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Freq. replacing iMac (every 3 years) = MP replacing every 6 years??

Luba

Luba

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Apr 22, 2009
1,820
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Basically, trying to figure out if it's better to buy and keep a Mac Pro longer or to buy an iMac and replace more often.

My guess/opinion is that a Mac Pro lasts about 6 years before slowing down and showing signs of being obsolete while it's every 3 years for an iMac. Do you agree, what's your opinion?

iMac 24" costs about $2000, so in 6 years the cost is $4000

Mac Pro cost about $3300.

But to complicate matters :) for the next 6 years I could keep the back-lit LED monitor and just buy a new Mac Pro tower which would be at today's prices $2500 for another 6 years. But for the next 6 years the iMac would be another 2 * $2000 = $4000.
 
"Slowing down" is subjective.

Macs don't have a registry; they don't "slow down with age".

Software requires better hardware over time. Upgrading to newer software causes it to run more slowly on older hardware.

An iMac is fine for standard use for up to seven years. Heck, we kept our iMac DV as our main computer until the launch of the Core 2 iMac.

Since you didn't say what you're doing, you can't arbitrarily put lifetimes on computers. ;)
 
Tallest Skil said:
"Slowing down" is subjective.

Macs don't have a registry; they don't "slow down with age".

Software requires better hardware over time. Upgrading to newer software causes it to run more slowly on older hardware.

An iMac is fine for standard use for up to seven years. Heck, we kept our iMac DV as our main computer until the launch of the Core 2 iMac.

Since you didn't say what you're doing, you can't arbitrarily put lifetimes on computers. ;)
Click to expand...

I beg to differ. Macs do slow down if not ran properly, just like pc's. At my school they also have a bunch of G5's very similar to the one I have in my signature, and they used to be extremely fast a year ago. Now they are bogged down just like a pc if not worse than most I have used. I don't know what happened to them but everything is much slower on a lot of them. Quartz, startup time (takes several minutes on some), and app launch time and responsiveness. Mac aren't immun to becoming slower over time. Just like pc's though a reinstall of the system will solve these problems.

I agree that computers don't have set lifetimes. I have several Pentium III's still that run the web pretty darn well and word processing as well, even office 2007 is snappy.
 
I would get iMac if it does your job fine now. Three years is so long time that it's possible that Mini will outperform current Mac Pro. And as Tallest said, new software needs better hardware and current MPs hardware is "old" after three years
 
An imac dont last 7 years.
The superdrive last 3 years, the ram is limited (now is 8 GB, but older ones have 2-4GB limitation)
I had a PMG4 for 7 years, it was super slow for browsing flash based sites.
 
Another question :) Certainly in the first year if I buy a Quad Core 2.66 Mac Pro it will be a better performer than a 3.06 iMac, but predicting into the future in year 4, would a high end iMac out perform a 3 year old Quad Core 2.66 Mac Pro??

Regarding my use: High end games (but not necessary the newest), i.e. X-Plane, Quake, Call of Duty, so a high end GPU will be important.

Limited use of Pro Apps, mostly on photos (Aperture, PhotoShop). Sometimes may use Final Cut Express but mostly will use iMovie.
 
dollystereo said:
An imac dont last 7 years.
The superdrive last 3 years, the ram is limited (now is 8 GB, but older ones have 2-4GB limitation)
I had a PMG4 for 7 years, it was super slow for browsing flash based sites.
Click to expand...

I think this could be said for newer macs as well right? My 2.4 MBP isn't exactly the best for flash either
 
If I may be permitted to piggy-back on the original question, what about getting a nice monitor and a new Mac mini every 2-3 years? I wonder if that would be the most cost efficient way to stay up-to-date with speed.
 
If you plan to keep using the same Mac for several years, I'd recommend wiping the startup drive periodically (say, every 2-3 years) and reinstalling the OS and apps. Perhaps keep everything else on a second drive, to make the process less painful.

Doing so will clear out any apps/processes you may have installed but no longer need and are consuming CPU cycles and RAM. It'll also get rid of disk fragmentation - OSX will do some of this routinely, but it's not perfect.

I've done this periodically on a G5 at home, and every time it feels like a new machine.
 
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