Comments on: How Long Do You Expect Your Macs to Last?

By: Vaudegal

Vaudegal — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 18:25:39 +0000

I have the first generation Macbook, which I bought a couple of months after it came out. This past year I upgraded the inside with a 500GB hard drive, an extra GB ram, and a new battery. It still works great. Never gave me any trouble. I am tempted to buy a refurbished Macbook Pro for about what I got this machine for, and transfer my hard drive into that one – but really, I’m very happy with this little laptop and will probably keep using it until the processor gives out or the cd drive doesn’t work anymore. I think my internal upgrades cost me less than $300.

I had 2 eMacs and each lived only 3 years. I still have my little iMac (graphite) and it still works. I use it to access old files created on software that didn’t update and that you can’t get anymore.

The basic macbook is a real workhorse. I’m now past the 4 year mark. By contrast, my husband has gone through 3 PC laptops in the same period – and these were expensive machines made by well regarded companies.

By: alex bates

alex bates — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 04:01:00 +0000

my mom had a mac desktop with a g3 in it it worked grate even after the water heater blowd up on it. i did have a ibook g4 and it worked good then the logic board went out in and it stop working. know i have a macbook and it is COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By: MSW

MSW — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 03:03:22 +0000

I own over 10 old PC’s (and some mac’s too) made within the last 20 years and none of them died (Guess I’m just lucky). The machine I’m using right now is over 15 years old and works like a charm.

From my experience working with older computers, I’ve noticed that Mac’s don’t have a very long support life compared to PC’s, which I would say is one of their top weaknesses. Windows XP, from 2001, is still fully supported and runs almost all modern software. Compare that to Mac OS 9.2, also from 2001. It’s about as good for web browsing as Windows 3.1 (I’m serious here. Both OS’s can’t run browsers more modern than MSIE5, which is your best bet with old browsers. It renders today’s web pages not perfectly, but better than Netscape and Opera). Even Mac OS X has a shorter support life. Last I knew, Apple does not even provide updates for OS X 10.4, an OS from 2005. If Apple could improve its long-term support, a lot more could get done with older Mac’s. They’re perfectly good hardware (it’s not like most of them blow up or anything), but having to replace them every 5 years just isn’t fun for everybody.

You can get a lot more life out of an old PC. Any Pentium III or newer machine can run Windows XP very well (perhaps with a RAM upgrade; 512MB is plenty). And if you do everyday stuff with it such as word processing, e-mail, and web browsing, it’ll be perfectly fine.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 11:04:10 +0000

It all depends on how well you take care of it. I have had PCs working for over 10 years without breaking down, im on my first mac right now and there are no signs of aging at all. My guess would be if you keep it in good shape, dont let it get too dusty, and keep it on a surge protector, it should last a long time.
But would you really want a 10 year old computer? Seems by then we will have 128GB of ram as standard and a 16 core processor.
we’ll just have to wait and see.

By: ARTSTARANDREW

ARTSTARANDREW — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 09:17:01 +0000

I just got my new computer. A brand new iMac 21.5” with a 1 TB hard drive. Up until about February 2010 we were using a Sony Vaio from 2004. I noticed that it slowed down dramatically in the last 2 years mainly due to heavier usage and wear an tear. Including a dent in the tower left by my foot when it was giving me crap, and it still lasted 6 years. Before that we had a Compaq from 1998 which had a laughable 50 GB hard drive, it lasted until 2005 but was in terrible shape by then, but it still lasted. I chose Apple because I think they are at a level now that they have surpassed the PC’s out there. I also didnt like the amount of Hassle the PC takes to keep it running for 8 years (refer back to the sentence about the dent.) I am hoping to have this iMac for about five years to where it is usable. Then I will keep it as a piece of sculpture, which it is. I have never said this about a computer…But I LOVE mine. Like I named it. So I don’t think I will ever willingly part with it even if it completely crashes.

By: Rusty

Rusty — Wed, 12 May 2010 15:54:00 +0000

I have a 2007 MacBook Pro 3,1. Pretty much as soon as I got it I put a 320GB HDD in and upped the RAM to 4GB. It had to have a new battery a couple of months ago and last week I decided to strip it down and replace the thermal paste on the heatsink. The reason for the new thermal paste was to try and keep the heat down which I believe is one of the causes of failure for this particular MBP (the one with the 8600MGT). Running Snow Leopard and hopefully with all the upgraded kit it should last me another 3-4 years. The only thing I'm beginning to wish I had was a more powerful graphics chipset (for Windows gaming). Hopefully the new MBPs in 3-4 years time will be kickass!

By: Jon

Jon — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 04:38:49 +0000

I have had my ibook G4 (late 2004 model) for almost six years and it works great for simple tasks such as email, web and itunes and I was still recording music on it as late as last summer. The only problems I've run into has been the logic board going out (twice). Considering that I used it in college and took it with me everywhere and it took a couple of nasty falls over the years I wasn't surprised that I had to get the logic board replaced twice. It definitely runs a lot slower these days but overall it has been a great computer for me and I will go with Macs until the day I die.

I recently ordered a brand new 27" quad core iMac so I'm patiently (or impatiently) waiting for it to arrive. I still plan on using my ibook G4 as "my around the house" computer as long as possible though....

By: William

William — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:07:08 +0000

I’m currently using my PowerMac G4 since the day I bought it new (back in 2003). It is still running strong. I’ve upgraded the memory to the max (2GB). I have also added an Airport card. Also added was a 6 port USB2.0 card. Finally, I added what may have been Apple’s OEM 1X SuperDrive (DVD writer). I can still upgrade the CPU to a Dual, but the price of that is equivalent to that the Mac Mini. So I decided not to upgrade the CPU. So, basically, my PowerMac G4 upgrade path came to a dead end. I’m planning on replacing this system with a new iMac. Anyone interested with my system, let me know.

By: John Morris

John Morris — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 21:33:34 +0000

I’m using a PowerMac G4 dual 1 Ghz MDD that’s 8 years old and performs flawlessly…these were built in the USA unlike the G5s which are made in China and not very reliable. I’m even running all the latest apps, and it’s plenty fast I mean not going to record a 200 track symphony with it but does all I need it to and plenty fast. Too bad these were the last truly well built Macs because I think they’ll last forever!

By: GVPB

GVPB — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:38:12 +0000

My mac vram just broke.