Hi all-
Not to keep filling up the forum with more "new Macbook Air" threads, but I just had to throw in my comments for what it is worth. Best Buy sent out the usual fall promotion of 18 months same as cash deal on any purchases $499 or more. I couldn't resist any longer and went for a Rev. C with SSD. I must humbly admit that part of my purchasing decision for the SSD was because of Scottsdale's passion regarding the subject.. And I have to say that the added cost of the SSD was worth it to me. It is dead silent and even though it's performance isn't blazing fast, it is certainly more than adequate. Anyway, the computer arrived yesterday afternoon and the very first thing I did before I even turned it on was to flip it upside down, take the bottom off and re-apply the thermal heat sink grease. This particular unit was not too bad off. In fact, none of the grease was physically on any part of either IC chip except on the processor portion itself. The metal heat sink however, was a different story. I found thermal grease smeared all over the underside. I proceeded to clean off the excess and the grease essentially chipped and fell into my hands! I have worked enough years in troubleshooting and repair of electronics to know that this grease used in my computer was a very cheap poor grade. Or perhaps it was a very old grease used. It was not fresh in any way, and certainly not capable to efficiently transfer heat. After cleaning off the old grease, I applied part of a recently purchased tube of Arctic Silver 5. I then put the machine all back together and fired it up. By the way, the computer came with 10.5 Leopard installed, however, a Snow Leopard 10.6 disk was included in the box! It is labeled "CPU Drop-In".. I suppose it's an upgrade disk? I didn't bother using it, I simply grabbed my recently purchased retail version of SL and performed a clean install. The fan ran wide open during the install process (no real surprise there) but afterwards, once I installed all of my user software and the system kindly leveled out, I haven't heard the fan run since, and the bottom of the computer is luke warm to the touch. I tested some web surfing, email, watching one or two videos, did a little audio streaming and so forth, and the computer held it's own just fine.
Bottom line is that I am very pleased with the Air. It's very lightweight, and coming from a first gen aluminum Macbook, it's a refreshing change. Getting rid of that DVD drive that I almost never used in the past is a blessing! I used an LG Slim GSA-E50L USB powered drive to install SL. It worked like a charm! By the way, this is a production run 2009, week 33 unit. It utilizes a 9c90 screen and if there are lines, they're not a problem to me because I don't see them, either that, or I don't see what others are seeing. It's a portable computer for use out in the field. It's plenty adequate for my need.
Not to keep filling up the forum with more "new Macbook Air" threads, but I just had to throw in my comments for what it is worth. Best Buy sent out the usual fall promotion of 18 months same as cash deal on any purchases $499 or more. I couldn't resist any longer and went for a Rev. C with SSD. I must humbly admit that part of my purchasing decision for the SSD was because of Scottsdale's passion regarding the subject.. And I have to say that the added cost of the SSD was worth it to me. It is dead silent and even though it's performance isn't blazing fast, it is certainly more than adequate. Anyway, the computer arrived yesterday afternoon and the very first thing I did before I even turned it on was to flip it upside down, take the bottom off and re-apply the thermal heat sink grease. This particular unit was not too bad off. In fact, none of the grease was physically on any part of either IC chip except on the processor portion itself. The metal heat sink however, was a different story. I found thermal grease smeared all over the underside. I proceeded to clean off the excess and the grease essentially chipped and fell into my hands! I have worked enough years in troubleshooting and repair of electronics to know that this grease used in my computer was a very cheap poor grade. Or perhaps it was a very old grease used. It was not fresh in any way, and certainly not capable to efficiently transfer heat. After cleaning off the old grease, I applied part of a recently purchased tube of Arctic Silver 5. I then put the machine all back together and fired it up. By the way, the computer came with 10.5 Leopard installed, however, a Snow Leopard 10.6 disk was included in the box! It is labeled "CPU Drop-In".. I suppose it's an upgrade disk? I didn't bother using it, I simply grabbed my recently purchased retail version of SL and performed a clean install. The fan ran wide open during the install process (no real surprise there) but afterwards, once I installed all of my user software and the system kindly leveled out, I haven't heard the fan run since, and the bottom of the computer is luke warm to the touch. I tested some web surfing, email, watching one or two videos, did a little audio streaming and so forth, and the computer held it's own just fine.
Bottom line is that I am very pleased with the Air. It's very lightweight, and coming from a first gen aluminum Macbook, it's a refreshing change. Getting rid of that DVD drive that I almost never used in the past is a blessing! I used an LG Slim GSA-E50L USB powered drive to install SL. It worked like a charm! By the way, this is a production run 2009, week 33 unit. It utilizes a 9c90 screen and if there are lines, they're not a problem to me because I don't see them, either that, or I don't see what others are seeing. It's a portable computer for use out in the field. It's plenty adequate for my need.
