Oldest Macbook Pro's still in use?

Early 2008 (4,1) 17" still going strong

...But I recently had to order a new battery (My previous one was also showing 90%+ health but practically imploded shortly after...).

Planning on upgrading to a Retina in a few weeks though

My GF's son is at Uni with 3 Macs. He bought a 2011 15" MBP to use as his main box, he networks it to his original 2007 15" MBP and uses a 2002 G4 iMac as a file sever.
They all play well together, the '07 MBP burned out its logic board in 2009 and was repaired under AppleCare. Works fine today but I also replaced the SuperDrive with an eBay bought one when it stopped seeing 75% of the discs inserted. It also had the battery replaced under a recall scheme, it failed after only 47 cycles.

Macs last if you don't mind looking after them. The logic board cooked through constant high temps playing WoW 16 hours a day and not opening it up to clean it regularly. Dust is the enemy of tiny airways and Nvidia GT8600M hotplates .... I mean GPUs.
Apple's desktop models seem much hardier we have iMacs from 1998, 2002 & 2005 all still operational without any major repair work, although the Bondi Blue had a 600mhz G3 CPU upgrade, 512 mb RAM and 80 GB HDD to keep it usable under OS X.

It is not a Pro, but my black plastic MacBook from 2007 was my primary until very recently when I made the MBPr jump.

2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, and a Fujitsu-made 160 GB 5400RPM HDD with 30 GB still free. The integrated graphics is Intel GMA 950 64MB. Yuck. Lion has brought it to its knees. Browsers are sluggish (Opera seems to work the smoothest, but I'd rotate based upon my needs). And it really hates opening iTunes with my +100GB of music (which is on an external). Photoshop and MSFT Office apps took ages to load. Battery is in rough shape. It is at 75% and has already been replaced once. Also had the keyboard looked at about 20 months ago, because one of the keys stopped working (either the "u" or "r" can't remember) and it was a free repair even though it was out of warranty. Apparently it was a common problem at some point.

Got me through college. Miss the way freshman would look at it wondering if I had some sort of fancy case on it. Made me feel old for having a non-unibody

2003 powerbook until 2 months ago when I spilled coke all over it, sad times!

gokart mozart said:

It is not a Pro, but my black plastic MacBook from 2007 was my primary until very recently when I made the MBPr jump.

2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, and a Fujitsu-made 160 GB 5400RPM HDD with 30 GB still free. The integrated graphics is Intel GMA 950 64MB. Yuck. Lion has brought it to its knees. Browsers are sluggish. And it really hates opening iTunes with my +100GB of music (which is on an external). Photoshop and MSFT Office apps took ages to load. Battery is in rough shape. It is at 75% and has already been replaced once. Also hade the keyboard looked at about 20 months ago, because one of the keys stopped working (either the "u" or "r" can't remember) and it was a free repair even though it was out of warranty. Apparently it was a common problem at some point.

Got me through college. Miss the way freshman would look at it wondering if I had some sort of fancy case on it. Made me feel old for having a non-unibody

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Had exactly that computer for 3 or so years, loved it eh. Apple replaced the top casing for me, plus new battery, charger and hard drive. I pretty much had a refurb by the time they were done with it

TheRdungeon said:

Had exactly that computer for 3 or so years, loved it eh. Apple replaced the top casing for me, plus new battery, charger and hard drive. I pretty much had a refurb by the time they were done with it

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It served its time well and I'm handing it down to my lil sis so she can use it for high school stuff. Mostly MSFT Office. I'm thinking of uninstalling Lion. Snow Leopard was much nimbler. The trackpad is also only capable of tracking two fingers, so there are no gestures. Just two finger scrolling. Makes having Lion seem silly in hindsight. Especially since it killed off Rosetta and my Starcraft 1 action in the process.

My misguided PC classmates were always stunned when I told them how old my Mac was. Most of them had to replace their plastic laptops at least once. And then when they had to buy a new one, they'd complain that Macs cost too much. Well you pay for what you get, and a laptop that can last 5 years is pretty freakin' good.

joewillmott said:

2003 powerbook until 2 months ago when I spilled coke all over it, sad times!

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A sad loss indeed. That was quite the design for the time.

Early 2008 "Classic" 15" 2.4 Penryn MBP, all original barring two new fans. Two years in the Middle East, just over two years in the tropics, hardly ever been shut down, only for updates and travel just runs 24/7, likely north of 35K running hours or about 75 cents a day

gokart mozart said:

It is not a Pro, but my black plastic MacBook from 2007 was my primary until very recently when I made the MBPr jump.

2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, and a Fujitsu-made 160 GB 5400RPM HDD with 30 GB still free. The integrated graphics is Intel GMA 950 64MB. Yuck. Lion has brought it to its knees. Browsers are sluggish (Opera seems to work the smoothest, but I'd rotate based upon my needs). And it really hates opening iTunes with my +100GB of music (which is on an external). Photoshop and MSFT Office apps took ages to load. Battery is in rough shape. It is at 75% and has already been replaced once. Also had the keyboard looked at about 20 months ago, because one of the keys stopped working (either the "u" or "r" can't remember) and it was a free repair even though it was out of warranty. Apparently it was a common problem at some point.

Got me through college. Miss the way freshman would look at it wondering if I had some sort of fancy case on it. Made me feel old for having a non-unibody

Click to expand...

I am still using this computer and it still works great. I am considering about replacing it but I can't find a good reason but I can't find a good reason because it still does what I want from it.

Early 2006 Macbook Pro 15'' / 2.16Ghz Core Duo / 2GB Ram

It has served me well for over six years but it really shows its age nowadays .. Getting replaced by a Retina MBP next month

I use early 2008 (MBP 4,1) without any modifications. 2,5 GHz - 250GB - 2GB RAM and Leopard . I've changed the RAM and HDD only to check my relatives hardware lol.

Still cruisin' on me rusty ole' early 2011 MBP... just kidding, of course it runs fine. I didn't have the pleasure of owning a mac until 2010, but I've seen some old power mac troopers from the early 21st century battling on.

gokart mozart said:

It served its time well and I'm handing it down to my lil sis so she can use it for high school stuff. Mostly MSFT Office. I'm thinking of uninstalling Lion. Snow Leopard was much nimbler. The trackpad is also only capable of tracking two fingers, so there are no gestures. Just two finger scrolling. Makes having Lion seem silly in hindsight. Especially since it killed off Rosetta and my Starcraft 1 action in the process.

My misguided PC classmates were always stunned when I told them how old my Mac was. Most of them had to replace their plastic laptops at least once. And then when they had to buy a new one, they'd complain that Macs cost too much. Well you pay for what you get, and a laptop that can last 5 years is pretty freakin' good.

Click to expand...

Haha man I forgot those things could take Lion, it's the Core Duo that can't take Lion right? Yeah I remember when everyone got gestures on their multi touch trackpad and I only had the two finger slide. Crazy thing is they still look really good, going with matte was such a good call by Apple

2001 15in PowerBook G4 550MHz/1GB
Still strong in my closet lol

I wonder if a SSD can work on this boy haha

mines as old as they come, only has 1gb in it as well. definitely a bit sluggish. but its served me well. the hard drive crashed on me a while ago so replaced it with a 500gb which is a nice from the 72 i had. Was a bit restrictive. mouse mat has now stopped working, i have to use an external otherwise it just spasses out. have spilt curry on it. dropped it all over the place and its still going resonably well considering.

its slowness definitely annoys me at times and the 10 minutes i get out of the battery, even having replaced it once and going through 3 different chargers because the end frayed, is also annoying. oh and the heat!!! i swear having it on my lap is making me sterile. but still love the girl. my rMBP shipped yesterday so im not sure what ill do with this beasty. any ideas ?

Santa Rosa Macbook Pro here
June 2007
Getting my rMBP soon!

Early 2007 15" MBP. Upgraded to 320 GB Hard drive. The "new" battery I bought from amazon only lasts about an hour and a half. The disc drive has been broken for a couple years now. I sold it to my sister when I ordered the RMBP and have been missing it ever since.

TheRdungeon said:

Haha man I forgot those things could take Lion, it's the Core Duo that can't take Lion right? Yeah I remember when everyone got gestures on their multi touch trackpad and I only had the two finger slide. Crazy thing is they still look really good, going with matte was such a good call by Apple

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Must be, because the Core 2 Duo is just barely squeezing by with lion. The RAM doesn't help since I just meet the min requirements. And yeah, it still looks good. The mat screen is still a-ok by today's standards on a screen this size. And its a freaking black mac. It looks cool as ******* in a punk rock kind of way. Especially sitting around a bunch of brand new unibodies.

I remembered when they discontinued the black ones. My first thought was sadness because I knew my next one wouldn't be black too. Then awesomeness because I knew my already relatively uncommon black one (most people were going for the cheap white one or going all out with a 17" pro when I first entered college) would be even more unique as college went on. Oh well. The unibodies are sturdy and the MBPr is pretty sick in its own right.

mexico said:

Early 2007 15" MBP. Upgraded to 320 GB Hard drive. The "new" battery I bought from amazon only lasts about an hour and a half. The disc drive has been broken for a couple years now. I sold it to my sister when I ordered the RMBP and have been missing it ever since.

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Recently discovered my black mac's disc drive isn't working. Happened just a few weeks ago when I was trying to burn a CD for my dad. Must have been the first time in about a year that I tried using it. It simply wouldn't suck in the disc. Nothing seems to be in there, and when I removed the blank CD, it was all scratched. Tried it again with another CD and got the same result. Not sure if I'll bother fixing it. If my sis needs it, then I guess I'll take it in to see what options I've got.

joewillmott said:

2003 powerbook until 2 months ago when I spilled coke all over it, sad times!

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Sorry to hear! I know you can really grow attached to something that you've taken everywhere for quite a few years.. I'm still using my 2006 MacBook (1.8GHz Core2Duo) and am currently awaiting the arrival of its upgrade.. a new MPBr

17" Core Duo 2.16 GHz. 2GB ram. Summer 2006.
Getting long in the tooth, but served as my main computer until 6 months ago. Has been around the world a few times and more importantly, travelled in a van in the boonies for at least 300 days in the last six years. Used daily and not babied. Am ordering a MBP retina the minute I get back to the US next week though. I tasted what 16gb ram on my imac is like and I can't go back.

Also have a 2003 Powerbook that still works ok.

Not a pro but I'm running the white early 2008 MacBook, with a 4GB RAM upgrade.

Works fine although the battery and fans aren't in the best shape.

DoNoHarm said:

Is anyone out there still using their MBP after many years? What is the oldest one out there? - I'm talking about using it as the primary computer...

I threw in an SSD into my 2009 MBP and it runs faster than the day I bought it, but I'm worried that the failure rate of the logic board is exponentially increasing.

On the plus side, it still shows 91% battery health after 1112 charges though!

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Until fairly recently I'd been using my Rev 1 as my primary, getting a little long in the tooth but I could still functionally using it for a download/media box.

gokart mozart said:

Must be, because the Core 2 Duo is just barely squeezing by with lion. The RAM doesn't help since I just meet the min requirements. And yeah, it still looks good. The mat screen is still a-ok by today's standards on a screen this size. And its a freaking black mac. It looks cool as ******* in a punk rock kind of way. Especially sitting around a bunch of brand new unibodies.

I remembered when they discontinued the black ones. My first thought was sadness because I knew my next one wouldn't be black too. Then awesomeness because I knew my already relatively uncommon black one (most people were going for the cheap white one or going all out with a 17" pro when I first entered college) would be even more unique as college went on. Oh well. The unibodies are sturdy and the MBPr is pretty sick in its own right.

Click to expand...

Haha I meant the black matte finish on the outside but agree about the punk rock aspect for sure. Yeah I ended up selling mine after three years for pretty much exactly half of what I got it for which is amazing for a 3 year old computer I think

gokart mozart said:

It is not a Pro, but my black plastic MacBook from 2007 was my primary until very recently when I made the MBPr jump.

2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, and a Fujitsu-made 160 GB 5400RPM HDD with 30 GB still free. The integrated graphics is Intel GMA 950 64MB. Yuck. Lion has brought it to its knees. Browsers are sluggish (Opera seems to work the smoothest, but I'd rotate based upon my needs). And it really hates opening iTunes with my +100GB of music (which is on an external). Photoshop and MSFT Office apps took ages to load. Battery is in rough shape. It is at 75% and has already been replaced once. Also had the keyboard looked at about 20 months ago, because one of the keys stopped working (either the "u" or "r" can't remember) and it was a free repair even though it was out of warranty. Apparently it was a common problem at some point.

Got me through college. Miss the way freshman would look at it wondering if I had some sort of fancy case on it. Made me feel old for having a non-unibody

Click to expand...

Woah. Are you me?