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Dilemma, will the MacBook Pro be usable 2-3 years from now?

TSE

TSE

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jun 25, 2007
4,105
3,747
St. Paul, Minnesota
Hi, I have a 2.4 GHZ Penryn MacBook Pro with the 8600M GT. I am in a dilemma.

I plan on going to Germany for my Senior year in the 2010-2011 year. I also don't want to spend a lot of money on a whole new laptop going into college. I am just wondering if this current MacBook Pro, if I maxed it out to 6 GBs of RAM (it has been reported these MacBook Pros can handle up to 6 GBs of RAM safely), 500 GB HD, etc. can it handle everyday use, 2-3 years from now as a main computer?

My main uses:

-web browsing, this includes Youtube, Facebook, Myspace, Hulu, etc., will I be able to use all the new and flashy features of these websites with ease?

-iTunes, will it be able to handle all the new features of iTunes with ease?

-Moderate gaming, will it be able to handle new games 2-3 years from now without all the bells and whistles?

-Schoolwork, this includes spreadsheets, word typing, GIMP, etc. will this current hardware still be supported?

-iLife, I use a lot of the iLife apps, such as iWeb and iPhoto, will this current hardware still be supported and work without giving up any new features?

-Will I be able to use all the new features of the new OSes Microsoft and Apple come out 2-3 years from now?

-Is the hard drive user-upgradable?

Thank you!
 
It sounds like it should still be doing okay for your uses in 2-3 years, especially since you acknowledge games would be played "without all the bells and whistles."

I'd be more worried about the 8600GT chip dying.

The hard drive is user-upgradable if you're not afraid of a few screws etc. It does void the warranty though. Some people have gotten away with it with Applecare, some have not.
 
Yes, 2-3 years from now it will still be a decent computer and fully capable of being your main computer. It'd be like still having the Rev A MacBook Pro now, still fully supported but not the fastest computer out there. As for the hard drive, it is pretty easy to install a hard drive in that MacBook Pro, just make sure that you take it out and put in the original if you send it to Apple.
 
Considering I still use my 4.5 year old PowerBook G4 with 1 GB of RAM for everything you site (minus the gaming), I think in 2-3 years you should still be in good shape.

I'm looking into upgrading sometime in the next couple years now, could be this year, maybe next, but I'm still very happy with it.
 
I have an original MBP 2.0 Core Duo with 2GB RAM. It's now almost 3 years old.

I've upgraded the HDD to 320GB. Other than that, it's fully functional and does everything I ask of it.

I'd expect the one you have would last you just as long.

I'm seriously contemplating a new one when mine hits it's 3 year birthday, but that's pure tech-lust, and isn't really a necessity!
 
yes. i am still using a MacBook Pro Core Duo, which was released in 2006!

Remember, newer releases of computers don't make older ones unusable!
 
Oh yea it'll still be plenty fast. By then you can probably put the best 512gb SSD drive in that same mbp and get the world of difference boost in speed.
 
I have the late 2006 Macbook Pro and it's definitely good! No modifications whatsoever and it's holding up (of course the only part is that I'm a video editor so the 120GB hard drive fills up quickly...especially with boot camp).

As for gaming, it holds up everything except for the really really intense graphic games like Assassin's Creed, Crysis, F.E.A.R., Far Cry, Oblivion, etc.

I don't see how it wouldn't hold up for just a mere 2-3 years. Before this mac as my desktop replacement, I had a AMD Duron desktop with 100Mhz 1 GB of RAM GeForce 4 card for the five years previous (yes, I was video editing with that computer as well xD 40 min to render a 1 minute 320 x 280 video xD)
 
Just look at it this way. There are still members here using more then half a decade old iBooks and Powerbook G4s for what you do (except gaming). Your 2.4 Macbook Pro will be fine for many years to come!
 
Keep that case lookin' fresh just incase 2.9 years from now your machine breaks down and AppleCare won't disqualify you for a new (unibody?) goodwill upgrade (with applecare extension)
 
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