Machine Specifications

2013 Macbook Air

You’ll find all your Macbook Air specs for different machines in the Apple store, or Wikipedia.  Personally I like the wiki’s, as the results are usually third-party verified and I like the additional durability details.

This machine consists of the following

  • 1.7GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.3GHz
  • 8GB 1600MHz LPDDR3 SDRAM
  • 256GB Flash Storage

Operating System

I recently updated from Mountain Lion to Mavericks, that but that only applies to the non-work side of the machine.  For work purposes, I installed Windows 7 Pro via Bootcamp…and USB.  There’s a whole piece I put together outlining the installation after reading about all the other individuals running into how-to questions.

No desire to go to Windows 8 just yet.  This ‘ultrabook’ doesn’t have a touch screen and I don’t want or need one.  Do you like wiping grimy fingerprints off the screen all day?

I did also tweak the display and power settings to get a bit more oomph out of the Air.  The tips to boost performance are all outlined here.

CAD / 3D Modelling Software

I installed Solidworks 2013.  We have a network license at work, so SW Premium vs. SW Professional…no specific install.  I end up pulling whatever license is available at the time with Premium usually the first available.

Additional Programs

I installed CutePDF, because I like it’s ease of PDF creation.  That’s just me though.  EZVid is also installed, so I can take a few screenshot videos.  Not a whole lot more other than the usual MS Office programs necessary in our work environment.  Ah, I did also install Virtual Clonedrive, but that was just to start.  I have since removed it because of the crapware that comes along with free software.

Gordon