MacBook Air Advice

[Con]

So my company has gone completely paranoid and now all work computers are set up through IT to only be able to do work (and sometimes not even that).  No programs can be downloaded or put on them that do not confirm to the safe list (funnily enough that also include Adobe Acrobat distiller something that we all need for work).

Of course there go my wargames that I had on it (WitP, Battle fo the Bulge and Hells Highway and War in the East).

We also now cannot access facebook, gmail, social media, linkedin etc.  Its draconian but it is their equipment (PC's) so I will have to live with it.

Colleagues of mine have told me that they now travel with the work laptop and a MacBook air so that they can actually do some non work stuff when we travel.  The reason is it needs to be light since no one wants to carry 50lbs of electronic gear.  Since we do a lot (mostly) international travel iPads are not ideal.

So questions can a MacBook air run these games?  Would I be able to run the PC version of CMBN?  How beefy a MacBook Air would you suggest in order to get the most out of it?

Thanks
Con

[Bison]

It'd play BftB as it certainly meets all the hardware requirements.  I have one and I like it, but I never installed a bootcamp partition.  So the games/programs I did load were iOS specific.  One thing is that it is a hot little machine even if you just watch movies.

Dell also makes an XPS ultralight and a 14" laptop w/ GPU that weighs around 4 lbs.  These are less costly options too, if you want to stick with an MS OS.

Or Asus has this little rig, which weighs like 3.7 lbs.  http://www.xoticpc.com/asus-u36sgds51-p-3565.html

[Shelldrake]

I travel with a netbook with an AMD cpu/graphics chip similar to the one in the link and it plays all kinds of older games from GOG just fine.

http://www.amazon.com/Acer-AO722-0473-11-6-Inch-Netbook-Espresso/dp/B005J2E2US/ref=dp_ob_title_ce

[bayonetbrant]

I've got a MacBook Air.  It's the smaller screen (11") but fully tricked-out inside.  It's run everything I've put on it with no problems, but I've not yet installed any heavy-duty games other than Civ V, which runs just fine.

[Con]

That is pretty interesting on the information on PC based ultrabooks.  I have to admit I was leaning towards a Mac airbook since I read a head to head review about 6 months ago that basically said that the Mac Book was better constructed, better feel etc and did not suffer too much form running in windows mode compared to the PC versions.

What do people who own a mac book or PC notebook think?

Con
PS I am now seriously interested in the Asus ultrabook that has a dedicated Nvidia card the Asus UX32vd.  This could give the Mac book a good run.

[Bison]

The best thing to do might be to go to an Apple store and physically see a Macbook Air.  They are very sleek machines, but they can become fairly expensive quickly if you add in ram, bigger hd, screen, etc.