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How are your MacBooks doing as they age?

S

Squirrelflight

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 24, 2012
112
2
I've had mine for 30 months. And man - it's still damn good. I've only ever had a PC (family windows desktop computer) and after a few years everything gets slower on them, you can't even open word without it freezing. But on my Mac? It STILL opens applications fast. It's still a good computer. I take good care of my Mac but it does show it's age in say the cover - I have a few scratches or dents on it since I had to carry the Mac with me a lot and take it to school. But overall, it still looks good and works well.

I'm probably going to take it to Best Buy and do a cleaning sometime, they say you should every year but I've never really cleaned it or had the fans cleaned. But the computer doesn't really seem to need it - it's still fast, overheats sometimes but that seems to be a problem for other Mac Users too. I always clean the screen with a glass cloth and keep it looking good.

Over all it's still a good comp. How are your Macbooks doing? Do you ever take them in for cleaning or do you not feel the need?
 
My 7 month 13" cMBP looks as good as new and as fast as when I opened the box.

This is why I'm buying another cMBP (15") soon. :D
 
My mbp 13" is 27 months old according to Coconut Battery with 86% battery health. So far I've upgraded RAM from 4gb to 8gb and recently the HD to Samsung 500gb SSD. Knock on wood I have another 27+ months out of it!
 
My older penryn machine is still kicking, my cat even recently chucked it off a dresser that is about 5 feet tall onto wooden flooring, it's dented up but still kicking just fine.

I'm hoping this 2012 I'm typing on will last just as long.
 
50months, replaced it with a retina.

still purrs though, blew it few times with a compressor to get the dust out - helps with the cooling.
 
Nice! On Coconut Battery it says my design capacity is 80% so after 30 months I'd say that's still good, and I think sometimes it goes back up a little too. So I'm pretty confident mine can last several more years, although whenever I do decide to get a new one it'll be worth it with how good they're made. But I like how even after over 2 years it still works well. :) I haven't done a fan cleaning yet or anything and it's still fast.
 
Squirrelflight said:
Nice! On Coconut Battery it says my design capacity is 80% so after 30 months I'd say that's still good, and I think sometimes it goes back up a little too. So I'm pretty confident mine can last several more years, although whenever I do decide to get a new one it'll be worth it with how good they're made. But I like how even after over 2 years it still works well. :) I haven't done a fan cleaning yet or anything and it's still fast.
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Fan cleaning is most likely not necessary, I cracked open quite a few older MBPs and none had any significant amount of dust in them, even after 5-6 years.

Macs do not usually slow down with age, as they don't have a registry which can get clogged with crap like Windows does. They will slow down when the hard drive gets too full though.
 
Thank you a bunch for the info! I have a feeling best buy people tell you you ought to clean it every year to make more money. I mean it is a good idea, especially for Windows, but for Mac it wouldn't be as necessary. And I guess the overheating thing is normal for a macbook laptop? It happens to mine a bit on the left side, usually when the charger is plugged in. But it's good to know it's not necessary to send it in for a cleaning when it's already good on it's own.
 
I've been using this MacbookPro, and a identical one for a year previous before it was replaced.

When i first got the computer i was in love with it, it was great, fast worked great.

Now.. i'm less and less happy with it, i'll ride it out until my apple care runs out in 2015, but i'm in no rush to replace it with another mac. If i have to get another computer in the mean time it will be Thinkpad X220.

At the end of the day, i can do the work i need to do on it, which is more important now that using the actual computer...
 
Do I win the coconut battery competition? :p
 

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Squirrelflight said:
Thank you a bunch for the info! I have a feeling best buy people tell you you ought to clean it every year to make more money. I mean it is a good idea, especially for Windows, but for Mac it wouldn't be as necessary. And I guess the overheating thing is normal for a macbook laptop? It happens to mine a bit on the left side, usually when the charger is plugged in. But it's good to know it's not necessary to send it in for a cleaning when it's already good on it's own.
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Your computer is not overheating, if it were it'd shut down to prevent damage to it's components.

Macs are made of aluminum, aluminum conducts heat tremendously better than plastic, which means a macbook running at 50°C will feel much hotter to the touch than a plastic laptop running at the very same temperature.

If you truly are worried about temps, you can install a widget called iStat Pro to monitor them. Intel processors can and will reach up to 105°C before shutting down, anything lower than that is just fine.
 
We just got back from purchasing 8GB for the niece's MacBook 7,1. She is trilled with the performance improvement over 2GB. Best $45 she spent on computers.
 
I've got a 3 yr old MacBook Pro, and although it seems a bit slower with hard disk related tasks (I'm blaming Mountain Lion for this, because I've installed a faster HDD since I got it, therefore it should be FASTER) it still runs great :)
 
i upgraded my mid 2009 mbp with an SSD a while ago and to be honest ... i dont notice much of a difference compared to my new retina mbp besides the awesome screen.

its amazing how well it still runs and the battery is only at 89% too. my sisters sony vaio on the other hand dies as soon as she unplugs it and its soooo slow
 
charlieegan3 said:
Advice on your charge cycles please!
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I have a Mac Pro that does most of my work..When working and I need it to do something with it I screen share from the MP. But really I guess thats no different than using it plugged in all day. Beyond that I use it like a portable any other portable computer.
 
Macbook early 2006 white 1,8mhz, still runs like a charm, 2gb ram with new 320hd. had to change battery 3 times first year (known issue with macbook.)

Its time though to get me a new one. I keep telling myself, next cycle ill get me a new one.... next cycle.
 
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My 2009 MBP is still chugging along nicely. Speedy as it's ever been since I maxed the RAM and threw a SSD in there, never had a problem with it :)
 
Last edited:
my mid 2009 13" mbp is still doing fine. thinking about upgrading from 4 to 8gb of memory though.
 

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This is mine. I use my computer all the time. xD

Also does anyone notice with age their macbook laptop screen wobbles a little? Mine doesn't when I'm typing but if I move the laptop or lightly tap behind the screen with a finger it wobbles. Just noticed. Not a problem though.

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Loar said:
Image

My 2009 MBP is still chugging along nicely. Speedy as it's ever been since I maxed the RAM and threw a SSD in there, never had a problem with it :)
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Dude, your battery cycle is awesome! Tips?

That goes for anyone else in this thread with awesome battery count cycles!
 
my 2010 13 inch macbook pro has 90% battery capacity. I put 16gb of ram once i found out it unofficially supported it. soon I will add a ssd. I have to admit though the inside was a little dusty when i opened it to put the ram in. it cleaned up nicely though and should be good for another 3 years before its cleaned again. still no dings, no dents, no dead or stuck pixels.
 
I have a 2009 15 inch Macbookpro which is doing awesome only problem is 4gb of ram seems way to small i had to download a memory clean app so i can get some ram back to work and i like seeing how many free ram i have available in the top menu next to my battery level :D cant wait for Haswell to come out a
 
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