advice

So I am trying to decide my next move. I just got a new air w/thunderbolt but only 128 gb. My iphoto library from my last MBP was 120gb. I dabble in photos but most of the stuff I do is word processing. Still, I'd like a bigger screen than 13" so I can have a couple documents open

Option 1 ($950)
Buy a new Imac 21.5" w/thunderbolt so I can use it as a display for the MBA or place to edit photos.

Option 2 ($1000)
Get a 27" studio display and an external hard drive. Would it be a drawback to have to access this stuff through an external drive?

Option 3 ($?)
Scope craigslist for a used Imac or display to save a couple hundred. But worth it to not by it directly from apple just to save a couple hundy?

Thoughts appreciated

Option 4 - buy a good 24" monitor that can be had for well under $500 and two external hard drives - one for your data and another for backups.

bobtomay said:

Option 4 - buy a good 24" monitor that can be had for well under $500 and two external hard drives - one for your data and another for backups.

Click to expand...

+1
Great advice. 128GB is not nearly enough and my Aperture Library is only 60GB.

I'm going to go with option 4 as well!

Wouldn't it be a pain to have to access an external to edit photos? Seems like with big files (100+mb) this would be pretty slow?

I forgot to mention I have a 1TB external with my backups. So just get another one and a non-apple display?

anonym said:

Wouldn't it be a pain to have to access an external to edit photos? Seems like with big files (100+mb) this would be pretty slow?

I forgot to mention I have a 1TB external with my backups. So just get another one and a non-apple display?

Click to expand...

I do it all the time with Aperture and see no slow down except if I copy or move the Library itself.

EDIT: Just re-read your post; I don't work with 100MB + files (typically 6 to 12 MB shooting RAW + JPEG). If I were going to work extensivelyt with large files and video I wouldn't choose a MBA to do it with.

What type of photos are 100MB each?

I'm with Razormac - Just bought a MBA myself and went with the 256GB drive.
I have no plans to store media of any type locally on this machine.

All of my photos, music, video, etc. will be kept on the network and streamed from there. It's working a charm for music and video so far. Have not gotten my old Aperture library up on the network yet, so not sure if that will work or I'll end up using an external for that.

If anyone ever puts out a thunderbolt supported single drive, I'll probably give that a try.

anonym said:

I just got a new air w/thunderbolt but only 128 gb. My iphoto library from my last MBP was 120gb. I dabble in photos but most of the stuff I do is word processing. Still, I'd like a bigger screen than 13" so I can have a couple documents open...

Click to expand...

Questions:

1. Why the heck did buy a MacBook Air with a 128gig ssd drive when you knew that your iPhoto library HD from your old MBP had 120gig of files on it?
2. Why didn't you try to return this 13" MacBook Air ASAP?

Just like "bobtomay" already recommended...get an external monitor (new or used) & an external HD for your MBA.

- Nick

I don't usually recommend working off of a file over a network or off an external HDD. >_>"

However I'm sure thunderbolt is more than capable of handeling it.

I'd go with option 4.

Another vote for option 4.