Optimize MBA for heavier processing external display - Advice needed!

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Level 1

17 points

Optimize MBA for heavier processing external display - Advice needed!

I've never used a Mac until a week ago, and I'm really struggling on how best to set things up. So I hope you all won't mind some general questions.

I need to SQL Server Management Studio, Remote Desktop (right now Windows RDP for Mac, but I'm checking into Chrome's option) and probably a browser (currently Chrome) along with a document processor (maybe Word). Other times I'll run things like Adobe Pro along with a few of the apps I've already mentioned. Also, I need to hook into an external monitor while being wired to ethernet.

Here is what I have: MBA that is a week old with an I7 processor, 8MB of RAM, and 500(ish)GB of flash. I'm currently running Windows 7 in Virtual Box (allotted 4 of my 8 GBs) with Management Studio installed. I've toyed with Windows' RDP but it seems really sluggish. I have a few adapters (thunderbolt to Gigabit, mini displayport to VGA, and mini displayport to VGI. I've been using a Cisco USB to Gigabit adapter to run wired internet (when I need to be wired for security reasons). I needed to do that to free up mini display to broadcast to my external monitor. I haven't installed Adobe Pro yet because its a resource hog and I was worried about performance.

I considered a MBP but the resources simply weren't available. Plus, I like the idea of running these sort of apps on this small of hardware! I've read loads of sites on each of these things (various RPD options, Parallels vs Virtual Box vs Boot Camp, a whole bunch of database admins pulling off SQL work on MBAs, etc. However, I was hoping someone could give some guidance related to what I'm trying to accomplish. Does anything jump out that I could change to increase performance?

MacBook Air, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5), i7, 500GB flash, 8GB RAM

Posted on Oct 2, 2013 7:45 PM

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Answer 1

AIRloop Author

Level 1

17 points

Oct 3, 2013 2:08 PM in response to AIRloop

Bump. Anyone takers? I don't expect one person to answer all the questions (although that would be fine!). Any advice on any of these things is very welcome!

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Answer 2

AIRloop Author

Level 1

17 points

Oct 11, 2013 3:34 PM in response to AIRloop

One more bump.

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Answer 3

carl wolf

Level 6

14,625 points

Oct 11, 2013 6:37 PM in response to AIRloop

There are several reason people have not responded to your post. There's so much detail and, as Hitchcock would comment, "It's a MacGuffin." You purchased a fully-loaded MBA, and there's nothing you can do to make it any better. Perhaps you should have opted for a more robust MBP.

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Answer 4

AIRloop Author

Level 1

17 points

Oct 14, 2013 9:21 AM in response to carl wolf

HI Carl,

Touche, good sir. I have through experimentation found optimized ways to run things like SQL, RDP, etc. I may post my findings on these things sometimes. However, your point is well take - every system has its ceiling.

And yes - that was a lot of detail with little point or purpose. I'll work on that in future posts. Don't throw me out yet - I'm just starting to have fun with this thing. (Except for 3 days ago when I realized that a Citrix receiver on OS X displays server notifications in the upper right OS X task bar. I found that out when I accidentally rebooted a production server during peak hours! That was not a good day.. :-)

al

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