How long does a Mac usually last?

[+jamesyfx Subscriber²]

Indeed, 3D graphics performance on my brand new 21.5" iMac is nothing short of .. well, crap. I don't use it for gaming however - I have a PC for that!:whistle:

[doodie]

I've got an awesome Mac Pro (not MACBOOK pro).. geeze. It's interesting how even some people don't even know what a Mac Pro is.

Anyway, back on to topic. I stuffed it with 16gbs of ram, and a hell of a lot of power. I haven't tested the full potential too much yet. But it can run 3 (if not more) operating systems, at one time, very smoothly.

I'm very happy with it. If you have (fairly) deep pockets, I suggest you get something like this. I really do like the power of the OS X operating system, and what it can do for me. For the most part it's very efficient too.

With Steam coming to the mac, I think it could be a fairly interesting concept of a gaming platform.

I don't care for the aesthetics, and neither should you. Macs are the way to go for long lasting power machines, with good support.

-dagrimdialer619

[Astra.Xtreme]

Macs hold their value pretty damn well, so you could sell your old one and invest a little bit of money to buy a new one each time the model is updated.

Last summer I sold my iMac G5 for $400 which I thought was pretty ridiculous considering how old it was. Then sold my copy of OSX Tiger and just had to put up another $100 for a brand new Mini. :D

[TFindley]

I bought my 24inch iMac and my 15inch Macbook Pro as soon as the Core2 Duo models were released (so, late 2006 / early 2007ish I guess). I replaced my iMac about 4 months ago, but this happened rather sooner than I expected as the CD Drive in the iMac died. It was still under (extended) warranty but I couldnt really do without it for a few days, and I needed something that had more performance and redundancy anyway, so I bought a Mac Pro to replace it. My Macbook Pro i'm happy to say is still running perfectly, despite having various scratches and dents all over it. Its had one replacement battery in its life. The only problem I have with it really is that it does get rather warm.

I'll probably replace it in the next few months. Mostly because I want better battery life and a lovely glass trackpad <3

The iMac got repaired and is now my Mum's new computer. As soon as I had the CD Drive changed, it was like a new machine again. Just not shiny aluminium & glass. Its had its Hard disk changed, and its RAM upgraded.

[bjoswald]

Oh, great! Some of my questions were answered from this thread. All I have to do now is figure out how to grow money trees!

[Shadrack]

Oh, great! Some of my questions were answered from this thread. All I have to do now is figure out how to grow money trees!

Step 1: Do good in grade school

Step 2: Do good in jr. high

Step 3: Do good in high school

Step 4: Do good in college

Step 5: Get a friggen job.

[CelticWhisper]

Not trying to 'diss' Macs but lets face it they are hardly cutting edge gaming machines, another of the main reasons to upgrade every 6-12 months is so you can run the latest games in the highest quality settings.

Frankly, if you (figurative "you," not YOU you) use a Mac for gaming at all, you're doing it wrong. People whose only computer is a Mac don't have much choice, but personally I use my G5 for everyday tasks as well as video work, and I have an Athlon with XP and Win7 off to the side for recreational use. I find this a much better way to go since the reality is that most games are written with Windows and generic X86 boxes in mind. My fellow Mac users can save themselves a lot of headaches if they set aside a little cash for a game-PC fund and maintain a separate system for entertainment.

Also, to pick a small nit, not all of us insist on running games at the highest settings. Perfectly fine if you do, don't get me wrong, but I've never minded turning settings down to save myself the money on new video cards or CPUs. I usually only upgrade hardware when games refuse to run smoothly even at 640x480 with everything off. Bioshock was the last game I had that problem with. St00pid sexy water effects.

[Joshie]

Anyway, back on to topic. I stuffed it with 16gbs of ram, and a hell of a lot of power. I haven't tested the full potential too much yet. But it can run 3 (if not more) operating systems, at one time, very smoothly.

._.

16gb RAM? Yeesh.

Actually, now that it's so deeply lodged in my mind, what's up with like...everyone in this thread talking about memory upgrades as if they're as good as having a whole new computer? Computers are all about bottlenecks, and as long as your memory crosses a certain line, upgrading it won't really have any significant effect if the rest of the hardware is outdated...

/generally tells the average PC user not to waste their time going beyond 3-4gb RAM with today's OSes

[+jamesyfx Subscriber²]

Also, to pick a small nit, not all of us insist on running games at the highest settings. Perfectly fine if you do, don't get me wrong, but I've never minded turning settings down to save myself the money on new video cards or CPUs. I usually only upgrade hardware when games refuse to run smoothly even at 640x480 with everything off. Bioshock was the last game I had that problem with. St00pid sexy water effects.

I tend to call a PC unworthy if it can't run a game at Max settings with Anti-Aliasing off and Shadows set to the Lowest level.

[Richard Hammond]

Frankly, if you (figurative "you," not YOU you) use a Mac for gaming at all, you're doing it wrong. People whose only computer is a Mac don't have much choice, but personally I use my G5 for everyday tasks as well as video work, and I have an Athlon with XP and Win7 off to the side for recreational use. I find this a much better way to go since the reality is that most games are written with Windows and generic X86 boxes in mind. My fellow Mac users can save themselves a lot of headaches if they set aside a little cash for a game-PC fund and maintain a separate system for entertainment.

Also, to pick a small nit, not all of us insist on running games at the highest settings. Perfectly fine if you do, don't get me wrong, but I've never minded turning settings down to save myself the money on new video cards or CPUs. I usually only upgrade hardware when games refuse to run smoothly even at 640x480 with everything off. Bioshock was the last game I had that problem with. St00pid sexy water effects.

I think you missed my point, people are saying Macs last longer than PCs, no they dont, they last as long as each other, the only reason people DO upgrade a PC every 6-12 months is so they CAN play the latest games in the max resolution and detail settings, you cant on a Mac so you HAVE to make it last longer because you cant upgrade it.

[Vice]

I personally only buy Macintosh notebooks. I have yet no reason to buy a Mac desktop as my PC is better suited to my needs when it comes to a large multi-display system for my desk. The Mac Pro / iMac just doesn't fulfill me.

Now with that out of the way I would say Mac notebooks last about 4-5 years before you start feeling the need to upgrade. This is usually after the first battery has died and the operating systems being released by Apple are listing your specifications as the minimum requirements and you've probably by now reached the maximum RAM amount.

I usually keep my Mac's for 3-4 years before replacing them but my current Mac I think will probably last the longest maybe 5-6 years as it has 8GB of ram support and a 64-bit processor which is what held back my last MacBook Pro as it was of the first generation it only had 2GB max RAM and a 32-bit CPU.

I notice a lot of people here are talking about what lasts longer a PC or a Mac. I'd say its pretty much identical but if I had to give one the edge I would give it to the PC as you can upgrade the graphics and add in extra hard drives. If you get an iMac or a Mac Pro your upgrade options are severely limited. Only the Mac Pro allows you to upgrade the graphics card and the choices for such an upgrade are very limited and also very expensive.

[Jediweasel]

I got a power mac G4 cube runs 10.4.11 still works and its like 8yrs old

Dude, I miss my cube. I kick myself when I rememer I sold it to get a dang iMac.

[PL_ Veteran]

Last summer I sold my iMac G5 for $400 which I thought was pretty ridiculous considering how old it was. Then sold my copy of OSX Tiger and just had to put up another $100 for a brand new Mini. :D

Ooo, I might have to do this. I just worry when selling computers about recovering sensitive data. So far I've only sold/given computers to people I know and trust. Maybe I'm being paranoid.

[+jamesyfx Subscriber²]

Ooo, I might have to do this. I just worry when selling computers about recovering sensitive data. So far I've only sold/given computers to people I know and trust. Maybe I'm being paranoid.

PC World do a data cleanse for like a tenner. :rofl:

Or you could do it yourself. Just zero your drive.

[Motoko.]

I personally upgrade quite often. Perhaps every 2 years? I tend to refresh my whole Apple equipment. iPods, Macs, Software etc in one sitting.

I hand down my old equipment to family members.

So my mothers sporting a White MacBook, and my sister has an Alu MacBook Pro. :3 My ex girlfriend (erg) has an iPod Classic, my sister has a Nano, my best friend has a Nano, my OTHER friend has a Nano, and my best friends ex-boyfriend (eerg) has a Nano.

:blink: Aint I just a nice guy.

Depends.. If you give them away as an excuse to get new stuff :laugh:

[Astra.Xtreme]

Ooo, I might have to do this. I just worry when selling computers about recovering sensitive data. So far I've only sold/given computers to people I know and trust. Maybe I'm being paranoid.

There are lots of programs out there that will zero out all the data on your harddrive. I'm sure it will have to be some sort of Live Linux distro or something though, but it definitely can be done.

[.Neo]

There are lots of programs out there that will zero out all the data on your harddrive. I'm sure it will have to be some sort of Live Linux distro or something though, but it definitely can be done.

Disk Utility (comes standard with Mac OS X) allows you to zero out data on any Mac. It's also found on the Mac OS X Install DVD.

[Quillz]

A Mac will last as long as you need it to last. It might get outdated but it doesn't mean it will cease working. My university has many Macs, and virtually all of them are still running Jaguar or Panther. They're old, but they still work.

[Shadrack]

A Mac will last as long as you need it to last. It might get outdated but it doesn't mean it will cease working. My university has many Macs, and virtually all of them are still running Jaguar or Panther. They're old, but they still work.

What?!?!?! They didn't self destruct? You mean you can still use them for word processing, internet browsing, email, and what have you? Shockerz. lol

[Guest]

My C2D MacBook is a little over 2 year old now and still going strong. I intend to buy a 15" i5 MacBook Pro (if) when they are released.

[greenwizard88]

I update my laptop every 3 -4 years. My mac is 3 years old, and I'm ready for a new PC, not because the mac doesn't work - it still works like the day I bought it - but because it's just so damn un-customizable. As far as how long it will last, I would assume it would last another 2 years before I need a hardware upgrade. so all together, 3-5 years.

My PC lasts about 6 months before I upgrade it. The difference is that my upgrade is more RAM, a faster CPU, or a new video card. I won't actually replace my computer for another 2-3 years though, as it's only a year old and still plenty fast enough.

So what does this mean? It means that I get a new PC more often than a mac. I wouldn't say that it's because a mac is inherently better than a PC, but that the PC is inherently better than a mac, which allows me to do high-end processing on it, that I am unable to do on my mac unless I upgrade every revision to keep up.

[Binary]

My iMac is the first intel iMac from 2006 (so just over 4 yrs old). It has the maxed out 2 Gb of RAM and runs just as fast as it did with Tiger; once I upgraded to Snow Leopard.

Leopard was a tad bit slower, but Snow Leopard made it run like a new machine again.

The only hinderance when it comes to an iMac is upgrade capability for Graphics, but unless you're a heavy gamer, the visual effects look just fine on even my x1600.

I will probably be upgrading once the next rev. of iMacs come out, not because I need to necessarily, but because I want a shiny new 27" screen :D

Hopefully it has an HDMI port next time around so I can hook up my PS3 to it, rumors are that it may come standard on all desktop macs soon.

[Boz]

Such a question is completely unrelated to whether it is a Mac or PC. It all depends on what you use your computer for.

Well it is relevant because you can't upgrade Mac Pro with anything but hard drives and memory.. the rest of the stuff gets old really really fast.. hell even now their computers use obsolete graphic cards and inferior motherboard to anything out there considering it can't even run 2 higher end graphic cards due to lack of power connectors.

To OP, I have a Mac Pro and it's 2 years old.. it's a previous gen dual-quad core Xeons 2.8 and using DDR2 ram. Upgrading anything inside the machine is next to impossible and they price graphic cards like 4870 or GeForce 285 at $200 more than what they are worth for PC because you can't buy anything else. Why I haven't upgraded a Mac is because I'm feeling like a jackass spending $4k on the one I have so upgrading (in Apple way that means buying a new mac) is something I'm unwilling to shell out for, especially with prices they have now. $6-$7k for an 8-core Mac Pro with Nehalem Xeons and DDR3 ram is insanity.

The value of Macs doesn't hold that well either since they switched to x86.

If the only reason you are buying a Mac is to run OSX I highly advise you to put together amazing PC for like $1500, get EFI-X chip, plug it into USB on the motherboard and install OSX from retail disc just as you would on a mac. Use the rest of the money to max out ram or get SLI GeForce 285s and you'll still be like a grand below Mac Pro and you'll be able to play Blu-ray since Macs don't have HDCP support by default, but if you build a PC you will.

I've made the worst mistake of buying a machine from Apple. A mistake I will not make again. I won't give them any more money except for OSX. It's just rip off through and through since people get on with it just to run OSX which btw with Windows 7 feels pretty old as well but that's another story.

[chrisgeleven]

My first generation 13.3" Macbook (Intel Core Duo 2.0GHz processor) will be 4 years old in May and is still working well. However, its limitations are becoming more clear every day:

• No 64-bit support
  
• 2GB RAM max
  
• No hardware H.264 decoding
  
• Really bad intergrated graphics (GMA950 if I remember right)
  
• Second battery showing signs of not holding charge well
  

I have maxed the RAM when I bought it and I have upgraded to a 250GB HD about 2 years ago. Also this machine has seen three versions of the OS during that time (Tiger, Leopard, and Snow Leopard). Still works well for e-mail and browsing, but forget any type of gaming or heavy duty stuff.

Hoping maybe in the fall to upgrade to a new Macbook Pro, when the i5 or i7 models are out. If you can max the RAM out at 12GB or 16GB I will be sold, that should give plenty of breathing room for another 4-5 years.

[e-berlin.org]

My Mac Mini's CD Burner/DVD combo drive stopped burning CDs after about 15 months and stopped reading CD/DVDs shortly after.

My girl's brand new CD/DVD (the latest MacBooks) already starts to make funny noises and I'm not talking about the system check when starting but about noisy cracking, motor sounds and other funny stuff while reading a CD. I browsed few articles and found out it's all about the cheap Ma****a drives they install - they're all crap.

Edit: M A S H I T A is not a dirty word, what's with the auto censoring?