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Anyone else happily using half-decade-old hardware?

A

anth

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 19, 2005
45
0
I'm writing this from my late 2008 Macbook Pro (the first of the unibodies, the one with the battery/hard disk access door). It has a 2.53 GHz Core2Duo (Penryn), and originally came with 4 GB ram.

I've since upgraded to 8 GB ram, and a 480 GB ssd. The thing is... it's still fantastic. It runs Mavericks smoothly, and really hasn't left me wanting for more performance. Granted, I mostly do a little bit of coding in python, some image work in Photoshop and ImageJ, and for heavy lifting for large bioinformatics datasets, I connect to a high-performance server. And of course, viewing media content.

I'd love the battery life of a new Retina, the display looks gorgeous, and of course more speed is always nice. And the updated interfaces are really attractive - SATA2, USB2, and FW800 have actually become a bottleneck - would NOT have expected that 5 1/2 years ago!

I can't justify spending $2000+ dollars on a machine that is pinned at 16GB ram. Just matching the ram and SSD storage of this machine is spendy.

Is there anyone else out there who is still on old-yet-highly-functional hardware?
 
I really hope I can look back 5 years from now at least and still be using my 13" MBPr late 2013.

I'm really glad to hear stories like this because it is encouraging to know that there are people happily using their MBP from years ago.

Ideally I hope to keep my MBPr for 7 years.
 
5 years is minimum. Up until recently i was still using laptops from 2006 and a PC from 2001!

I still use my ipad 1 from 2010 and other "old" equipment.
 
Let's see... this is a mid-2009 13" MBP, so it will be 5 in September. Would I want something newer... of course. Am I happy with it... yes, very.

It may be that I'm weird, though. I also have a 2005 iBook 14" and a 2003 PB G4 that I get enjoyment out of.

The MBP is my daily driver, though.
 
I am running a 2006 macbook with 2 GB ram. It performs much better than you can imagine and had the 2 GB not been it's limit it would've still been a damn nice aptop for its age
 
I´m also using and old laptop as a main machine, with a 1080p external monitor and external keyboard most of the day. it flies, even with adobe photoshop, indesign and illustrato. SSD is the key for these machines. I won't be buying one of the new retinas with no upgradable ram. if this breaks, i will buy a 15" cMBP, with the 1050p screen, i7 quad core and 16 of ram, with an ssd raid; cheaper and better than any retina...
 
Nope, one year old is too old for me. I love the latest and greatest when it comes to technology. I already feel like my late 2013 15" rMBP is getting old. Cant' wait for the next refresh so I can sell this one and get a new one.
 
SVTmaniac said:
Nope, one year old is too old for me. I love the latest and greatest when it comes to technology. I already feel like my late 2013 15" rMBP is getting old. Cant' wait for the next refresh so I can sell this one and get a new one.
Click to expand...

Where do you sell it and how much money do you lose?
 
My main computer is approaching a full decade of use. Currently at 9 years old.
 
Yeah my daily computer is a 5-year old ThinkPad; after I bought it I bought 8GB of RAM and put in an SSD; it was and is still very fast to this day.

Graphics could use improvement, but there is nothing to do here seeing this is half-decade old integrated graphics.
 
Only 5 years old equipment? I use decade+ old PowerMacs and Powerbooks often. Even my current primary portable is an old 2007 Macbook. While they may be old, they get the job done very well.
 
Mac-mini is 2007 so 7yrs old, MBP is 2011 so <only> 3 but showing no signs of aging yet...also still using 2x 2011 iMacs at work. Again they are showing no signs of slowing down and haven't even been SSD'd yet...
 
Late-2006 MBP still doing fine. Used it yesterday.

I even installed Mountain Lion on it, and apart from Safari doing weird things, it lives happily with it.

Well, the battery is crap, but I can live with that. Not paying 100$ to replace it. :p
 
2010 MacBook is running fine after replacing a missing key, replacing the hard drive and getting Mavericks flashed at an Apple store (could not upgrade the OS at home for some reason).
 
I'm rocking on a 2009 Mac Mini right now and its basic computer very nicely, including office. I also have a 2010 13" MBP that my wife and kids use. Again performance is excellent.

I can see both computers being used for several more years.
 
Using a 2010 MBP at the moment, not quite half a decade but nearly there.

Runs fine except for Final Cut Pro, which I use a lot. Full HD 30fps editing is barely possible but it's a true nightmare when you're editing 60fps and above. So using the slo-mo functions on my Gopro camera is out of the question.

Which is a shame because it's such a nice machine otherwise.
 
4,5 years here and still happy !

I got the MBP below in my sig. My setup with the original ACD still works great for me. Since I use the express34 in that 17' to connect to SATA external HD's, I am still fine. The 8Gig ram and the large SSD will do just great for at least 3 more years. My old small SSD works in a FW800 2,5 enclosure thats located on the back of the screen.
The only issue that I experience is the slow GPU I have in there (Nvidia 330). I plan on getting the new MacPro maybe next year. The old MBP will then be repurposed from a "general purpose use" to "business travel only".

In general, I actually could not be happier with everything I got from Apple. Everything works without flaw, looks great as on the first day and provides valuable use for years and years. Planing on an 8 year usage, the Apple products become actually real fair priced on the long run with a very high reliability and quality. How can any other brand match that?

I am really happy with Apple with a world class service!
 
My mid-2009 15" MBP turns 5 in a couple of weeks. It's still going strong with an SSD and 8 GB of RAM. But my new 13" rMBP arrived today.
 
Just get a nice big monitor and you can get more out of it. The fact that snow leopard runs nicely old Rosetta Apps/Games is a good old feature.
And about getting a newer model explore zero interest financing, if you are in the US BestBuy or Apple Barclays Credit.
Besides the hardware updates, I think that many new features in Yosemite are going to make a big difference to get a newer Mac.
 
Using a 2010 that I upgraded the RAM and added an SSD in the optibay. It works fine, but because I hang out on this forum I started lusting for a new one:)
 
To me it's funny how some folks feel they HAVE to upgrade every year because that's what the pros do, have the latest and greatest. Go browse around many design studios and you'll be surprised which Macs are doing most of the heavy lifting.

I've got an Aluminum Macbook very similar to the OP and I'll most likely be replacing it soon. As a designer who does a good amount of identity design as well as web dev it's held up just fine for 90% of what I need, with an SSD it's been very capable. It's starting to get slow when I bog it down with more complex projects, but those are pretty rare occasions.

Most people need far less machine than they think they do.
 
I'm also on an original Unibody MBP, even though it's the 2.4GHz problem. Upgraded the RAM and put in an SSD and it runs amazingly for pretty much everything I need. I am, however, planning on upgrading to a 13" Retina sometime once it's update (was already looking into the Air a year ago, but in the end decided against it). Turns out, in the last 5 years my needs have changed quite a bit and I now would like something that is easier to carry around and something with a battery that lasts more than 2 hours :p but my current MBP will definitely stay in the family, as it still runs so well.
 
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