Did future-proofing pay off for you?

[MisterSavage]

I also went with a 2TB drive because of print work. Expensive, but it’s paid off.

I did too. I'm starting to push against it but I'm holding on.

 

[Dreamholde]

Thank everyone for your votes and comments. I was surprised to see such an imbalance in favor of future-proofing.

It appears that it reality future-proofing makes sense for many people.

Since you specifically requested responses from future-proofers, I don't think these results are too surprising. You're only going to pay for upgrades if you're inclined to think they're worthwhile, and once you've done so you're probably going to credit the longevity of your machine to the fact that you bought those upgrades.

In this modern era of Apple, I think it's most prudent to by the least machine for your needs and upgrade more frequently.

If there is a base model you can get by with you get the most bang for your buck up front and on trade-in.

Agreed that this is has been and remains the smartest move for users with typical consumer workflows who intend to buy new machines on a regular cadence (though the recent price increases are going to make that purchase pattern rather more painful).

Having bought both upgraded and (nearly) base models in the past, I do think there are a lot of people who genuinely benefit from future-proofing the components they expect to outgrow. Since trade-in value seldom rises commensurately with the cost of upgrades, this is especially true if you're already paying to upgrade some other part of the machine to do what you need it to do. (For example, someone who knows they need an SSD with more space to take lots of files on the road may decide to also upgrade the RAM to help extend the useful life of the machine.) That said, to this day our 8GB M1 MacBook Air continues to handle everything we throw at it so impressively (even while paging/swapping to its SSD) that I was perfectly comfortable sticking with the base 16GB of RAM on this year's M5 MacBook Air. Maybe I'll live to regret that decision, but I'm guessing it will be replaced for other reasons (processor? battery?) before we start to feel constrained by the RAM inside it.

 

[Matsamoto]

M2 will lose major macOS updates by 2029.

You can’t possibly know that for sure.
With the M-series we can’t know for sure.
We can only guess.

 

[Ctrlos]

My 2011 11" Macbook Air still does the job for me. My previous machine went from 2006 - 2016. If the average lifespan of a Mac is 10-15 years then I'd say anything brought since 2020 is futureproof.

 

[benwiggy]

You can't make computers future-proof. You can make them future-resistant to a depth of 5 years.

My usage has been broadly the same since I bought my M1 back in 2021, but I needed 32 GB of RAM then, and I still need it now.

 

[keksikuningas]

I skimped on storage but not on RAM and often wish I'd've gotten the 1TB SSD. At the time I was thinking I'd store all the garbo on a NAS or an external SSD hooked up to my dock or god forbid SD Card , but that stuff is so expensive now. I am wondering sometimes if I should cut my losses and resell while it still has some value due to AI ram amount hysteria

 

[maflynn]

I'm a firm believer that future proof (for the most part) is a marketing strategy that apple and others employ to manipulate people to over buying.

Apple Silicon is so powerful, there is almost no reason to pay apple upgrade prices when the base model is almost always sufficient for most people.

I have a M1 MBP, base model, its been working great for 6 years, I'm glad I didn't pay for increased storage/ram.

The Neo, people are happy with 8GB of ram, and an iPhone processor. They're editting videos, photos, doing things that were once used to justify the upgrading the ram/processor. Thunderbolt storage is a viable alternative to paying the apple tax for more storage.

 

[inventor7777]

Mac Studio M4 Max with 48GB of RAM, 512GB of storage. (I keep most of my files on NASes)
Part of me wishes I had gotten 64GB to run larger AI models, but for normal use I hope to keep this machine for quite some years.

On Sequoia, it is incredibly snappy and powerful enough for anything I throw at it. I have had no regrets for normal use whatsoever.

 

[MisterSavage]

I'm a firm believer that future proof (for the most part) is a marketing strategy that apple and others employ to manipulate people to over buying.

Apple Silicon is so powerful, there is almost no reason to pay apple upgrade prices when the base model is almost always sufficient for most people.

I definitely feel this. I always assumed I needed a pro for app development but a lot of my dev friends get by fine with an Air.

 

[dmr727]

I usually buy more RAM than I figure I'll need, but I'm not sure it ever pays off since I tend to succumb to FOMO on the processor/GPU side after 3-5 years anyway.

 

[Abydos]

'what fools these mortals be', I bought what I needed then - assuming it would be unsupported in 7 years, it turns out it went longer (dumb luck) . I'll buy again with the same outlook. (not sure what the pace of innovation will be so I'll stick to the present needs and buy when I have a compelling reason)