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How long do you keep your Mac?

How long do you keep your Mac?

  • 2-3 years

    Votes: 18 11.9%

  • 4-5 years

    Votes: 39 25.8%

  • 6-7 years

    Votes: 37 24.5%

  • 8-9 years

    Votes: 27 17.9%

  • 10+ years

    Votes: 29 19.2%

  • I don't have a Mac.

    Votes: 1 0.7%
  • Total voters
    151
If I still haven't sold them then can I say I keep them forever?

PowerMac G4 MDD (2003)
MacBook Pro 15" (2008)
Mac Pro 5,1 (2010)
Mac Mini (2011)
Mac Mini (2012)
iMac 27" (2012)
MacBook Pro 13" (2013)
MacBook Pro 15" (2015)
 
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My mid-2010 27” iMac i7 is still running strong, after the addition of a 512GB internal SSD.
Evidently I’ll not be able to upgrade it to Mojave, but I’m not sure what the actual impact will be on my use. Which is writing, spreadsheets, light photo work, light Acrobat editing, email, web browsing, and a few other things.

So I can’t think of a compelling reason to buy a new one at this point. If I was still consulting, I probably would as it would make earning income a bit easier. Plus the ability to depreciate it. But as an employee, I’m required to use Windows on the job, so the iMac doesn’t have to do much heavy lifting anymore.

Maybe in another year or two. Eight years is a pretty good run. I’m impressed.
 
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In terms of Macs that I use as daily drivers, accompanying my newer hardware are two 2008 24" Core 2 Duo iMacs (2.8GHz). One of which has been pretty much left permanently on since the day it was bought for a good while until the need was necessary (probably about 6 years into its life when I moved offices); it was still used for pretty heavy design work using Adobe CS5 back then - today it's still a very useful machine. I have another one which the wife uses daily and I can say that in terms of performance, both are very responsive and haven't let us down. No de-frags, no re-installs, no crashes (certainly not in terms of the OS - the odd software glitch here and there), the screens are still fine (although the slightly older one does suffer from a little burn-in if Excel is left on-screen for too long but it soon disappears). Both have 4GB RAM, both still have their original 5200 rpm spinners but as they still do what is asked of them, I am loathed to let them go. I also still have a 2002 Powerbook G4 which I don't use, but it still works faultlessly.
 
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A friend of mine just gave her Mid-2007 iMac to her teenage daughter because she needed a computer for school (online research and papers). I upgraded the RAM from 2GB to 4GB for $22 and installed El Capitan 10.11.6 from a thumb drive after erasing the hard drive. Her dad then installed and activated one of his five Office 365 licenses on that iMac, and I was surprised how well it ran the latest version of Office 2016 despite its age and slow hard drive. The daughter is now happily going to use until she graduates from High School (aka another two years).

At that point, this iMac is going to be more than 13 years old. If it survives, that is.
 
2011, 11" MacBook Air -> replaced 2013 by a 13" MacBook Pro
late 2012 iMac 27" (i7, 680 MX, 32 GB RAM), still running very fine
2014, Mac mini (replacing older PC as HTPC), later replaced by Apple TV 4K

I'm looking for reasons to upgrade the iMac, but since it does its job so well, I'm having a hard time.
 
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Still using my mid-2010 Mac mini as my main computer. Upgraded the RAM to 16GB, replaced the HDD with an entry-level 120GB SSD, removed the optical drive and replaced it with an adapter to hold a WD Black 750GB.

I'm waiting to see what Apple are going to do regarding the so-called "low cost MacBook Air replacement"...
 
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Generally 2-3 years in recent years, I think I will probably move to about 4 from now though as machines are advancing more slowly but getting more expensive (well, on this side of the garden wall at least :apple:) I am also anticipating the rumoured switch to ARM which I'm personally quite optimistic about (Though I feel for those dreading it due to software compatibility issues going forward). At least a long upgrade cycle is made more bearable this time around by Mojave which is the first OS update I've been particularly excited for since Yosemite :)
 
Hope Apple doesn't see this thread and realize that over 60 percent of posters keep their Macs 6 plus years... They will have the coders in overdrive figuring out ways to bloat the OS and force people onto new hardware :)
 
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Tor Eckman said:
Hope Apple doesn't see this thread and realize that over 60 percent of posters keep their Macs 6 plus years... They will have the coders in overdrive figuring out ways to bloat the OS and force people onto new hardware :)
Click to expand...
No need, they've already figured it out: Deprecate OpenGL and require Metal in Mojave. Want the dark mode? Simple, upgrade your Mac. ;)

Good thing it remains possible to run Mojave on these older Macs, just without official support from Apple. :)
 
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I still have my original unibody MacBook Pro (late 2008) - so just at 10 years. It is stuck on macOS 10.11.6, cannot be off the charger and struggles with most tasks. Looking to update to an iMac. Just not sure how much longer I can hold out. Been seriously looking since mid-last year.
 
The old adage is if it ain't broke don't fix it and nothing could be more relevant in this case. The sweet spot for iMacs is the mid 2011 releases with the excellent Intel Sandy Bridge CPU just prior to Apple releasing the slimline model in 2012.
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nambuccaheadsau said:
Every second model.
Click to expand...
Ridiculous.
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redheeler said:
No need, they've already figured it out: Deprecate OpenGL and require Metal in Mojave. Want the dark mode? Simple, upgrade your Mac. ;)

Good thing it remains possible to run Mojave on these older Macs, just without official support from Apple. :)
Click to expand...
In other words Apple is holding the Mac user to ransom.
 
I have a 2011 27in iMac that I will replace with next update.

I will likely keep the next machine for 5-8 years assuming it does not fail after AppleCare ends. I will purchase model with best GPU option, CPU upgrade and 1TB SSD, if memory is not upgradeable I will upgrade to at least 16gig.


I window shop the new rMBP all the time but my 2013 13in does its job just fine.
 
I had an HP monitor that I’ve been using since 2007 that recently crapped out. It would only stay on for 1 second before the screen would go black.

Luckily, I was able to buy a replacement monitor for $100 the next day and now I’m back in business.

That would be my fear with an iMac; that I’d need to buy a whole new computer AND a new monitor if something went wrong. You ain’t gonna get no iMac for $100.
 
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