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15" MBP specs to last 5 years?

I

iphoneipad

macrumors member
Original poster
First time poster here.

I have been reading this forum for a few weeks, and i am going to get a 15" MBP. The only question is i want a decent spec MBP to last me good 5 years.

I am planning the following

15" MBP i5 2.4ghz
Max of Ram to 8gb
256GB SSD

Would the spec above decent enough for me to run Win7 with/without VM/Parallel?

I will use it for surfing, video, youtube, some gaming, and possibly photoshop.

How fast do Apple normally ship this out?
Thanks for your opinion.
 
Unless the MBP breaks or your usage changes heavily, it'll be fine for 5 years. However, most people prefer selling aster couple of years and then putting couple hundreds towards brand new one. Apple tells you when it will ship but I would say in around 3 days
 
iphoneipad said:
First time poster here.

I have been reading this forum for a few weeks, and i am going to get a 15" MBP. The only question is i want a decent spec MBP to last me good 5 years.

I am planning the following

15" MBP i5 2.4ghz
Max of Ram to 8gb
256GB SSD

Would the spec above decent enough for me to run Win7 with/without VM/Parallel?

I will use it for surfing, video, youtube, some gaming, and possibly photoshop.

How fast do Apple normally ship this out?
Thanks for your opinion.
Click to expand...

It will last 5 years, but it may be much slower and outdated for a lot of programs. iBooks and Powerbooks are I believe, 6 years old and they still work fine for browsing the web, email, and youtube although it is pretty slow for doing those things.
 
MBP life

1st year: Super fast
2nd year: fast
3rd year: reasonable
4th: year: okay
5th year: limited on software front
6th year: Slowing and even more limited

This is of course my guess. There are loads of people rocking older than 5 year machines here. I have a friend that buys a new machine every 5 years but he buys the PowerMacs/Mac Pros and has no troubles. I plan on riding my MBP to death and switching to iMacs when the MBP hits 2 years old or so only because I need the power for editing HD.
 
thanks for all the quick replies.

So is it more worth it to buy a MBP with spec that is sufficient for may be 2-3 years, then just sell it and get a new one.

for e.g, 4gb ram, 128 gb ssd instead of 8gb and 256
 
iphoneipad said:
I am planning the following

15" MBP i5 2.4ghz
Max of Ram to 8gb
256GB SSD
Click to expand...

Yes these specs can last 5 years as long as your usage doesn't change significantly. Also if you don't mind adding RAM and changing the hard drive yourself (which does NOT void warranty), save yourself ~$300 by getting the base configuration and buying the RAM and the SSD separately. You will have a spare HD then as well. 8GB ram ~$200 on Newegg, 256GB SSD ~$500.

iphoneipad said:
Would the spec above decent enough for me to run Win7 with/without VM/Parallel?

I will use it for surfing, video, youtube, some gaming, and possibly photoshop.
Click to expand...

More than enough for Win7 with and without VM/Parallel. The rest of the programs will be fine too of course.

iphoneipad said:
How fast do Apple normally ship this out?
Click to expand...

Ordered mine on the 12th. Fedex says it will deliver on the 20th. Free iPod and Printer came on the 13th and 14th.
 
MikeinJapan said:
MBP life

1st year: Super fast
2nd year: fast
3rd year: reasonable
4th: year: okay
5th year: limited on software front
6th year: Slowing and even more limited

This is of course my guess. There are loads of people rocking older than 5 year machines here. I have a friend that buys a new machine every 5 years but he buys the PowerMacs/Mac Pros and has no troubles. I plan on riding my MBP to death and switching to iMacs when the MBP hits 2 years old or so only because I need the power for editing HD.
Click to expand...
How much depreciation can you expect?

For example,
First year: original price
Second year: 20% less?
 
I think its reasonable to get 2.5-3 years out of a current release MBP. But five years and you'll likely find yourself unable to upgrade to then-current OS improvements and major changes, locking you out of new apps or upgrades to existing apps. Five years ago and we were just learning about intel-based Macs.

Then again, it really depends on your use. I've run into a TON of people who own MBP's and really only use them for email and web surfing, plus as an iTunes host machine. They really didn't 'need' as much computer as they paid for in the first place.

Given your needs, and a desire to run Win7 for gaming (I'm guessing at that part), I'd really have to ask why you don't just go with a Win-native machine? You could buy two, one every 18 months, and always stay on the edge of tech before you'd pay for this one MBP? If you love OSX (I do, so can relate), then sure...no options. But Photoshop can be had on Windows as well.
 
Gaming is not a priority. The reason i want it to run windows is for some native windows only application/programme.

Is parallel/VM stable out of the box? or is it still buggy?

I used my girlfriend's Macbook and i am well impressed by the stability of OSX, which is one of the main reason i would like a change to Mac

Currently using Sony SZ 2006 series, the battery has died, CD/DVD drive not working anymore, keyboard is falling as well.. It is still alright for surfing/youtube but it is pretty slow when i opened many apps.
 
iphoneipad said:
Gaming is not a priority. The reason i want it to run windows is for some native windows only application/programme.

Is parallel/VM stable out of the box? or is it still buggy?

I used my girlfriend's Macbook and i am well impressed by the stability of OSX, which is one of the main reason i would like a change to Mac

Currently using Sony SZ 2006 series, the battery has died, CD/DVD drive not working anymore, keyboard is falling as well.. It is still alright for surfing/youtube but it is pretty slow when i opened many apps.
Click to expand...

Parallels and Fusion are pretty stable but only for lighter apps so don't expect to game under virtualization app. If you're going to run some simple apps like Office, virtualization is very good choice
 
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