My battery is shot and I added an SSD, but my early 2008 MBP is still working alright. I think I'm going to upgrade to this one just because I got a new job with a nice pay bump and want to treat myself, but I could make due with this for a couple more years if I wanted to.
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Can a MacBook last for 10 years?
- Thread starter Hieveryone
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My first mac, mid 2010 MBP 13" base model lasted me for 6 years before I gave up with it and upgraded to early 2015 MBP 13" 512gb model. The old mac started spinning the beachball with almost ever action, as simple things as clicking a link etc, I had to watch that damn ball for 10+ seconds at a time: my patience didn't last as you can imagine. I was surprised that it slowed down as much as it did 'cos it still was running 10.9.5 and the OS content had stayed the same over the years....
I know I could have done some TLC to it like SSD, new battery, OS X clean install etc. to give couple of more years but I decided to use my time and money more wisely and just get a new mac. But who knows: with that TLC my old mac could have lasted close to 10 years? (I doubt it thou).
But I'm impressed that mid 2010 MBP lasts this long! I have no doubt that my new early 2015 MBP can last as long if not even longer before slowing down to a point that breaks me
I know I could have done some TLC to it like SSD, new battery, OS X clean install etc. to give couple of more years but I decided to use my time and money more wisely and just get a new mac. But who knows: with that TLC my old mac could have lasted close to 10 years? (I doubt it thou).
But I'm impressed that mid 2010 MBP lasts this long! I have no doubt that my new early 2015 MBP can last as long if not even longer before slowing down to a point that breaks me
Since I made that, there's been a bit of rumbling about Intel X-point memory. It's kinda halfway between SSD and RAM in both capacity and price.
So, RAM will end up being a cache for x-point much like CPU cache is a cache for RAM (and, via virtual memory and modern memory management, these days RAM is essentially a cache for swap on SSD).
We'll get to "effective" 1 TB plus memory capacities a lot quicker than people think via x-point.
It depends.
If your hardware starts to degrade, but fail-safes kick in to ensure the hardware still runs, you can have slower hardware. An example is a hard drive that progressively is worsening, regardless of wipes. There are multiple factors that go into that.
But the main two things you can look at are:
- how much Apple decides to slow down the laptop through minor updates, and major updates to OS X
- whether you can replace your battery or not
What you can't bet on is what sort of tech will come out. If in 10 years the only difference is in minor upgrades (faster cpu, faster GPU, etc), then ya... what you have now might last 10 years. But let's say there's major Wi-Fi tech changes, a bunch of other unforeseen tech improvements, new software features that are utilized through new tech, etc... you might really want an upgrade before 10 years is up. A single example might be with the future of force touch trackpads, and how you might interface with the MacBook Pro. Or, let's say in 10 years we see a major storage speed & capacity improvement, alongside major internet bandwidth improvements (let's say the average storage base becomes 10TB instead of 256GB, and internet download/upload speeds increase by 20 fold), then there's another reason why old tech might go out the window.
If your hardware starts to degrade, but fail-safes kick in to ensure the hardware still runs, you can have slower hardware. An example is a hard drive that progressively is worsening, regardless of wipes. There are multiple factors that go into that.
But the main two things you can look at are:
- how much Apple decides to slow down the laptop through minor updates, and major updates to OS X
- whether you can replace your battery or not
What you can't bet on is what sort of tech will come out. If in 10 years the only difference is in minor upgrades (faster cpu, faster GPU, etc), then ya... what you have now might last 10 years. But let's say there's major Wi-Fi tech changes, a bunch of other unforeseen tech improvements, new software features that are utilized through new tech, etc... you might really want an upgrade before 10 years is up. A single example might be with the future of force touch trackpads, and how you might interface with the MacBook Pro. Or, let's say in 10 years we see a major storage speed & capacity improvement, alongside major internet bandwidth improvements (let's say the average storage base becomes 10TB instead of 256GB, and internet download/upload speeds increase by 20 fold), then there's another reason why old tech might go out the window.
Doesn't make as much difference as you would hope.
When the new standard is say, 32 GB of RAM (in say, 2019), it doesn't matter so much whether you're still trying to run 4 or 8. You're still WAY behind the curve in both cases.
When the new standard drive speed is 5 GB/sec, doesn't matter so much whether your spinning disk is 100 or 150 MB/sec.
Sure, buying the base spec is often a little short sighted, but if you don't need higher spec today, attempting to "future proof" by spending a LOT more money doesn't help so much.
You're far better off selling off the cheaper machine sooner and buying another mid-range machine that will slaughter the original high end machine you would have bought, for less money.
The difference between the last and the next ten years is advancement in wireless, video and audio while the last ten was CPUs. The problem is more an OS issue with hardware changes than it is the quality of the device.
I have ten year old phones but never in my mind would I use them. I had the Motorola Razor V3 more than ten years ago and while it will work why would I use it? I know, to make phone calls, but that's not what I primarily use my two year old iPhone 6 for.
I would bet most of will have a new computer in ten years.
BTW when is 8 gig of memory behind the curve. If you checked most use less than 4 in normal use.
I have ten year old phones but never in my mind would I use them. I had the Motorola Razor V3 more than ten years ago and while it will work why would I use it? I know, to make phone calls, but that's not what I primarily use my two year old iPhone 6 for.
I would bet most of will have a new computer in ten years.
BTW when is 8 gig of memory behind the curve. If you checked most use less than 4 in normal use.
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All that said, i have a friend who is still rocking a 2008 spec 13" Macbook Pro.
it has seen better days and the battery is gone in 10 minutes or so, but it still works.
it has seen better days and the battery is gone in 10 minutes or so, but it still works.
Beg to differ. Been doing this since 8086 days. Actually systems stay useful longer now than before. Now the latest push is for ever more screen resolution. Largely beyond most peoples ability to discern the difference. 4k displays a great way to sell more hardware. Lots of pixels to push around. 90% of what people do that passes as work on a pc now was done on systems way slower. The amount of overhead to drive the interface and screens is underestimated.
In most cases storage has been the problem. Cloud has helped that, a lot. Also cheap easy to attach external drives. I remember when just a external housing cost $100-$200 by itself besides the disk. When programs bloat enough to push the system to using swap, you are screwed. Speed doesn't help much if you system goes into swap.
But compare the 2010 Macbook 13" Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 2400 MHz (2 cores) GB score 1501/2459
with
2010 Macbook Pro 17" Intel Core i7-640M 2800 MHz (2 cores) 2408/4696
However spending twice as much is not necessarily a good bargain. Frequently better to spend half as much twice.
One thing to do is know when to stop updating to latest software. OS and application bloat crush systems. Nearly all ran fast when new. After 2,3,4,5 os updates and applications bloating up make them into dogs. Promise these seductive new hot systems in a few years will be as welcome as a smelly cat. Disks are cheap enough not to make an image and keep it aside to restore back to where you actually liked your system.
Developers develop for latest and greatest systems and suffer from feature bloat. Needing ever more storage, ever more ram.
I am typing this on a 2006 white MB, so yes! This machine is definitely long in the tooth and I ordered a new 15 inch. Fan spins like crazy with video. But yes, you can make them last 10 years if you can tolerate some shortcomings. Not sure with the new unis since you can't upgrade them like you could the white MBs. I'd say just pimp it out in the beginning and that will give you the best chance at longevity.
Nice! What kind of maintenance have you done on your device during this year and how would you describe your usage of it (light - moderate - hardcore)?
Usage in the beginning was heavier, I was doing alot of music stuff and using it on a dedicated tube based USB DAC. Once I had kids my HIFI days ended and the machine became a light usage machine.
The maintenance I did was upgrade the ram to 2GB, which is the max for this model. I replaced the HDD to a 700 GB and bought a new battery 2 years ago. Not too shabby when you think about it. I will miss this thing, it's THE best laptop I've ever used. And the OS is second to none.
Anyone else cleaning their macbook inside regularly? I open and clean mine from '12 about every 6 months - its full of dust by that time. Buy a couple of cheap pentalobes from aliexpress and you're good to go for many cleanings.
I'm just mentioning as it may have a big impact on heat and therefore how long it will last.
I'm just mentioning as it may have a big impact on heat and therefore how long it will last.
Have you ever cleaned the fans and added thermal paste to the cpu?
Snow leopard? Oh yes man, I agree with you.
I ve done that 3 times in 9 years and always replaced thermal paste. I'm trying to figuring how it impacted on my current 2k7 white mb asking here.
I'm so worried about not being able to do that in future devices
It seems to still be possible to replace the thermal paste on retinas. I have never tried it though..
I ve done that 3 times in 9 years and always replaced thermal paste. I'm trying to figuring how it impacted on my current 2k7 white mb asking here.
I'm so worried about not being able to do that in future devices
Yes Snow Lep...And I have never done any maintenance or cleaning like that, ever. They're pretty damn bullet proof.
Are you still in Snow Leopard?
I Love it.
A few weeks ago I saw a guy at Apple Grand Central, with SL on his MacBook.
Very cool.
LOL, it is kind of nostaligic. But then you get a dose of reality when you get push messages from Chrome they no longer support it and itunes can't back up any of my iphones etc. Unfortunately that is part of what's driving me out of it, I could tolerate the fan and sometimes choppy scrolling for another year or so otherwise. The iTunes thing really stung me with my iPhone 7 backup, so I only got a partial off of iCloud.
I would absolutely expect to be able to get 10 years out of a brand new MacBook Pro with 16GB of RAM and quad-core CPU.
Software demands for most casual or business/student tasks have started to really stagnate... they aren't increasing much like they used to.
Hardware is a similar story -- it's not increasing at the rates that it used to. The 13" MacBook Pros come with dual-core CPUs and 8GB of RAM... same as my 2010 MBP (quadcore was an option in 2011). Sure, they're faster, but for 6 years...
The main culprit of slowdowns is OS X/MacOS. Even on my 2010 MBP 17", El Capitan is quite a bit slower than Snow Leopard was. Safari fails to play 1080p video in YouTube reliably even, especially if you try to scrub through.
However! When I boot into Windows 7/10 or Linux, it runs as fast as the day I got it. I can play two 1080p60fps YouTube videos at the same time, scrub back and forth through them no problem, and still do other tasks.
So while I don't think I'd make it 10 years on this machine in MacOS, I absolutely can with Windows and Linux. Windows 7 support ends in 2020, so it will certainly make it there. Linux will have distributions that run beautifully on it for many years to come, so no concern there either.
However, given how quickly MacOS loses its support, I suspect I only have maybe 2 years more support on El Capitan... and Sierra does the machine in.
TL;DR: If you want it to last longer, consider using a different operating system once you've hit the end of acceptable performance in OSX/MacOS.
Software demands for most casual or business/student tasks have started to really stagnate... they aren't increasing much like they used to.
Hardware is a similar story -- it's not increasing at the rates that it used to. The 13" MacBook Pros come with dual-core CPUs and 8GB of RAM... same as my 2010 MBP (quadcore was an option in 2011). Sure, they're faster, but for 6 years...
The main culprit of slowdowns is OS X/MacOS. Even on my 2010 MBP 17", El Capitan is quite a bit slower than Snow Leopard was. Safari fails to play 1080p video in YouTube reliably even, especially if you try to scrub through.
However! When I boot into Windows 7/10 or Linux, it runs as fast as the day I got it. I can play two 1080p60fps YouTube videos at the same time, scrub back and forth through them no problem, and still do other tasks.
So while I don't think I'd make it 10 years on this machine in MacOS, I absolutely can with Windows and Linux. Windows 7 support ends in 2020, so it will certainly make it there. Linux will have distributions that run beautifully on it for many years to come, so no concern there either.
However, given how quickly MacOS loses its support, I suspect I only have maybe 2 years more support on El Capitan... and Sierra does the machine in.
TL;DR: If you want it to last longer, consider using a different operating system once you've hit the end of acceptable performance in OSX/MacOS.
I have a 2006 15.4" 2.33ghz core2duo Macbook Pro that's still going! I'm also still on the ever-reliable Snow Leopard... I know I can upgrade to Lion but might just stick with what I know and love. I've replaced the HD a couple of times (now using a 500gb SSD) and gone through a couple of super drives and a few batteries, but other than that and it being laggy on my design/music apps, it's still running well enough, so I've definitely got my money's worth out of this machine
I'm finally in the market for a new Macbook Pro though and before the announcement wanted to go with a 2016 mbp, but the price and lack of ports leaves me concerned. Gonna hold out for a few reviews...
I'm finally in the market for a new Macbook Pro though and before the announcement wanted to go with a 2016 mbp, but the price and lack of ports leaves me concerned. Gonna hold out for a few reviews...
I have a late 2012 Mac Mini with 16GB of memory and a 500 GB SSD that's still running Mavericks, super fast. I have always updated security patches but never updated the OSX will Apple tell us in App Store updated when it will stop supporting Mavericks? I think my system can handle MacOS Sierra but I'm scared to update.
10 years is a long time, it depends on what you mean by "last". If you mean still run, while connected to a charger, then yes. But I doubt your battery will have any decent amount of life left after 10 years of constant recharge cycles.
My laptop from 10 years ago was a white plastic Core Duo macbook (a 1st generation intel mac.) I haven't seen one of those in a long...long time. Given the casing was constantly cracking on the palm rests I doubt it is still in service today.
Unibody macbooks are much more durable, but you can no longer swap broken parts, so if you treat it well and pay for a battery replacement at some point I think it would last. But your software updates would stop within ~ 5-6 years. And your cell phone will be faster than your laptop in that same timeframe. Battery life on new devices will far exceed what you have (battery life has doubled since my 10 year old laptop, performance has increased dramatically, especially storage speeds.)
So it is more of a question of what you do with the thing. If the answer is browse the web, then you will surely be fine with a 10 year old computer.
My laptop from 10 years ago was a white plastic Core Duo macbook (a 1st generation intel mac.) I haven't seen one of those in a long...long time. Given the casing was constantly cracking on the palm rests I doubt it is still in service today.
Unibody macbooks are much more durable, but you can no longer swap broken parts, so if you treat it well and pay for a battery replacement at some point I think it would last. But your software updates would stop within ~ 5-6 years. And your cell phone will be faster than your laptop in that same timeframe. Battery life on new devices will far exceed what you have (battery life has doubled since my 10 year old laptop, performance has increased dramatically, especially storage speeds.)
So it is more of a question of what you do with the thing. If the answer is browse the web, then you will surely be fine with a 10 year old computer.
Yes your mini will run Sierra just fine, in fact it will do it well.
I have two minis, a 2011 duo core i5 with 8 gigs and a 2012 quad i7 16 gig, 250 gig SSD and 1 T hard drive and both scream on Sierra (although the smaller HD on the 2011 takes longer to boot).
I expect they will run whatever OSX well into the future.
Oh I doubt they will inform you when they stop supporting a version of OSX. The last change of support came when machines that weren't 64 bit lost the newer versions of OSX. I expect as long as 64 bit and Intel are the machine guts it will run.