Average Life of an Apple Computer

[jefhatfield]

I still use a 400MHz G4 Pismo daily. It was originally released in Feb 2000, which means it is now 5 years old. It's running 10.3 fine, though nowadays it's only used for surfing the web and emailing.

that is really cool

my ibook from november 1999 would probably not work with it since it has two major limitations...4 mb of video graphics, and only a 3 gb hard drive...i know i could put in a bigger hard drive but the graphics card is not replaceable

plus the g3 processor in that ibook model only has half the level 2 cache that a pismo g3 processor of the same era had

 

[aussie_geek]

Colour classic

I have a colour classic that runs system 7 and an Apple Stylewriter. That system is over 10 years old now and going strong. I still use it when I want to print out some Uni stuff.


So, Macs will last for quite some time. Just look after them and they will be fully functional for years to come. One thing to consider is that they are ahead of their time.

aussie_geek

 

[jayscheuerle]

for most people, any mac you buy can be tops for nearly two years

longer if you only need the computer for email, internet, and word processing

less if you use it for photoshop level graphics, video editing, and most games

Geez. The newest Mac at the ad agency I work at is a 450mHz G4... A few minis are coming soon though (1 for me!)...

I gave my 6100 away to a guy in Wisconsin for the price of shipping last year. Included a Calcom Drawing Slate. Would have tosses in a Syquest too, but...

 

[jefhatfield]

Geez. The newest Mac at the ad agency I work at is a 450mHz G4... A few minis are coming soon though (1 for me!)...

I gave my 6100 away to a guy in Wisconsin for the price of shipping last year. Included a Calcom Drawing Slate. Would have tosses in a Syquest too, but...

my wife worked on a 1999 era 350 mhz g4 power mac, with a blue and white motherboard typical of apple's earliest g4 power macs, and used it late last year running os x/panther...but that thing was way too slow and got replaced by a dual g5 power mac

you can get your best use from a mac from one to two years from any new machine, passable use after that until nearly the three year mark, and after that, very substandard computing experiences finding most off the shelf software not fully compatible

i don't think i would want to work without firewire, usb 2, bluetooth, airport extreme, and firewire 800 now and into next year and the year after that...one day all macs will come with will be firewire 800 and usb 2, with bluetooth and airport extreme...usb 1 periperals of the old generation and firewire 400 gear may be doorstops in the not too distant future

 

[5300cs]

I regularly use my PowerBook 100 from 1992/1, my Kanga from 1997 and sometimes my Atari Portfolio 1989

 

[Sun Baked]

Re: Average Life of an Apple Computer

Just wondering, what is the average life of an Apple computer?

Well it's probably a student, working for peanuts at a pathetic job with a bunch of PCs surrounding it.

The Apple computer probably can't wait for the weekend when it can go out and get totally wasted and use it's charming interface and hip enclosure to pick up women.

Of course it probably dreads Monday morning when it'll wake up and suffer the indignity of a pounding keyboard all day.

 

[jayscheuerle]

my wife worked on a 1999 era 350 mhz g4 power mac, with a blue and white motherboard typical of apple's earliest g4 power macs, and used it late last year running os x/panther...but that thing was way too slow and got replaced by a dual g5 power mac

you can get your best use from a mac from one to two years from any new machine, passable use after that until nearly the three year mark, and after that, very substandard computing experiences finding most off the shelf software not fully compatible

i don't think i would want to work without firewire, usb 2, bluetooth, airport extreme, and firewire 800 now and into next year and the year after that...one day all macs will come with will be firewire 800 and usb 2, with bluetooth and airport extreme...usb 1 periperals of the old generation and firewire 400 gear may be doorstops in the not too distant future

I think you're nuts.

Save games, there's very little this 5 yr. old 450mHz G4 can't run in a print advertising environment when properly stocked with RAM. Sure, OSX is a resource hog, but I spend more time watching beachballs than I ever do waiting for filters to run. Yes, the Finder and Exposé could be snappier and I figure a new Mac could shave 5 minutes off my day, but for most people's operations, the bottleneck is the user. One day firewire 800, usb 2, bluetooth and airport extreme will have gone the way of SCSI, ADB, and NuBus as well.

I'm interested in learning what you're wife was doing that made her 1st gen. G4 unusable. I'm assuming you'd have it RAM'd out.

I'll be able to give you an honest evaluation of a jump going from this machine (640MB RAM) to a 1.4 mini with 1GB RAM in the next month or so. I have a recent iBook at home, but it's not a work environment. - j

 

[jefhatfield]

I think you're nuts.

Save games, there's very little this 5 yr. old 450mHz G4 can't run in a print advertising environment when properly stocked with RAM. Sure, OSX is a resource hog, but I spend more time watching beachballs than I ever do waiting for filters to run. Yes, the Finder and Exposé could be snappier and I figure a new Mac could shave 5 minutes off my day, but for most people's operations, the bottleneck is the user. One day firewire 800, usb 2, bluetooth and airport extreme will have gone the way of SCSI, ADB, and NuBus as well.

I'm interested in learning what you're wife was doing that made her 1st gen. G4 unusable. I'm assuming you'd have it RAM'd out.

I'll be able to give you an honest evaluation of a jump going from this machine (640MB RAM) to a 1.4 mini with 1GB RAM in the next month or so. I have a recent iBook at home, but it's not a work environment. - j

osx, quark for osx, adobe graphics suite...and a 66 mhz bus g3 motherboard with a first generation g4 chip (aka, the first silver tower g4 power mac from apple inc), 512 mb sdram, 13gb hard drive, 5200 rpm, and 16 mb video ram, not ddr

our home machine running adobe products has a 167 mhz bus, dual 500 mhz g4, full gig of ram, full later generation g4 motherboard, and three 36 gb 10000 rpm scsi hard drives with 32 mb ddr video ram...our home machine smokes her old work machine

and i am sure a dual, liquid cooled g5 powermac with a gig of ddr ram would just speed past our old home dualie g4...and i am sure there could be more than five minutes saved in a day

let me know how your new machine fares compared to your old machine

as for word processing i don't know the difference, really, between our old power tower pro 180, 300 mhz ibook, and the dual 500 mhz g4 power mac

 

[leekohler]

my wife worked on a 1999 era 350 mhz g4 power mac, with a blue and white motherboard typical of apple's earliest g4 power macs, and used it late last year running os x/panther...but that thing was way too slow and got replaced by a dual g5 power mac

you can get your best use from a mac from one to two years from any new machine, passable use after that until nearly the three year mark, and after that, very substandard computing experiences finding most off the shelf software not fully compatible

i don't think i would want to work without firewire, usb 2, bluetooth, airport extreme, and firewire 800 now and into next year and the year after that...one day all macs will come with will be firewire 800 and usb 2, with bluetooth and airport extreme...usb 1 periperals of the old generation and firewire 400 gear may be doorstops in the not too distant future

I think you're nuts too. Read my earlier post on this thread. As long as you upgrade, it's very easy to keep a PowerMac current. My 350 MHz G4 Sawtooth is now faster than my 7 month old iBook thanks to a new hard drive, video card, maxed-out RAM and 1GHz processor upgrade. All those were added gradually over 4+ years. And this 5 year old tower still holds more RAM than an iBook or a Mini. Granted-no firewire 800, but 400 is just fine. To me-your computer's no longer useful when it can't be upgraded to handle current software efficiently.

 

[jefhatfield]

I think you're nuts too. Read my earlier post on this thread. As long as you upgrade, it's very easy to keep a PowerMac current. My 350 MHz G4 Sawtooth is now faster than my 7 month old iBook thanks to a new hard drive, video card, maxed-out RAM and 1GHz processor upgrade. All those were added gradually over 4+ years. And this 5 year old tower still holds more RAM than an iBook or a Mini. Granted-no firewire 800, but 400 is just fine. To me-your computer's no longer useful when it can't be upgraded to handle current software efficiently.

well then, maybe i am a computer junkie

'puters owned or used for school/work in the last ten years

ooh, let's see

used dad's IIe
used school's mac classics
used school's LC-II
used school's LC-III
performa 600...first machine used for internet/email
performa powermac
power tower pro 180
pentium 120 clone
pentium 150 clone
ibook 300 mhz g3
quadra 806av, used
compaq laptop 366 mhz
emachines desktop 366 mhz
dual 500 mhz g4 power mac

but it's just so much fun to always get new gear

by the time i get around to wanting to upgrade a card, or ram, i just save a little more and just get a whole new machine

i could get os x for the dualie, faster dual G4s, and a new video card, double up the ram, and install a superdrive...but for less money, i can get a used single processor G5

...or a new G5 imac

ok, i need to stop...i don't NEED these machines, really

 

[jayscheuerle]

well then, maybe i am a computer junkie

Maybe?...

 

[bennetsaysargh]

well, i have the 1st powerbook g4 at 500Mhz. i bought it from my uncle in august, and it was originally bought january of 2001. 4 years old, and he used it a lot. probably 10 hours a day usually so i figure when 10.5 comes out, probably about 2 years, i'll upgrade, just in time for college too. that'll be nice. you think they'll be g5's?

 

[leekohler]

I see what you mean jefhatfield! Nice list by the way.

Well considering I got that desktop used 4+ years ago for $900 on Ebay-it's lasted me a long time with the upgrades. I think it'll be useful for another 2+ years. And I will probably get another used desktop to replace it.

 

[jefhatfield]

I see what you mean jefhatfield! Nice list by the way.

Well considering I got that desktop used 4+ years ago for $900 on Ebay-it's lasted me a long time with the upgrades. I think it'll be useful for another 2+ years. And I will probably get another used desktop to replace it.

i think i will hold off for quite some time...this time...so i say

in that same period of time, on the side, i took no less than 20 college courses in computer software, hardware, and programming

and hey, look how long os x and the g5 have been around without me knuckling in to its temptation...so that's a good sign and i don't think i will end up in a mac rehab or 12 step group

 

[Macmaniac]

My Performa 6300 lasted 6 years for me, and our current G3 iMac is on its fourth year of ownership. It runs 10.3 fine along with Word and iTunes. Some newer apps are a bit slow but runable.

 

[iArtificialLife]

it is not good for anything but my uncle's Apple 1 still works perfectley