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How many years you keep using your laptop?

My PowerBook G4 1.25MHz (rev. A) is going well since May 2004. I put in the larger/faster drive in there in 2006 which gave it a nice speed increase (4200rpm to 5400rpm) but it's showing it's age now. I am running Tiger and iLife 06 with about 8000 photo's from my 6MP camera. When going between iPhoto and iWeb, things get really pokey!

I've got my $$$ in the bank for a new MBP in January @ MWSF. Part of me wonders if I should upgrade the RAM in the PB to 2GB, put on Leopard and iLife 08 to give the PB all it can have and wait for the summer's MBP upgrade with Nehalem. Moving to the current crop of MBP's would have me realize a 425-450% performance increase.

So, that puts my PB in the ~4 year lifespan before I needed a faster computer to keep up with my changing needs!
 
I replace my laptops every 3-4 years depending on timing as far as new models-becoming-avail are concerned.

I like to resell my laptop to capture the remaining value in it.
I never buy Rev A. My previous 17" Powerbook G4 1.67GHz was rev D and my current MBP (bought in Oct 2007) is Rev C.
 
I've just got a Macbook, and i reckon i'll use it for 3 years until applecare runs out. that way i'll be in my last year if uni and get some mega discount just as i leave :)
 
I've had my 17" WideScreen HP laptop for 3 1/2 years. It has spent an abnormally large percentage of its life in and out of "Best Buy/Geek Squad" service - no less than a total of 4 1/2 months spent "out of service and in repair" out of those 3 1/2 years. Well, the extended warranty is now up & I don't intend to start having to pay for repairs (btw, I am not at all hard on my computers - this one was simply a lemon that Best Buy refused to replace - and that "the Geek Squad" never really repaired properly...) That's why I've relegated it to backup service for as much longer as it might last (if past expericene is any guide, it's probably about due for another major malfunction any time now...) and have ordered my first-ever Mac - a "Blackbook" - which is scheduled to be shipped to me on or about 1/8/08... If it lasts 3 1/2 years with relatively little trouble during that time I'll be pleased.

r-gordon-7
 
hulugu said:
My TiBook croaked in March, but I got a good 5 1/2 years. I was beginning to think I was one of the last, good to hear that others are still going strong.
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My wife uses my 500 MHz G3 iBook as her main computer, and we both use my 500 MHz g4 TiBook as the "coffee table" computer. Both are circa 2001 and still run like new, tiger on the G3, Leopard on the G4.
 
I have three laptops that I use all the time but the oldest one I am starting to use less because it is simply to slow.

The oldest one is an HP Pentium 3 3.0GHZ 17" with 2GB memory. It's two years old.

Newest is my MBP. Had it since the first week of July and use this one the most. I'll keep it till it starts acting like the above.

Third notebook is a HP dual core 2.2GHZ 15" with 2GB. It's one year old now and works great. I'll keep using this one also till I can replace it with another Mac sometime in 2008.
 
My last Mac laptop lasted me 5 years (a Powerbook G4 667/DVI bought in '02) and it was still going strong when I sold it (replaced by a 17" MBP)

OTOH, I also have a 17" HP which is under two years old and showing signs of age - I suspect I'll be disposing of it in another 12 months or so.
 
2 to 3 years. (Though I assume my current macbook pro will last me 3 years with Applecare so 3 years for this one until I buy the macbook pro- Quantum that using a different dimension to store the components so that the computer is as thick as a piece of paper but as strong as cubic meter of titanium.)
 
FJ218700 said:
My wife uses my 500 MHz G3 iBook as her main computer, and we both use my 500 MHz g4 TiBook as the "coffee table" computer. Both are circa 2001 and run like still run like new, tiger on the G3, Leopard on the G4.
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Wow, my wife and I had a G3 Pismo for a bit, too. Now, the oldest bit of kit is the last run of the 12" Powerbook with the 1.5 G4.

I'm thinking of hacking the TiBook into a file server, the video card is borked, but it works if you don't move it around too much.
 
I'm planning to keep my current macbook for three years. Then I'll get a new laptop for college. As to the macbook pro, that one gets updated by my company every six months (next update on 25/1... I hope that macworld's surprises are available immiedately!) making the mbp irrelevant.
 
I want to keep it for about 4 years but we'll see if that happens. I have always had a hard time finding a computer I actually like, I am really hoping the macbook will change that.
 
I had an ibook g3 600 that I bought in 2001 and used until late 2005 (worked until 2007) when I bought a power book g4 17" 1.67 that I expect to get me through 2 more years of graduate school unless apple comes out with an ultra portable or I decide to buy an eepc
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/3B48b Safari/419.3)

I've been using my MacBook Pro for 1.5 years, still running like a champ.
 
I have a 2 year turn around on my laptops. Technology changes, things get updated and I've found for what I do that 2 years is about right for my laptops.

Now for towers, like the Power Mac & Mac Pro, that could be 3-5 years. I've always gotten top of the line towers because of lifespan and resale value. I had a Power Mac G4 dual 800 since 2001 that I just sold this year. Great machine and it was still going strong. I replaced it back in July with a Mac Pro 8-core machine. I also had a Power Mac G5 dual 2.5 that was replaced with a Mac Pro 2.66 because it's liquid cooling failed.

Long story short, 2 years for a laptop and 3-5 for a tower.

~Crawn
 
Typically so far, I use them for about 5 months (then they break, because I bought them used) However, I've had my iBook for over a year, and providing that it doesn't break, I'm going to use it until 2011, when my parents have promised me a new BlackBook for college.
 
I got my first mac, a new 2.4 MBP, in september and have loved it so much that I've been setting aside $50 every month just so that I can buy the buy the newest top of the line model in three years. I doubt that my MBP will be worn out by then, I'm just excited to see what the new MBPs are like then. After I get a new MBP my old one will be come my car stereo in my VW westfalia. It'll replace the lance armstrong edition HP that I got in 2005
 
Use it until it breaks. I bought my black macbook in May 2007, hoping to use it at least until 2009 or beyond. Don't do much except homework, itunes, and videos. Games.. well, I got a desktop for that.

My longest laptop I've used is a Dell from 2004 til 2007 when I got my MacBook. My shortest is an HP laptop.. barely 6 months and it was bought brand new too.
 
13 months on MacBook

I've got 13 months on my Macbook, and I intend to go another three years.

The MacBook has a user-upgradable hard drive, so as long as they build bigger capacity drives that will work, I can keep it current.

Although I think I may have a flaky combo drive. I tried to load Leopard on it, and it just spits out the disk after reboot. Refuses to go through the install. Not 100% sure if it's the Leopard DVD or the drive itself, but all other media (CDs, DVD movies, etc.) seems to function fine on it.
 
CyberBob859 said:
I've got 13 months on my Macbook, and I intend to go another three years.

The MacBook has a user-upgradable hard drive, so as long as they build bigger capacity drives that will work, I can keep it current.

Although I think I may have a flaky combo drive. I tried to load Leopard on it, and it just spits out the disk after reboot. Refuses to go through the install. Not 100% sure if it's the Leopard DVD or the drive itself, but all other media (CDs, DVD movies, etc.) seems to function fine on it.
Click to expand...

Mine does that also but if I reinsert it, it'll read. I noticed this on my dad's iMac 24" also... so I'm guessing its possible its the disk. As long as it reads, I don't think there should be a problem.
 
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