Macbook Air 13" + SC2 gaming

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bencho

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How is the Air 13" for gaming? Not looking to run it maxed out but is it playable on low settings with decent frames? Also, how much wear and tear will it add on the SSD? Not sure how far SSD's have come~
 
Its will play just fine, but you may want to wait for the refresh when they use the new Sandy Bridge mobile chips. SC2 is very CPU bound.
 
How about the affect on SSD, last I read, way back when, the extensive read/write cycles shortens ssd lifespan. If I'm going to go pick up an ultimate 13, I don't want it dying on me in like 2 years...
 
works fine. I'm playing it on low settings on an external monitor with keyboard and mouse. I could probably turn the settings up risking slow down during big battles. Also, I am running it in OSX which is less efficient than running it in windows7. I tried medium during a 2v2 replay with no huge battles and it was 15-30fps.


Vengance_01 said:
Its will play just fine, but you may want to wait for the refresh when they use the new Sandy Bridge mobile chips. SC2 is very CPU bound.
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It is bound by both GPU and CPU. Its pretty much equally choked by both on MBA. With a faster CPU in the MBA it wouldn't help much.
 
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bencho said:
So, any word on the longevity of the AIR ssd from gaming?
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eh, I don't know any specifics. But it's not like you doing something super disk intensive like major video editing etc. I doubt SC2 will wear your HDD out. Though, I am no expert on this....just my 2 cents.
 
I run SC2 on my desktop PC's SSD. No problems at all since it came out. Winblows is still as shark as ever on the SSD, and boots quick. Just be sure to clean the SSD/write to zeros to clear free disk space every couple of weeks.

Most of these SSDs now have very long quoted lives. The 128gb SSD in my mac book pro from two gens ago works just dandy a year or so later.
 
I would not worry at all about the MBA's SSD dying. The drive should last you at least 5 years as long as you're not trying to run a database server on it or anything.
 
I am selling my 13" air if you are looking to save a few bucks. I have ran CS:S on it without any issues (other than the fan being a bit noisy).
 
Gotcha. I plan on checking out the possible offerings with sandy bridge. If i do get one, i'd want it to last quite some time. at least 3 years in my book.
 
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