99% that right there would close the gap considerably.
On the subject of 3rd party applications, Coconut Battery (a free 3rd party application) has a handy tool that allows you to create data points on battery health. Might be worth exploring so you have a statistical representation of the battery's health if you're interested.

8gb vs 4gb ram MBA Mid 2012

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