Realistic 13" Macbook Air Expectations?

Hi all,



My early 2011 Macbook Pro is on its way out and I've been considering where to go next.



I live in the Czech Republic, and Macs are insanely expensive here, so I've been considering getting the 13" Macbook Air with the i7 1,7ghz dual core processor, 128gb SSD (use an external HD for samples, recording to/storing projects on etc.) w/ 8GB of RAM, just to save some money and keep within my budget.

The other option would be to save up a extra 350 bucks and the 13" retina Macbook Pro w/ a 2.6ghz i5 w/ 8gb of ram 250gb SSD.



I believe both would be an upgrade from my current machine, which is a 2.3ghz i5 running 4gb of ram and 300 GB HDD.



Music production is just a hobby for me, but one I quite enjoy and take seriously but in the end just a hobby.



I am wondering if anyone is using the 13" i7 Macbook Air as their main hobby music production machine? And what are realistic expectations for what you can get out of it?



I work only in Ableton live, my projects run usually about 18-20 tracks long, mainly midi tracks running plugins from Native Instruments (Absynth, FM8, Massive, Reaktor Player) with the occasional audio track, and a couple drum machine tracks. I use Native Instruments Komplete Audio 6 as my interface.



Is it realistic to expect that the 13" i7 Macbook Air w/ 8gb of RAM, and 128gb SSD would hold up for projects of that size?



Anyway, thanks a lot for your time and feedback, would be interested to hear from anyone on their opinion or if someone is actually using Ableton in their Macbook Air w/ third party plugins.



Thanks!

Realistic 13" Macbook Air Expectations?