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how long retain your MAC PRO before selling it?

U

umbilical

macrumors 65816
Original poster
May 3, 2008
1,329
362
FL, USA
I have my mac pro since 4 months ago, I love it, and I expect have for 5 years before sell, my friends make jokes of me beacuse when I see a new model coming I sell my mac pro and buy the new one, hehe but! this time I promise keep for 5 years, wharever new model coming :)
 
This Mac Pro will probably be the first desktop I keep more than a year -

I work as a systems engineer and have lots of clients who buy my personal machines for themselves as they know I keep them in mint condition and will come help set it up for them and so on , plus my pc rigs are ultra high end built with nothing but high end parts and still at a fraction they could get from Alienware / Falcon so on

So I can sell them every 6-8 months for pretty much what I paid for them , sometimes even a few bucks more , so it made sense for me to rotate them out all the time

I could likely sell the Mac Pro for decent each year but plan on keeping about 2 years then doing it -
 
When I bought my PowerBook I said that at that price point I would keep it through college. I bought it just as I transferred from a 2-year to a 4-year college, but due to switching majors I had 3 years to go. I finished in 14 months after all and still kept the PB. I got through grad school with it and said I'd buy a desktop machine after grad school. Thus brining me to the MP, this turned out to be a gift.

I intend to keep my MP 3 years before I look to upgrade/update.

I have found that when I had windows machines I would build them myself and upgrade at least the CPU and mobo once every 9-18 months depending upon what was out. I did a fair amount of gaming and worked extensively in photoshop so that could explain some of it. I also think my propensity to upgrade was the availability and price of the products. However, with my PB and I assume now with my MP, things just seem to run better longer. My PB is still kicking the asses I need it to kick and my only reason for uttering the words "I want a MB" is that I need something portable that runs windows for the next 10 months. Otherwise, I wouldn't care if I had another laptop again that did anything substantial because my PB is running very well.

Sorry to derail into speaking about laptops, but it was part of the context. ;)

I think your friends need to mind their own business about your purchases. It's your deal not theirs. Let them laugh. My MP was purchased 4/30/08, I don't regret it one bit.
 
I typically change desktops every 2.5 - 3 years. I typically change laptops every 4-5 years.
 
I don't understand how people can recycle their computers and not lose money. Sure, there is eBay, but in my experience it's hit or miss on resale for computers like the Mac Pro. I bought my 2.66 and about 6 months later took a look to see what it was worth (see what people were paying for them on ebay). Even though I had upped my ram and added 3 more drives, I could see that I'd lose around $800 maybe more selling on eBay. Then to buy a new replacement machine, it would have easily been $1000 out of my pocket for trade in. I decided then that my computer was worth more over the long term as a backup machine or renderbox than to lose money reselling it.

Then there is also the issue of getting ripped off on eBay or the hassle of shipping it....

I have read about people dumping their computers on eBay and actually making MORE than the initial investment... but I don't know how they do it, unless they are lying.

I figure my 2007 2.66 is worth $800, maybe $1000 on the open market. That's with 4 drives and 6gb of ram. It's worth more than that to me because of what I can still do with it, so it doesn't make sense to sell it and take that big of hit. The replacement machine wouldn't do that much more, but it sure would cost a lot more to buy it.
 
THX1139 said:
Even though I had upped my ram and added 3 more drives
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Adding things to it doesn't typically up the price much... yeah it should, but it doesn't. Your best to pull some of the extras and sell them separately.
 
Kosh66 said:
Adding things to it doesn't typically up the price much... yeah it should, but it doesn't. Your best to pull some of the extras and sell them separately.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but it would make it more attractive for a person to buy. Most people buy machines looking for a bargain and it's pretty competitive to get their attentin. What attracts people are incentives like Apple Care, additional ram, hard drives and software (with licenses). If someone can get all that without having to pay much more, then it's easier to sell the machine. Though you're correct, you would take a loss.

I might try posting mine stripped down to see if I can get any feelers. I wonder what the value would be? 1200? 1500?
 
Based on the fact that I had 2 G3's, one G4, and one G5, I probably switch out every 3-4 years. I switched out the G5 from Oct. 2004 this past spring for the Mac Pro.
 
THX1139 said:
I figure my 2007 2.66 is worth $800, maybe $1000 on the open market. That's with 4 drives and 6gb of ram. It's worth more than that to me because of what I can still do with it, so it doesn't make sense to sell it and take that big of hit. The replacement machine wouldn't do that much more, but it sure would cost a lot more to buy it.
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A refurb 2.66 on Apple.com is still going at $1999, you're MP should still pull pretty close to that, I wouldn't settle for less than $2000 honestly with the upgrades. After you factor in sales tax you're still offering the buyer quite a deal. Don't cheapshot yourself and go for $1200. If you want to lowball the sale that much let me know when you put it up and I'll buy it from you
 
THX1139 said:
I don't understand how people can recycle their computers and not lose money. Sure, there is eBay, but in my experience it's hit or miss on resale for computers like the Mac Pro. I bought my 2.66 and about 6 months later took a look to see what it was worth (see what people were paying for them on ebay). Even though I had upped my ram and added 3 more drives, I could see that I'd lose around $800 maybe more selling on eBay. Then to buy a new replacement machine, it would have easily been $1000 out of my pocket for trade in. I decided then that my computer was worth more over the long term as a backup machine or renderbox than to lose money reselling it.
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Only a small percentage trade up their system. With the amount Mac Pros go for recycling could give you better performance than you'd get from the processor upgrade choices over say 5 years. I mean the dual core 3GHz option was $800, if youd invested that recycling instead after 3 years you could have an 8 core system with faster cores and your loss would have been ~1 year processing 12% slower. Really it depends how you want to approach it. If you need performance then recycling can work in your favour economically. I think people also do it just to have the latest and greatest. There are other reasons too.

I have read about people dumping their computers on eBay and actually making MORE than the initial investment... but I don't know how they do it, unless they are lying.
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They make a big issue out of how much Apple charge for the upgrades the system they are selling has. Alot also include a slew of high end professional software and try to make it seem like the buyer isn't just getting pirated software.

I figure my 2007 2.66 is worth $800, maybe $1000 on the open market. That's with 4 drives and 6gb of ram. It's worth more than that to me because of what I can still do with it, so it doesn't make sense to sell it and take that big of hit. The replacement machine wouldn't do that much more, but it sure would cost a lot more to buy it.
Click to expand...

You can get alot more than $800. I wouldn't be suprised to see you get in excess of $2,000 on eBay. Depends how big the drives are and how well you write the description though. As wheezy says, the cheapest you can get a Mac Pro from Apple(without discounts) is for $2,000 + sales tax. And as you say it is still more than enough for you, it's also more than enough for alot of potential buyers and demand is quite good for them.
 
For how much I've invested in it...I'll never get rid of it. Originally, my thought process was 3 years from original purchase date, but I seriously doubt it.

1 year has gone by, and I have no reason to believe the Mac Pro will be slow for me in 2 years.

So, bottom line, I will keep this thing forever.
 
FF_productions said:
For how much I've invested in it...I'll never get rid of it. Originally, my thought process was 3 years from original purchase date, but I seriously doubt it.

1 year has gone by, and I have no reason to believe the Mac Pro will be slow for me in 2 years.

So, bottom line, I will keep this thing forever.
Click to expand...

It would take something beyond Nehalem and the power of an multi-complex super-computer in a package of the Mac Pro case to make you upgrade? :D
 
I don't have a MP yet, but anticipate buying one in the next few weeks. I plan to get the 8-core base system and load it up on RAM... from there I expect it to run great for several years, at least 5 I would hope. That makes the cost of purchase $500/yr... it's a lot more up front, but cheaper compared to buying a new PC every 12-18 months (that won't catch up in power until several years down the road)
 
I can't imagine using a 5 year old computer personally , I'd say those expecting it to not even be slow for them in 5 years might be stretching it some

I run into clients at time that try this and don't realize the money they are losing by using a slow machine , that spending money on a new machine would save them money , unless your time is worth zero I guess

A five year old computer right now would have been a Mac Pro bought in 2003 - you'd be looking at a Power Mac G5/G4 anywhere from 1ghz to 1.6Ghz - single core - even worse on the notebook side - a mac mini with C2D today would crush them even

That would be a bit of a difference compared to todays - I'd imagine between now and 2013/2014 there will be a ridiculous difference also

Nothing wrong with keeping it as long as you want , but saying you can don't expect a computer you buy today to be slow for you in 5 years is just stretching it , in the business world anyway , using a 5 year old computer causes you to lose more money that what you are saving
 
i dont cycle, rather get a new computer and find a use for the old one.

probably will have my MBP for another 2 years, that will make it 4 years old. i doubt ill have money to buy it then tho!! (poor uni student)
 
^ Exact same here. I generally use my computer until it is too slow to to run the software to achieve the purposes I need. Right now my 4 year old G5 is running Leopard and my apps without problem at all. I can see myself using it for another 2 years, then assigning it as a secondary backup until it dies (could get another 4 years).

I generally like buying towers with plenty of ram slots, as I can upgrade them to get most life out of them.
 
TheReef said:
^ Exact same here. I generally use my computer until it is too slow to to run the software to achieve the purposes I need. Right now my 4 year old G5 is running Leopard and my apps without problem at all. I can see myself using it for another 2 years, then assigning it as a secondary backup until it dies (could get another 4 years).

I generally like buying towers with plenty of ram slots, as I can upgrade them to get most life out of them.
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i sure hope your keen with using leopard for the next five years then :(
 
Snow Leopard hasn't exactly been confirmed as intel-only just yet :p I'm still staying optimistic.

On that note, I'm still running Panther on my almost 10 year old Pismo.
 
TheReef said:
Snow Leopard hasn't exactly been confirmed as intel-only just yet :p I'm still staying optimistic.

On that note, I'm still running Panther on my almost 10 year old Pismo.
Click to expand...

yes tahts a good point.

oh dont remind me of panther! my G3 imac died a few weeks ago, still mourning her. i dont want to get rid of her she was so good!!! i learnt how to use mac os 9 on that thing!!!!
 
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