How long does a well loved MBP last?

[doink?]

I bought my 15" MBP in August of 2007 and since then have been using it EVERYday for graphics/photo/video editing. It has been well loved, making it through life in a college dorm and even through being dropped(oops).

My question is how long will this badboy really last? How long do you think I can keep depending on it to get work done? I am going to be starting a graduate program in January, in which I will be working a great deal on my laptop for more graphics/photo/video editing and programming. I am contemplating whether it's necessary to buy a new MBP. I am a little bit afraid my laptop won't make it through another vigorous year of work. Am I being over cautious? How long does a well loved MBP usually last?

I upgraded to Lion recently and my adobe suite(cs5) seems slower, and things like iphoto/Photo booth crash consistently...not sure if this is just Lion? Or if getting a newer MBP would help adobe run smoother?

Other info:

-Over the summer I put a new hard drive in for more space(750GB)

-The only other issue I have sometimes is that my internal speakers quit randomly. This usually is resolved by restarting my computer.

-I'd like to save money, and use the money for a new laptop on other things I need for the program(like a DLSR), but I realize that having a good laptop is important for my program too!

advice?

 

[heisenberg123]

I bought my 15" MBP in August of 2007 and since then have been using it EVERYday for graphics/photo/video editing. It has been well loved, making it through life in a college dorm and even through being dropped(oops).

My question is how long will this badboy really last? How long do you think I can keep depending on it to get work done? I am going to be starting a graduate program in January, in which I will be working a great deal on my laptop for more graphics/photo/video editing and programming. I am contemplating whether it's necessary to buy a new MBP. I am a little bit afraid my laptop won't make it through another vigorous year of work. Am I being over cautious? How long does a well loved MBP usually last?

I upgraded to Lion recently and my adobe suite(cs5) seems slower, and things like iphoto/Photo booth crash consistently...not sure if this is just Lion? Or if getting a newer MBP would help adobe run smoother?

Other info:

-Over the summer I put a new hard drive in for more space(750GB)

-The only other issue I have sometimes is that my internal speakers quit randomly. This usually is resolved by restarting my computer.

-I'd like to save money, and use the money for a new laptop on other things I need for the program(like a DLSR), but I realize that having a good laptop is important for my program too!

advice?

how much RAM do you have, Lion uses more than SL so that might be why it feels slower for me if your on Lion and use photoshop and video editing you should invest in 8GB of RAM

 

[johnhurley]

My question is how long will this badboy really last? How long do you think I can keep depending on it to get work done?

advice?

Do you have a dependable backup strategy? Personally I use multiple different external drives for time machine backups and periodically I start fresh by erasing the partition that time machine backups are going to and thus forcing a complete new time machine backup. Plus I rotate some of my drives in and out periodically. I also disable local backups since that feature seems a little flaky but that may not be a big factor for a machine that has 750 gb.

Personally if I were you and felt confident that I had a good viable backup strategy I would keep using your existing machine. Keep some cash stashed away if possible for when and if it really does go south but that could easily be another 5 years down the road.

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I upgraded to Lion recently and my adobe suite(cs5) seems slower, and things like iphoto/Photo booth crash consistently...not sure if this is just Lion?

Sorry I did not see that part.

Is it possible that after the upgrade you have an old copy of iPhoto/Photo booth somewhere instead of using the latest version? Some people apparently run stuff out of their own application directories instead of the /Applications ( root level ) directory.

Have you checked for application updates for iPhoto and/or Adobe?

A trip to the genius bar to ask some questions about those items specifically might not be a bad idea.

 

[thundersteele]

keep regular backups of your data, then you should be fine. Computers don't really break that often, so I don't see why it shouldn't last another year or two. If at some point you feel it's getting too slow, then you might consider an update.

One thing that tends to wear out more is the hard drive. Since you replaced that one already, it should be fine. The other thing is the battery, which probably already is rather weak now. If you can stay near a charger, that's also not an issue... more about convenience.

 

[GoCubsGo]

Probably longer than an unloved wife.

 

[talmy]

As long as the computer does what you need it to do, there is no reason to replace it. Even new computers can fail, so buying a new system isn't some sort of failure insurance. If you can maintain an emergency fund then just buy a new one when the computer fails and can't be reasonably repaired.

 

[Icy1007]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

The GPU on my early 2011 MBP just died yesterday. It POSTs, but no video appears. I took it into an Apple Store this morning and they are replacing the Logic Board (and the display for some reason) for free under warranty. My MBP spent most of its time sitting on my desk in clamshell mode hooked up to an external monitor. This is the first issue I've had with it since I bought it in February. But this proves that even new MBPs that aren't moved very often can have issues.

 

[Randman]

My main (and only computer at home) is a MBP 17 that I bought in 2002. Still runs mostly great. The optical drive went out and I need to run an external desk fan underneath the iRise to keep it cool but it's still chugging along.

With the OD out, haven't upgraded to Snow Leopard but it's going well. I have a robust backup system using external drives and it's basically a desktop model these days.

One of these days, I'll upgrade but it's still a workhorse.

 

[nickjf20]

I had a Powerbook G4 from 2001 going until late 2009, it still works, just the wireless dongle I used got stood on, and the internal airport cards were hitting £60, so I just bought this MBP instead.

Hopefully this'll last just as long

 

[MagicBoy]

My old launch spec 2006 MBP is still going strong with the Friend it was sold to. Got a replacement logic board under warranty due to the Bluetooth problem on early machines, and it's had a fan replaced since and munched it's way through a couple of batteries.

That's about as old an MBP as you'll find. Prior to that there are still plenty of PowerBooks in daily use.

 

[thundersteele]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

The GPU on my early 2011 MBP just died yesterday. It POSTs, but no video appears. I took it into an Apple Store this morning and they are replacing the Logic Board (and the display for some reason) for free under warranty. My MBP spent most of its time sitting on my desk in clamshell mode hooked up to an external monitor. This is the first issue I've had with it since I bought it in February. But this proves that even new MBPs that aren't moved very often can have issues.

I'm just wondering, if you operate it in clamshell mode for extended time periods, does the display get very warm? I don't think there's an overheat problem for other internal parts of the machine, since it would shut down otherwise. But the display might be getting more heat than what it is designed for.