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My late 2009 i7 is still chugging away with 16gb of ram and a 4.25gb fusion drive. I want to replace it, but I hope that I never actually have to replace it since really just works...except for the fan thing due to the custom HD temp sensor.

Anyone know if the 6TB drives get too warm in this iMac? Even though I have two sets of backups I don't particularly enjoy hard drive failures.
 
I think this list is awesome because almost every Mac/Apple Device that I have is either vintage or obsolete!. . . . .

Not quite there yet, but my last Apple computer (excluding iPhone) is 2010. Prior to 2010 I upgraded every 3 years. After about 2013, the lineup is not what I need or want. Specifically, I need portable large screen power. I need to lug it to client sites. Don't need 8 hour battery life. In fact I don't need any battery life, but some is better than none. But since I need power I am always plugged in when working professionally. So I need to best CPU and memory with a large screen. Not happening, not buying. Not sure what I'll do when mine breaks, but hopefully something changes by then.
 
i guess it's time to upgrade my late 2008 iMac as well. my early 2006 just died recently, too! damn it Apple! lol
 
My 2nd generation time capsule has been running smoothly every day for almost six and a half years. No complaints. I'm keeping this until it dies.
 
I'd agree if we were talking about <$500 notebooks and desktops, but ≈$2500 systems shouldn't be considered "consumer class" and if you look at Steve Job's product matrix the MacBook Pro and Mac Pro are business class systems.

Look at what business manufacturers do first.

I believe Dell stops support at 4 years for business computers, and even then they don't keep all the parts. I have a $3500 mobile "workstation" and when I tried to get a replacement battery at 3.5 years in, they only had one of the three original battery options. The lightweight battery I wanted was discontinued. You can only get 5+ years if you get their specific long-term support models.

It's not all set by Dell. Dell doesn't want the expense of buying a CPU for parts that they'll end up throwing away. So they rely on Intel for parts availability. Only certain Intel parts will be available for long-term supply for the same reason.
 
I feel like MacBook Pro late 2008 will be next.

Still, that's the best MacBook I've ever had. It's still fast with El Capitan, way faster than a iPad mini with iOS 9.

I just wish they just made the same package with newer hardware, as this was the last serie that allows you to just replace everything you needed like SSD, battery, memory.

All of the classic MBP designs (introduced with the late 2008 MacBook unibody) allowed for replacement of the battery, storage and ram. Those were actively updated into 2012. The retina MBP started the trend of soldered memory and glued drives.
 
Needed to update my Photoshop workstation and not wanting to pay $4K+ for a base 2013 spec'd Mac Pro (not including the necessary external storage SSDs I would need) - I just updated my 2009 Mac Pro for a fraction of the price.

Replaced the processor with 3.46 6-core, went from 4.1 to 5.1 firmware, added 32GB ram, NVIDIA GTX 2GB, Boot drive 3x 250GB SSD in RAID 0, image working volume is 4x 1TB SSD in RAID 0 and added a 4x USB3 card. Between newegg, OWC and ebay - getting all the parts and putting together was really easy. This should last for a number of years now. No thunderbolt but with thunderbolt 3 coming next year - really no point getting a TB2 machine now.

I'm really happy with my new vintage Mac Pro.

How did you do the RAID? I'm guessing the regular bays are one array and some card based drives are the other? Link to the USB3 card? I've got a 2009 MP that I'd like to have USB 3 on.
 
I agree. Short of frying the motherboard or swapping out the CPU(s), almost everything on the classic Mac Pro is quite accessible and easy to change/fix. Plus, the damn thing is too heavy to drag into a store.

Swapping out motherboard and CPUs is not too bad, either, at least on my 2007 Mac Pro 1,1 that I've done both on. Compared to regular PCs, it is slightly more difficult in some ways, and easier in other ways.

CPU swap was a little more difficult than regular PCs, but easy enough if you have the right tools and once you know how to pop out the fan enclosure. Motherboard swap involves removing CPU of course, but the rest of it is pretty easy, and thanks to the very organized cabling it is easier than with regular PCs in many respects.

The only thing I had difficulty with was trying to remove the Bluetooth / WiFi modules which are still stuck on my old board that died. Probably going to see about USB options if the need for either arises.
 
Look at what business manufacturers do first.

I believe Dell stops support at 4 years for business computers, and even then they don't keep all the parts. I have a $3500 mobile "workstation" and when I tried to get a replacement battery at 3.5 years in, they only had one of the three original battery options. The lightweight battery I wanted was discontinued. You can only get 5+ years if you get their specific long-term support models.

It's not all set by Dell. Dell doesn't want the expense of buying a CPU for parts that they'll end up throwing away. So they rely on Intel for parts availability. Only certain Intel parts will be available for long-term supply for the same reason.

Yeah, I guess I'm asking too much. Back when I was buying Dells you could extend the 3 year factory warranty for an additional 2 years, and 5 years does correspond to the depreciation period so systems are usually scrapped at that point no matter how useful they are. I expect that leases don't go beyond 5 years either. The company I work for has a 5 year warranty on most products and does "last time buys" of discontinued components as necessary to do warranty repairs based on historic and predicted needs. They don't repair any products outside of warranty as far as I know.

I guess the problem is that for years a five year old computer would be pretty much useless because technology was advancing so quickly. For most uses, this is no longer the case. All 5 year old Macs run the latest OS X and most software.
 
I wonder if that means the next major OS X release will have higher system requirements? They haven't raised requirements since Mountain Lion.

Not necessarily, although it's always possible.

The Vintage and Obsolete list refers to hardware service only - basically, how long Apple will continue to stock/manufacture replacement parts. For Vintage, it's a firm, longstanding policy, "five years from the last date of manufacture."

OS compatibility had to do with microprocessor, various key system components, and system architecture. Those don't change with the same kind of clockwork precision as, "Five years from last date of manufacture." For example, there are currently plenty of machines running El Capitan that lack support for sending files to iOS devices via AirDrop (nothing pre-2012) - it's a Bluetooth hardware issue. Apparently, Apple has not considered either AirDrop or Handoff to be a make-or-break technology - the OS works just fine if your machine has older Bluetooth hardware.

I think that RAM is the one area where Apple might decide, "Performance with 2 GB is so poor at this point, that we don't want to claim the OS works acceptably with just 2 GB." However, afaik, all of the machines that were just added to the Vintage and Obsolete list are capable of upgrading to at least 4 GB. Unless there's something about Intel processors made before, say, 2010, that makes them incapable of running the next version of OS X, I don't see a "mass extinction event" in the foreseeable future.
 
Waiting for the hand of death to reach out and take my 2011 Mini, which is still working like a champ since I dropped an SSD into a few years ago. I'd replace it right now, but with 4K monitors dropping in price, I really want a standalone Mac that will drive 4K smoothly -- and there are no real options besides a Mac Pro...
 
Interesting that my late 2008 unibody MacBook Pro is still 'supported'. Bet it won't last long

EDIT
Nevermind, obsolete on the linked URL at Apple. Christmas ruined!! :D

Be glad you got 7 years out of your MacBook Pro. And remember... it will keep working for a long time.

I can't imagine there are many Dells or HPs still working after 7 years.

Your Christmas isn't ruined... your present is not having to buy a replacement computer this year ;)
 
Not only that, but the things we're saving on our phones take many times more storage space. Hello massive games/apps, live photos, 4k video recording, larger resolution photos. But wait... You can purchase our cloud storage for a monthly subscription rather than us taking a tiny percentage less profit. Innovation!

Well... Apple does offer 64GB and 128GB iPhone options. Nobody is holding a gun to your head and forcing you to choose the 16GB model. Yes you'll pay more... but it'll be worth more when you go to sell it.

Also... if someone can fill up a 16GB iPhone... they'll fill up a 32GB iPhone too.

It might be time to figure out a plan for getting photos and 4K videos off your phone.

The iPhone isn't supposed to be permanent storage for all of your memories. You should be backing up your stuff anyway. Leaving everything on the phone is a disaster waiting to happen.
 
I think it is interesting that the iPod with 32GB of storage is being listed as obsolete but here we are, still getting 16GB storage from brand new devices. I know it has been beat to death but therein lies another rub, why is this something that can even be mentioned? 5400rpm platter drives. etc.
Because the level of obsolete-ness is not dictated by harddrive space.
 
Reading this thread on a late 2008 MacBook (that's right, no pro) with 8 GB of RAM running El Capitan as my late 2009 27" i7 iMac with 12 GB or RAM (also El Capitan) keeps on chugging on the other room. Unless you're doing heavy video work, animation, or gaming that iMac is a trooper. Still works well for my wife doing graphic design. All of these computers are powerful enough to keep up with just about any media consumption / web browsing (I chalk it up to the mobile emphasis). There just hasn't been a need to keep upgrading unless you're actually a serious creator. Long live the vintage Macs!
 
I bawked when the kid at the Apple store told me that my (sadly deceased) 2006 MBP was a 'vintage' computer (in ~2011).

While my Newton 2000 is definitely 'vintage' and I can understand that they wouldn't service one, this was a perfectly good Core 2 Duo machine (that ran fine with maxed out RAM and an SSD). Too bad the X1600 used rubbish solder that caused cold connections after roughly 5 years of usage. They so coulda soldered a new one on properly for ~$50 and allowed me to keep using my MBP as a backup computer. Alas... it was 'vintage'...
 
How did you do the RAID? I'm guessing the regular bays are one array and some card based drives are the other? Link to the USB3 card? I've got a 2009 MP that I'd like to have USB 3 on.

the 3x boot RAID is in the regular HD bays, plus a 5TB partitioned as backup for boot and working files.
Then the 4x 1TB SSD on 2 of these:
http://www.firmtek.com/seritek/seritek-i6g/
Using SoftRaid Lite to make the RAID set - because I hear Apple dumbed down Disk Utility in 10.11
Black Friday week there were alot of deals on SSDs

USB3 PCI card:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Sonn...hGjOE4_gC2SKHukIftX1PymLV0rVwoOM90aAqlq8P8HAQ

updated 5870 1GB GPU to NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2GB

I found a great resource on ebay to upgrade the CPU - can recommend if you like.

Not including the 4x 1TB SSDs (which I needed for storage no matter which computer I used) I spent less than $1000 to get faster than stock 2013 6 core MP
 
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