Snow Leopard is a light OS and its minimum memory requirement is only 1 GB. However, it lacks the Memory Compression feature which means El Capitan would actually do slightly better with multiple or memory-intensive apps open.
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Can a MacBook last for 10 years?
- Thread starter Hieveryone
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I'm 5 years into my mid-2011 13" MBA 1.5/4/256, and have had no problems with it whatsoever. I've run it through every OS X release from Lion up to El Capitan.
By contrast, my wife's 2008 15" MBP just died. Battery expanded on it to the point where the entire chassis is bulging. I'm able to save the HDD, but with that and the screen going, it was time. She kept Snow Leopard on it the entire time. Meanwhile, she's loving her 2015 12" rMB. Depending on what happens with the next refresh, if they provide a similar 13" or 15" MB, I may get her one of those and take her MB.
BL.
It seems like from reading the posts on here that VRAM is a big deal. I have 8GB but because of VRAM it's the equivalent of having more than 8 GB.
Apple makes good stuff
Apple makes good stuff
… may also come to FreeBSD. https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/posts/320674 making enquiries.
Three screenshots from the ~2007 notebook with 4 GB memory, logged in to KDE Plasma 4 (Firefox and a handful of other applications running, after quitting those application, and with applications running in nine desktops):
One shot from the early 2011 MacBookPro8,2 with 4 GB memory, logged in to Lumina and running nothing other than a SysAdm client –
– around 1 of 4 GB physical memory in use. After Lumina reaches version 1.0, with fewer dependencies, I expect the memory footprint to be lower.
Later I might boot over USB 2.0 to PC-BSD on an early 2009 MacBookPro5,2 with 8 GB memory.
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I upped the 2007 MBP from 2 to 4 GB as it seemed to need swap with 'only' FireFox (with many tabs though) open, but the same happens (sometimes) with 4 GB now. On my 2007 Mac Mini It seems 10.6 has much more memory inactive than it had in 10.5
I have a few mid-2000s Apple laptops that are holding up nicely. I bought a late 2006 MacBook that was a little rough cosmetically, but functioned perfectly. After upgrading to an SSD and maxing out the RAM, it runs fairly well for its age. I also got a late 2005 PowerBook G4 for free a few weeks back, which was in great cosmetic and running condition. If the laptop is treated well (things like not being thrown around or not used in conditions with limited airflow), they have the potential to last for years.
Well I have a 2010 15" MacBook Pro. I've updated the ram to the maximum 8GB with Crucial and put a Samsung 512GB SSD drive in it. It has had the motherboard changed once by Apple for free because it was affected by the 'known issue' faulty Ngidia GPU.
It's actually worked fine pretty much otherwise, I mean one of the fans makes a noise and could be replaced and the battery only lasts an hour or two now but these are to be expected as they've never been changed.
So yes as long as you are willing to service the computer I think it should last you. It has had the odd glitch with the latest OSX update though but I put that down to Apples buggy software of late.
I am more then happy to replace it with a new Apple computer this year.
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But next years Macs will be faster then this years Macs. It's a bit pointless to see them in this way, it depends on what you want to do with your computer but if looked after they will serve you well for many years.
No need to play with the latest models and wish yours was as fast.
It's actually worked fine pretty much otherwise, I mean one of the fans makes a noise and could be replaced and the battery only lasts an hour or two now but these are to be expected as they've never been changed.
So yes as long as you are willing to service the computer I think it should last you. It has had the odd glitch with the latest OSX update though but I put that down to Apples buggy software of late.
I am more then happy to replace it with a new Apple computer this year.
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But next years Macs will be faster then this years Macs. It's a bit pointless to see them in this way, it depends on what you want to do with your computer but if looked after they will serve you well for many years.
No need to play with the latest models and wish yours was as fast.
I never said that. There's a big difference between a computer that's 10 years old compared to 1 year old. No one's saying you need to upgrade every year, but every 10 years? Good luck.
A 10 year old computer is capable of browsing the internet, email, word processing and running MS Office applications, play games from 7 or 8 years ago, consume media.
Apart from the games, it will happily do what most people buy an iPad for.
True, but it won't run the latest OS X; I think no 2006 Mac will go beyond, maybe, 10.7? Not a problem for may uses, but not the safest environment - luckily my 2007 MBP does take 10.11 so I use the 10.11 partition for banking and other stuff that i'd like to have the latest OS and browsers for.
Back to the question, Can a MacBook last for 10 years?
It may last and run the latest versions of alternatives to Apple's operating system;
https://github.com/pcbsd/pcbsd/commit/420d74dcd6a2a9a486401795703a20e9a272b799 committed a week ago should make it possible to install next month's pre-release 11.0-CURRENTJUNE2016. In the meantime I'll try to boot from a clean installation of last month's 10.3-RELEASE.
One of our two 2007 MMs will probably end up with a Linux dsitro, the other will probably stay on 10.6.8.
I'll keep 2007 MBP updated as long as possible (until it dies, soon?) and wil then replace it with a (nearly) new/refurbished MM or MBP 13".
You say sure, 10 years, but the machine you are using is 6...
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Why should I "move up" to a -slower- retina MacBook....?
Lets see how yours renders 4k video?
How does it go with file vault enabled?
How about copying a 50 GB blue-ray rip over WIFI?
What about copying some stuff to an external hard drive via USB?
Lets take the audio challenge and compare sound quality out of the speakers?
or compare text quality on the display.
How's your battery life? Even with a new battery?
Or maybe viewing angle, brightness, colour reproduction, webcam quality, weight.... list goes on.
My macbook gets rebooted once every few weeks or when an update needs it. How fast the machine boots, does not matter a damn. It wakes from sleep (which it can do for many, many days) about as fast as i open the lid.
In every other respect above, and many i can't be bothered to list, your 6 year old machine will be blown into the weeds by the cheapest mac you can buy today (except display quality, given that would be a macbook air).
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Nah, they're crap. 80 GB spinning hard drive? a GPU that's about 10-20% the speed of HD3000? No USB3... Could you use it to do basic web browsing? Sure. Sort of. The wifi is slow (802.11G). It can't decompress h.265 video. So you'll need to use a less compact codec. Which will suck to stream over the slow wifi from a NAS.
The things we use computers for in 2016 are not the things we used to do with them in 2006. The same will be true in 2026.
Yes. Maybe the hardware will last. Yes, maybe you will be able to use it for very basic stuff. But compared to a machine even 5 years old, by 2026 the experience will suck.
If it's a budget constraint.... you'll be better off spending less money in one hit, and turning over cheaper crappier machines more often - you'll end up with something far quicker and more usable on average than trying to run something into the ground to that extent, and hoping the hardware doesn't die out of warranty anyway.
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So it's light to carry, has a battery that lasts 10 hours playing video, and can stream HD video over WIFI?
Because that's what a lot of people use their iPad for.
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Not really related to this thread, but George R R Martin uses a stand alone DOS system running WordStar 4.0 to write Game Of Thrones. He said... “Well, I actually like it. It does everything I want a word processing program to do, and it doesn’t do anything else. I don’t want any help. I hate some of these modern systems where you type a lower case letter and it becomes a capital. I don’t want a capital! If I’d wanted a capital, I would have typed a capital. I know how to work a shift key!”
Martin mentioned that WordStar is also blissfully free of spellcheck, which would likely be unhelpful with names like Daenerys Targaryen and Petyr Baelish.
To each their own.
Martin mentioned that WordStar is also blissfully free of spellcheck, which would likely be unhelpful with names like Daenerys Targaryen and Petyr Baelish.
To each their own.
I have a 2007 Santa Rosa MBP and it's still running strong. I've had to upgrade the RAM and HD to keep it that way, but really no complaints. Finally got to the point where I didn't want to miss out on an upgradeable replacement, so just ordered a 13" cMBP I'm hoping will last just as long.
Lasting is lasting. If you used a 2006 to edit videos and now it can't do 4K, doesn't mean it didn't last.
throAU wrote:
"Lets see how yours renders 4k video?"
I don't do 4k video, and don't use the MacBook for rendering ANY video.
"How does it go with file vault enabled?"
I don't use FileVault. Nothing on it that needs that kind of "protection".
"How about copying a 50 GB blue-ray rip over WIFI?"
I don't own any BluRay discs, and probably never will.
"What about copying some stuff to an external hard drive via USB?"
It's got an SSD inside, and whatever copies I need to do go well enough (even though it has only USB2, I don't do huge file transfers with it).
"Lets take the audio challenge and compare sound quality out of the speakers?"
Not important to me. If I need "more sound quality", I plug in some headphones. A decent set of phones beats ANY speaker in ANY laptop computer.
"or compare text quality on the display."
Readable enough for me. I will concede that retina displays look better. Just not in need of one yet.
"How's your battery life?"
Still registering around 89% (using Coconut Battery). I can get 5-6 hours out of it, easily. But then, I'm not using it for overly demanding tasks.
"In every other respect above, and many i can't be bothered to list, your 6 year old machine will be blown into the weeds by the cheapest mac you can buy today (except display quality, given that would be a macbook air)."
This really has no meaning to me.
What I have now, does what I need to do.
Why do I need more than that?
"Lets see how yours renders 4k video?"
I don't do 4k video, and don't use the MacBook for rendering ANY video.
"How does it go with file vault enabled?"
I don't use FileVault. Nothing on it that needs that kind of "protection".
"How about copying a 50 GB blue-ray rip over WIFI?"
I don't own any BluRay discs, and probably never will.
"What about copying some stuff to an external hard drive via USB?"
It's got an SSD inside, and whatever copies I need to do go well enough (even though it has only USB2, I don't do huge file transfers with it).
"Lets take the audio challenge and compare sound quality out of the speakers?"
Not important to me. If I need "more sound quality", I plug in some headphones. A decent set of phones beats ANY speaker in ANY laptop computer.
"or compare text quality on the display."
Readable enough for me. I will concede that retina displays look better. Just not in need of one yet.
"How's your battery life?"
Still registering around 89% (using Coconut Battery). I can get 5-6 hours out of it, easily. But then, I'm not using it for overly demanding tasks.
"In every other respect above, and many i can't be bothered to list, your 6 year old machine will be blown into the weeds by the cheapest mac you can buy today (except display quality, given that would be a macbook air)."
This really has no meaning to me.
What I have now, does what I need to do.
Why do I need more than that?
That's right--I had in 4x4 but since addressable was only 6, I switched back to 4x2 (6gb).
I am convinced that my 15" rMPB 2012 will still be standing in 6 years time. It is an absolute marvel. It runs just as smoothly as when it was brand new, and I'm never looking back. Will I tempted when the new body design comes out...yes. Will I buy one...maybe.
But this Macbook is definitely still going to be more than useable.
But this Macbook is definitely still going to be more than useable.
I have a 2009 White Unibody Macbook that has been upgraded with a 512GBSSD and 16GB Ram, and it still runs like a champ. It triple-boots Windows 7, Ubuntu and Mac OS. I also use a mid-2015 15" Retina Pro for modeling work, which I only bought because my needs changed. I was at a point where I needed the extra processing power. I have no intention of replacing either. One stays at home, the other at the office. I'll take the Pro home when I need to continue working... At the same time, the only reason the 2009 machine still functions very well is due to the fact that it could be upgraded. I don't know how well this 15" pro will hold since I can't upgrade anything but the SSD. If something else dies in there, it's a total loss. So I think newer machines may have shorter lives, but I don't know how true that is either.
The way computer technology has advanced in recent years I would say a current model could last 10 years. Computers aren't going to advance much beyond what we see right now, same goes for smartphones. You won't see big leaps in advancement like we have seen in the last decade. Especially as far as power/speed goes.
Which mid-2009 MB did you manage to work with 16 GB RAM?