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How long do you keep your Mac for?

Best but rare..

When I buy my systems, I buy the best most expensive ultimate system available - but try to use them at least twice the time as others do with standard stuff.
This way I end up to have payed the exact same amount, but having the challenge to go trough about twice the product live span. In the past this philosophy worked out for the smarts. Apple knows that and hates it, because they want to have consumers that buy every six month to make a profit.
This also the only reason why they turned to the iMac, forcing the customer to buy new again compared to having an upgrade path to prolong product live cycle.
Best example is the Power Mac G4. Many people had their systems for 10 years because of extensive CPU upgrade possibilities. Apple almost went out of business for that. But thats where the economy works out for the consumer. And in this decade its the SSD technology thats the game changer.

My advice: Do not get fooled. Economy works. Keep your stuff as long as possible and dont get fooled by shiny marketing shared!
 
AlexMaximus said:
When I buy my systems, I buy the best most expensive ultimate system available - but try to use them at least twice the time as others do with standard stuff.
This way I end up to have payed the exact same amount, but having the challenge to go trough about twice the product live span. In the past this philosophy worked out for the smarts. Apple knows that and hates it, because they want to have consumers that buy every six month to make a profit.
This also the only reason why they turned to the iMac, forcing the customer to buy new again compared to having an upgrade path to prolong product live cycle.
Best example is the Power Mac G4. Many people had their systems for 10 years because of extensive CPU upgrade possibilities. Apple almost went out of business for that. But thats where the economy works out for the consumer. And in this decade its the SSD technology thats the game changer.

My advice: Do not get fooled. Economy works. Keep your stuff as long as possible and dont get fooled by shiny marketing shared!
Click to expand...


Apple has always had the 'professional' upgradable expandable line. If the Mac Pro is limited in upgrades for the CPU it's due to limitations from Intel, not Apple. But few people upgrade their CPU's these days, often the biggest limiters are I/O. Newer PCI-E standards, newer I/O (such as thunderbolt) etc., are often more the reason to upgrade.

That said, I'm like you, I tend to spend a little to have a higher end machine, so that several years from now I can continue to run my software without needing to upgrade.

My last couple of upgrades have been 'feature' upgrades though. My desktop is several years old but I upgraded the MoBo to gain USB 3.0 support, and faster PCI Express 2.1 (though I was able to keep the same CPU, RAM, GPU, etc. A benefit of buying top of the line THEN, they are still usable NOW on a newer motherboard) My laptop was adequate but again, I upgraded to have a newer battery standard (LiPo) for long battery life, USB 3.0, and perhaps in the future I'll use thunderbolt.

The days of needing more horsepower, for all but the most demanding professional market, are much longer than before. It's the I/O and features that become a more important reason to upgrade for many. Sure, my new MBP is faster, but the old machine wasn't slow. Not like years ago, when after a couple years the latest OS and applications would bring your machine to a crawl.
 
How long has varied a bit. But my last Mac was 6 years and the reason for upgrading was that I needed to run software that wouldn't work on it.

Prior to that was as I had exceeded what the system could do and was waiting way too long for image editing and such.

As for my current system, I've had it for a bot over 2 years, and I plan on keeping it for another couple of years at least. The 2 things that would cause me to change my mind would be either the system needed a repair after AppleCare was over and it wasn't worth fixing or if some piece of software I needed to use needed a newer system to run decently.
 
I am a 3-4 year type of guy. When I buy, I get the computer I want and I keep it. My desktop before my current '09 iMac was the white 20" iMac I got back in '06 or '07. My last laptop was a blackbook form like '07 or '08. I plan to keep my iMac that I have had for a little over 3 years for about 5 years or more this time. It is a beast. Big screen, big HD, decent processor, and runs current OS just fine.

I will keep my rMBP for about 3 years easy at a minimum.
 
My iMac is a mid 07 model, my laptop is an early 09 model, my mini is an 06 core duo model, and iPad is a version 3. I have no plans to replace any of them as they still all function well. I even still use the 1.66gh mini with handbrake, running overnight so that the time of processing does not matter.

In other words I do not have a replacement cycle. Have never had a repair problem. even though all but the iPad were purchased as Apple store refurbs.

Will most likely purchase a Haswell laptop when they go refurb next year.
 
I have a winter 2010 MBP. I love it! It still functions as needed but I am tempted by Mountain Lion. Typically I would like to run a MBP for at least 4 years before I purchase a new one. Unless its a Mac Pro, I'll probably only stay on the MBP line.

PCs? PSH! Those were like candy to me LOL. I went through 3 in 5 years but found that the software/hardware really made or break the existence of the computer. I miss XP...
 
My first mac upgrade will be coming this summer with the new 15 rMBP just because I want the larger screen and a strong video card.
 
When I was into windows desktop machines I was upgrading every 2 years, not the whole machine but just parts here and there. I had 2007 asus laptop, then I got my wife's 2009 Sony vaio when she had to get a 2011 MacBook pro for her school. In July 2012 I got a MacBook pro retina when my desktop started to act up and my vaio wasnt up to the snuff anymore for hd video editing plus the track pad started to be unresponsive .


I plan on keeping this MacBook pro for at least 4 years maybe 5 if its still working.

I feel with the ssds now and quad core processors these systems are not going to slow down as they use to when they had mechanical drives and single core processors.
 
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3-4 years. I don't see why I would need to upgrade every year or 2 years, since computer technology doesn't evolve THAT fast. It really depends on you though.

For me, 3-4 years gives me a good amount of use. Also, you can resell your computer for a good price too.
 
Because I have more money than sense when it comes to technology (it, along with wine and food are where I splurge), I've had 7 Macs since 2008:

  • 1) Early 2008 MacBook Air - 1.8GHz Core 2 Duo, 120GB HDD (my first personal Mac and first overall since 1998, and my first new PC at all since 2003)
  • 2) Late 2008 MacBook Air (1.86GHz Core 2 Duo, 128GB SSD - I just HAD to get the SSD model once the price was remotely reasonable - I will NEVER buy another computer for myself without SSD)
  • 3) Late 2010 MacBook Air (13" 1.86GHz Core 2 Duo)
  • 4) 11.6" Late 2010 MacBook Air 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo (I changed my mind about the 13" and decided to go for the smaller form factor, and loved it).
  • 5) Mid-2011 11.6" MacBook Air (1.8GHz Core i7 - After 3 years of Core 2 Duos under 2.0GHz I decided to splurge)
  • 6) 2012 MacBook Air 11.6" (2.0GHz Core i7/8GB/256/GB) - USB 3.0 was the kicker here. This was to be my "keeper" until 2014 or whenever the MacBook Air went Retina. I was determined to break my cycle of frequent upgrades until...
  • 7) 13" rMBP (2.5GHz Core i5/256GB) - My MBA went missing in an airport (I either left it on the plane or somewhere in the terminal). Find My Mac found it and erased it in the airport 2 days later, but neither the airline nor the airport lost and found had record of it being turned in. Fortunately it was insured. I decided to step up to a retina display. Barring something unforeseen, this is my new "keeper."

A more rational me would have kept the Early 2008 until the Mid-2010, and then upgraded in 2012 to the MBA.

Note in all cases I did resell the previous MacBook Air (except for #6 which was covered by insurance), so my total cost is "only" about 60% of what the aggregate price would otherwise be.
 
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For my main, heavy lifting machine, I seem to upgrade about every year-18 months. I get the benefit of a higher re-sale value ( with AC helping a lot) and as projects like Blu-Ray etc. gather pace, I need the greater power.

Laptops probably every two years, although I'm about to advertise my MBP 17" and replace it witha maxed out rMBP 15" My MBA does what I want it to, and I probably won't upgrade that one until I get back to the states.
 
New MacBookPro coming out???

I currently have a MacBook that I purchased in 2008. It was my first Mac. I love my Mac but I think it's time to upgrade to a MacBook Pro. One reason is that I want a larger screen. The 13" screen is just not big enough. I hear there's a new MacBook Pro coming out. Does anyone know when?
 
jrkserenity said:
I currently have a MacBook that I purchased in 2008. It was my first Mac. I love my Mac but I think it's time to upgrade to a MacBook Pro. One reason is that I want a larger screen. The 13" screen is just not big enough. I hear there's a new MacBook Pro coming out. Does anyone know when?
Click to expand...

No one knows except Apple's execs and engineering teams. Check the Buyer's Guide though for previous life cycles and trends if you are interested in speculating; Apple is fairly consistent with update cycles.
 
I upgrade my desktops every 3 years. I actually just ordered my new Desktop. For me upgrading graphics card at the 2 year mark keeps it going well, but by 3 years the processor is just not able to keep up with new chips. laptops I upgrade every 2 years because of the extra wear and tear of traveling and the fact you can't upgrade a lot besides putting extra memory and an SSD
 
Faize said:
Given how my Mac is primarily my UNIX development/testing machine (Apache, RoR, and Safari just aren't the same on Windows...), I've never felt much of an urge to upgrade.
Click to expand...

If it works for you, that's all that matters. Don't upgrade for the sake of upgrading. Plus, "everyone" has an alumin(i)um unibody Mac. You're using a beautiful polycarbonate-era machine. It's a classic. Think Different and so forth. :p

And to your original question, I have an old 850MHz Thunderbird Athlon desktop PC I built back in 1999 that still works. It's super slow, I just have a basic install of XP Pro and I don't really do much with it anymore, but it works. Also a Winchester Athlon-64 3200+ desktop PC I built in 2004 to replace it still works. But like the Thunderbird machine, don't do much with it anymore. Have Yonah Core Duo 15" MacBook Pro I bought in 2006 that recently died and I replaced with a 15" retina MacBook Pro. I also have a 27" 2009 iMac that I sold off because I wasn't really using it that much. And my work issues me a brand new ThinkPad every two years, so the other machines are primarily for personal use.

Long story short... I keep all my computers for as long as they keep running. But as far as upgrading to a shiny and new primary computer, about 3 years.
 
I have no need for the latest and greatest. What i do need is dependability and so far my mid-2009 MBP is going strong and meeting all my needs. I come from a household where we had nothing but windows that had to be replaced pretty much every 1-2 years due to various issues..in comparison I'm gonna stick with my '09 for as long as possible. :cool:
 
I'm only on my second Mac personally.

I started with an aluminum Macbook in late 2008 and that lasted me until January of 2012. So, about three years. That said, the only reason I upgraded to my 15" Macbook Pro was because my needs changed fairly dramatically. I had sold my gaming desktop and needed a laptop with more power for work in Logic. My old Macbook just couldn't handle that. As such, I gave the Macbook to my mom, and it's still being used for general web surfing, email, and photo editing.

As of right now, I'm not considering upgrading. I've only had this thing for a year, anyway. But, the computer I'd like to upgrade to doesn't really exist yet. Ideally, I'd like to go back to a 13" Macbook Pro... but one that will have enough power to handle what I'm throwing at it now. So, until that exists, my needs change, SSD upgrades become less expensive, and the whole Retina thing is a bit more mature... I'm quite content with what I have... which is a quad core i7 power house that can get 7 hours of battery life :D
 
Right now I'm upgrading every two years. When I used a desktop Mac, I did it less often, partially because the internals were easier to upgrade.

I feel like Apple releases updated notebooks that end up having features I want to at least try out every 2 years or so. This works well since my subsidized iPhone is on a 2-year cycle, so each year I get either a new phone or Macbook.

For example, my Air is 1 1/2 years old (bought at launch) and already I'm left out when it comes to USB3 and Retina displays (neither was even available when I made my purchase). I'm looking at an upgrade this summer, which I'll expect to get at least 2 years out of, but it depends partially on Apple's update cycle, as now I only buy an updated product when it's brand new (day of launch).
 
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