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ericmjl

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 3, 2006
88
0
The question in the title says it all.

Perhaps it'd be useful to list out:
  1. when you bought it, and
  2. your Mac's specifications, and
  3. what indicators of considerable slowing there were.
 

steamboat26

macrumors 65816
May 25, 2006
1,123
0
Arlington VA
2001 iMac G3 500 mhz. began to slow down in like 2002 because of a virus. i must be like the only person that ever got a virus on a mac...

My question: why do you ask?
 

DarkNetworks

macrumors 68000
Apr 12, 2005
1,527
0
after six months, my iBook starts slowing down and it's extremely slow now. I can't run three programs at once...:mad:
 

eva01

macrumors 601
Feb 22, 2005
4,720
1
Gah! Plymouth
Bought my dual 1.8 PM about a year ago and since i bought Civ4 I have realized it is sorta slow now. However the raptor HD i just put in it and the graphics card i am getting should help a lot.
 

sushi

Moderator emeritus
Jul 19, 2002
15,639
3
キャンプスワ&#
ericmjl said:
The question in the title says it all.

Perhaps it'd be useful to list out:
  1. when you bought it, and
  2. your Mac's specifications, and
  3. what indicators of considerable slowing there were.
PB15 G4 about 2.5 years ago.

Runs the same today as it did then.
 

ricgnzlzcr

macrumors 6502a
Jun 7, 2005
802
0
1-Bought July 2005 (but was made in April of 2004)
2-1.33 Ghz Powerbook G4 12 inches, 768 ram, 60 gig harddrive, superdrive
3-My mac has not slown down at all since when I've bought it. I'm surprised anyone's has. I verify my disk permissions about 1 time a month or so depending on me remembering. I always remember to reboot a few times a week. I try to keep 10 gigs of harddrive space free. Overall, I try to treat my machine right. Sometimes I notice that when I've had safari open for a few weeks it starts taxing the ram so I make sure to quit and reopen everyone once in awhile. Check activity monitor and check if yours is taking up entirely too much ram
 

Obsidian6

macrumors 6502a
Apr 29, 2006
683
3
Laguna Niguel, CA
I had my 17" powerbook ( 1.5GHz / 2GB ram / 80GB hd / 128MB radeon Mobility ) for 2 years, and i used it on a daily basis.

i never noticed any slowing down, not once. until i got my G5 powermac, but that is sort of an unfair comparison lol.

It felt just as quick as the day i got it, righ tto the day i traded it for the powerbook that is in my sig that i am typing this on right now.

this one will last me a good long while ( unless i trade for a macbook ) and will be especially nice when i get around to buying that extra GB of ram
 

iBookG4user

macrumors 604
Jun 27, 2006
6,595
2
Seattle, WA
I bought my 14" iBook 1.33GHz in December 2005. It has 768MB RAM, 60GB Hard drive and a superdrive. After I've had it for over 6 months and I've just noticed the slowness withing the last 2 weeks when it takes about 45 minutes to encode a 170MB video file for my iPod Video. Which is also the reason I'm saving up to buy a brand new merom Macbook Pro early next year.
 

Chundles

macrumors G5
Jul 4, 2005
12,037
493
12" iBook G4 1.2GHz 512MB RAM

Bought in November '04.

I find it feels sluggish after about 20 to 30 days of uptime but a restart brings it back to the same speed as the day I bought it (well, the day I bought the extra RAM).

It's such a top little workhorse.
 

kretzy

macrumors 604
Sep 11, 2004
7,921
2
Canberra, Australia
Chundles said:
I find it feels sluggish after about 20 to 30 days of uptime but a restart brings it back to the same speed as the day I bought it (well, the day I bought the extra RAM).
Same deal with my 15 G4 PB which I got in April 05. It has moments of laginess and slowness, but as others have said, nothing a restart doesn't fix.
 

d wade

macrumors 65816
Jun 27, 2006
1,046
2
Boca Raton, FL
so glad to hear many of yours havent slown down. i just got my first mac, macbook pro 15, very recently and love it to death. i dont see it ever slowing down, i treat it like a child.
 

After G

macrumors 68000
Aug 27, 2003
1,583
1
California
eMac 700 MHz with Geforce MX 2 video card. Bought in 2002 when I entered college. Took two years to slow down.

The one big sign? Beachballing even when i gave it a 160 GB 7200 RPM HD, overclocked it to 900 MHz, and upped the RAM to 1 GB.

Then i bought an iBook, 1.2 GHz. Took about two years to slow down as well. Same signs. Maxed out the specs and it still beachballed.

My current Intel Mac Mini is doing well so far. Probably will be two years before it starts slowing as well. Maybe it wasn't my computers though. Maybe it was just me pushing them too hard after learning all the great things I could do with a Mac.
 

ericmjl

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 3, 2006
88
0
steamboat26 said:
2001 iMac G3 500 mhz. began to slow down in like 2002 because of a virus. i must be like the only person that ever got a virus on a mac...

My question: why do you ask?

I ask because I'm going to order my MacBook tomorrow (well, later today, considering it's 12.14 am now) at the UBC Bookstore, and I just wanted to have a last-minute confirmation of the performance of a Mac.

I think I won't be disappointed with the Mac, as I was with my Fujitsu. My Fujitsu also took a long time to show considerable slowing, but ever since I learned the right way to take care of a PC, I've slowed its aging process.

Now that it's 5 years old, I'm gonna switch, finally.

Since most people who replied also reported that their Macs didn't slow down even after a few years, I figure I'll be pretty happy with the MacBook during university. Hopefully, it'll last me long enough.
 

JackSYi

macrumors 6502a
Feb 20, 2005
890
0
My 12" 1.33 PowerBook (768 MB RAM) slowed down after a year of the purchase (last Jan?).
 

mad jew

Moderator emeritus
Apr 3, 2004
32,191
9
Adelaide, Australia
No notice of slow down in the last two years of Mac-lovin'. I look after them pretty well, but I doubt that even makes a huge difference.

Slow down is for PC n00bs.
 

GimmeSlack12

macrumors 603
Apr 29, 2005
5,403
12
San Francisco
I notice a slowdown when software gets considerable upgrades.

The computer itself I never notice a slowdown*. It only makes sense that as the machine gets older the software requires higher speeds, and give the Illusion of a slowdown.

It isn't the Hardware.
It's the sofware.

(*with minimal to basic maintenance)
 

andiwm2003

macrumors 601
Mar 29, 2004
4,382
454
Boston, MA
my 2 1/2 year old PB 1.5GHz G4 runs as fast as it did when i bought it. i have a upper ram slot failure so i'm limited to 1 GB Ram until it's fixed. but still no slow down.

why should a mac slow down over time anyway?
 

funkychunkz

macrumors 6502a
Jun 1, 2005
501
0
Ottawa, Canada
andiwm2003 said:
my 2 1/2 year old PB 1.5GHz G4 runs as fast as it did when i bought it. i have a upper ram slot failure so i'm limited to 1 GB Ram until it's fixed. but still no slow down.

why should a mac slow down over time anyway?


Poor maintenance, need more ram for new programs, lots of background apps, lots of errors or a full harddrive.
 

vegito753

macrumors newbie
Jul 17, 2006
2
0
newer mac standard loads...

I recently upgraded from a TiBook G4 800 to a Macbook. I absolutely love it, but one thing that did rub me the wrong way was the increasing amount of bundled software included with the factory installation. The Macbook has a 60 g drive, and 20 of it was taken up straight from the factory. I formatted the drive and reinstalled the OS removing everything I don't use (languages, Big Blast Games, iWorks demo, Office X demo, etc etc) and got the install down to 9.5 G... much better now! :D
 

discoforce

macrumors 6502a
Jan 27, 2004
575
0
Vermont, USA
GimmeSlack12 said:
I notice a slowdown when software gets considerable upgrades.

The computer itself I never notice a slowdown*. It only makes sense that as the machine gets older the software requires higher speeds, and give the Illusion of a slowdown.

It isn't the Hardware.
It's the sofware.

(*with minimal to basic maintenance)

Exactly.

My 2+ year-old pb is just as fast with all the standard apps I've been using, but when I bought iWork - Whoa! I certainly can't run that as fast as a new machine. And wouldn't expect to... ;)

vegito753 said:
I formatted the drive and reinstalled the OS removing everything I don't use (languages, Big Blast Games, iWorks demo, Office X demo, etc etc) and got the install down to 9.5 G... much better now!

You didn't get rid of Comic Life did you? :eek: I love that little app.
 

andiwm2003

macrumors 601
Mar 29, 2004
4,382
454
Boston, MA
vegito753 said:
I recently upgraded from a TiBook G4 800 to a Macbook. I absolutely love it, but one thing that did rub me the wrong way was the increasing amount of bundled software included with the factory installation. The Macbook has a 60 g drive, and 20 of it was taken up straight from the factory. I formatted the drive and reinstalled the OS removing everything I don't use (languages, Big Blast Games, iWorks demo, Office X demo, etc etc) and got the install down to 9.5 G... much better now! :D

i totally agree. i also wipe the HD as soon as i get a new computer. since apple advertizes that their mac's work just out of the box they should include a tool to easily remove all the add on's or provide them as separate disks. for an unexperienced user these preinstalled useless demo versions are a problem.
 
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