Mac Deathwatch

[CurityGuy]

For the several Mac users out here: What's a reasonable lifespan for a Mac?

I have an iMac purchased a full five years ago and I run OS 10.3. It hasn't crashed yet but it's getting sclerotic. I don't do games, mostly word-processing.

Does an upgrade make sense? What would it cost? Or should I make do until September when Snow Leopard appears and spend the $1200 for a new setup?

(I do Mac because I've always done Mac.)

Thanks.

 

[dinorider]

That would be hard to tell. There's quite the difference between Mac Minis and Power Macs. However, with two OS reinstalls my 4 years old iMac is running pretty much without any issues.

Now, upgrading an iMac is hardly worth it in my opinion. Sure, you could upgrade the RAM, but the rest of it will pretty much have to stay the same. If it were me, I'd wait for September and get a new one.

 

[Error404]

An upgrade to Windows or Linux would be an EXCELLENT start.

*Innocent halo.*

 

[EmmEmmThree]

Meh, although I <3 Apple's computer lineup (because they're sexy, and they're OS is <3 -- other than that they're rediculously overpriced and not worth it -- they update their products 2x faster than Nvidia -- and that's saying something), I had a PowerBook G4 for quite some time that was running Leopard -- then I had to sell it for $300 because they go down in value so fast thanks to Apple's update frequency. In all honest opinion, I'd build a really nice Q9550-based setup custom and run OSx86, because for the same price as a kickass custom rig you'll get some 2GHz C2D and 1GB of RAM from Apple. Definitely not worth the tradeoff. OSx86 is getting easier and easier, and running a Wolfdale-based CPU will get you on OSx86 running vanilla pretty quick. Just like the good ol' Macintosh you're used to.

 

[chevre]

It's going to depend on a lot of factors, including luck. Eventually you will probalby have something like a disk failure, but that depends lots on how the machine was used over its lifetime, and really a bit of luck. I have never owned an Apple machine, but I've had IBM compatibles that lasted quite a bit longer than 5 years (however, recently they're not under continuous use.. because they're uh, too old to be very useful ).

 

[Gil]

Macs last *Decades*

At least, they used to. I can't speak for Macs made within the past 5 years. Seems as if quality control has gone down. Well you know what they say, "They don't make 'em like they used to"

 

[Gil]

Macs last *Decades*

At least, they used to. I can't speak for Macs made within the past 5 years. Seems as if quality control has gone down. Well you know what they say, "They don't make 'em like they used to"

 

[Dawes]

Might want to do a permissions check. In doing a lot of recording and word-processing on my Mac, I find that after a few months, it starts getting really laggy and unresponsive. I do a disk permissions check and it usually speeds it up like a charm.

 

[TallestBabyEver]

I had my hard drive crash on me 8 months after i got it. Luckily it was well under warranty and i didn't lose much, i had it backed up on my home PC. Hasn't given me a problem since (1.5 years and running, 10.4 btw)

 

[PupKommodore]

Well, I'm typing this on my PowerBook G4 which is about 5 or 6 years old now, and it's running Leopard perfectly. It's mainly what I use to play SNES and N64 emulators with, and some other games like Unreal Tournament 2004.

 

[priva]

All of my Mac have lasted many years without issues. They just get obsolete. In fact, I just replaced my 2002 Quicksilver Mac with a new Mac Pro last week. My old Mac was doing fine hardware wise, but it could use an OS reinstall. Mac hardware seems to last way longer than PCs. I guess you get what you pay for.

 

[element]

All of my Mac have lasted many years without issues. They just get obsolete. In fact, I just replaced my 2002 Quicksilver Mac with a new Mac Pro last week. My old Mac was doing fine hardware wise, but it could use an OS reinstall. Mac hardware seems to last way longer than PCs. I guess you get what you pay for.

I know what you mean. It used to be that my parents passed down their old Macs to me, but now that I can buy my own and they don't need so much power I find myself passing mine on down to them. My mom uses my MacBook and my dad uses my old 12" PowerBook and they're both running just great.

 

[Puppyluvs]

It may well be worth waiting till Snow Leopard is released before you upgrade. On the other hand, Apple is going to be releasing Snow Leopard as an upgrade for Leopard users pretty cheap, so don't let that put you off getting one now if you need to.

One thing I would say, is that it is worth paying the extra for an applecare plan or other extended warranty.

Both my current Macbook Pro and my last iMac broke down inside of their one year manufacturers warranty.

Apparently there are a couple of known faults regarding the current line of graphics cards on the Imac and Macbook Pro lines (something to do with how they are soldered to the motherboard). This is a bit disconcerting, but like I say, if you get an extended warranty, Apple is pretty good about fixing or replacing stuff. The plus side is that if your mac breaks down in three years time, they may replace it with a brand new model, if the old model is no longer in their product line. At least thats what happened to me.

Having said this, I have never had any problem with any of my previous Macs (or current iMac).

If you are still running Panther, but are planning on holding onto your current machine for a while it may be worth finding a second hand copy of Tiger to upgrade to.

My old G4 iMac came with Panther, benefited from running Tiger. I was able to install Leopard on it as well, but it's probably a bit of overkill on an old machine.

 

[Deleted member 221]

mm3 basically took the words out of my mouth.. i can build a nice i7 system for the same price as a mac with 2gb ram and core 2 duo..