Holy crap, upgrade love!

[Meister]

I agree that an old computer can still have its uses. But using that same logic, if you're satisfied with the performance of an 8 year old machine, you can buy a new one today you'll be good until 2022.

i guess you meant that as a joke, but you can easily use a mac from now until 2022, provided it doesnt break.
Hell, thats only 8 years!

Look into other parts of this forum. Folks still using power macs.

Up until 2012 I was still using a custom PC from 2002 from time to time.
Single Core, 128mb ram and a slick 60gb hdd.

Basic needs like word, email, browsing, music and movies havent changed much.
I doubt they will.

 

[Boyd01]

i guess you meant that as a joke

No, not at all. I just meant that if you feel 8 years is a reasonable lifespan for a computer, you could upgrade to a new one today and enjoy all the benefits of a current model while knowing that your needs would be met for many more years. In fact, that is why I decided to buy a new computer for a server instead of investing any time or money in my 6 year old MBP.

I replaced my 2008 MBP with a new MBA in 2011. I wasn't planning to upgrade that soon, but I was having issues with the MBP and thought it made sense to get something newer, faster, lighter with better battery life. I was just amazed by the perfomance difference - same experience as the OP in this thread. It ran Final Cut Pro much better than the old MBP for example. My 2013 MBA is even better. That was an "upgrade of opportunity" though. Again, I wasn't really planning to upgrade but a friend needed a new laptop so I sold it to her really cheap as a favor and was able to get 8gb RAM and a 512g SSD, both of which were not available on the 2011 MBA.

I have plenty of old computers - a PowerBook G4 in the closet and a PowerMac G4 up in the attic. The G5 died in 2008 and I didn't bother to fix it because the 2008 MBP was so much faster.

I have been using Macs since the 512k in 1985 (Apple ][ before that), so I "get" what old computers are capable of. But I just don't want to bother with the old stuff anymore, it's too much trouble.

 

[Meister]

No, not at all. I just meant that if you feel 8 years is a reasonable lifespan for a computer, you could upgrade to a new one today and enjoy all the benefits of a current model while knowing that your needs would be met for many more years. In fact, that is why I decided to buy a new computer for a server instead of investing any time or money in my 6 year old MBP.
I replaced my 2008 MBP with a new MBA in 2011. I wasn't planning to upgrade that soon, but I was having issues with the MBP and thought it made sense to get something newer, faster, lighter with better battery life. I was just amazed by the perfomance difference - same experience as the OP in this thread. It ran Final Cut Pro much better than the old MBP for example. My 2013 MBA is even better. That was an "upgrade of opportunity" though. Again, I wasn't really planning to upgrade but a friend needed a new laptop so I sold it to her really cheap as a favor and was able to get 8gb RAM and a 512g SSD, both of which were not available on the 2011 MBA.

I have plenty of old computers - a PowerBook G4 in the closet and a PowerMac G4 up in the attic. The G5 died in 2008 and I didn't bother to fix it because the 2008 MBP was so much faster.
I have been using Macs since the 512k in 1985 (Apple ][ before that), so I "get" what old computers are capable of. But I just don't want to bother with the old stuff anymore, it's too much trouble.

i just hope the new macs last that long with the parts being all soldered.

 

[addictive]

I can definitely agree with everyone else on here. I upgraded from a 2008 Unibody Macbook which I had upgraded to 4gb of ram and 256gb ssd 2.4 core duo, which I thought was fairly fast. Had it three months short of five years. Once I started using my 2014 MBA I was blown away. I didn't get a little wrapped up with the specs, trying to compare the 2.4ghz to the 1.4, but I shouldn't have even second guessed it. I ran iMovie on the MBA and it ran smooth as butter no issues. Very happy with my upgrade so far. It was time and definitely worth it.

I've got the same model (2008 Unibody Macbook) and i've upgraded the internals to 8GB RAM and 256SSD. It works great, the battery life is poor and i'm now on my third battery.

I hardly use the CD/DVD drive and I do want to upgrade to a Macbook Air or Retina Macbook Pro when the Broadwell processors are released.

I'm aware of the extended battery life you get with Haswell and PCI-e SSDs and it will be great to be using a much lighter laptop.

But what other differences will I notice?

 

[Ronnoco]

I've got the same model (2008 Unibody Macbook) and i've upgraded the internals to 8GB RAM and 256SSD. It works great, the battery life is poor and i'm now on my third battery.

I hardly use the CD/DVD drive and I do want to upgrade to a Macbook Air or Retina Macbook Pro when the Broadwell processors are released.

I'm aware of the extended battery life you get with Haswell and PCI-e SSDs and it will be great to be using a much lighter laptop.

But what other differences will I notice?

802.11ac and I would think the newer memory is faster, no? I believe there is also now a L3 memory cache on the newer MBP.

 

[idelgado782]

I've got the same model (2008 Unibody Macbook) and i've upgraded the internals to 8GB RAM and 256SSD. It works great, the battery life is poor and i'm now on my third battery.

I hardly use the CD/DVD drive and I do want to upgrade to a Macbook Air or Retina Macbook Pro when the Broadwell processors are released.

I'm aware of the extended battery life you get with Haswell and PCI-e SSDs and it will be great to be using a much lighter laptop.

But what other differences will I notice?

The overall speed of the computer is drastic. Opening apps, editing in iMovie, transferring photos and movies, backing up to my hard drive. Just the overall overall usage for me has been a huge difference. I was definitely glad that I invested and took advantage of the airs on sale!