How to keep up with Apple and how soon to refresh the hardware

[redhatlab]

Hi,

My old iMac from 2008 just die on me and I am planning in buying a new iMac. I have been doing some more research and I have notice that recent models 2011, 2012 are having issues from hard drives to screen dust to over heating. I can understand that not all situations are the same and buying the Apple Care always comes handy in moments like that.

My question now is, how ofter is a good practice to refresh the Apple hardware? 3 or 4 years? as soon as the Apple Care runs out?

Note: I am planning on buying an iMac and sell it in eBay 3 years later to use the cash to buy a new one. Is this a good idea or should I just wait until it dies?

 

[monkeybagel]

Hi,

My old iMac from 2008 just die on me and I am planning in buying a new iMac. I have been doing some more research and I have notice that recent models 2011, 2012 are having issues from hard drives to screen dust to over heating. I can understand that not all situations are the same and buying the Apple Care always comes handy in moments like that.

My question now is, how ofter is a good practice to refresh the Apple hardware? 3 or 4 years? as soon as the Apple Care runs out?

Note: I am planning on buying an iMac and sell it in eBay 3 years later to use the cash to buy a new one. Is this a good idea or should I just wait until it dies?

Really depends on how you use your hardware, and what you use it for. When it comes to my Apple equipment, I usually try to stay pretty current, but I am in the industry so it benefits me business-wise.

If it is a home computer, I would recommend using it until it stops meeting your needs. Right now, a late 2007 iMac is scheduled to run 10.9 when it is released, and from what I have seen it actually runs good on the older hardware. If your 2008 was still running, I would continue using it. I have a 2007 that is running the 10.9 beta as a spare machine, and it runs it nicely. I don't do much heavy lifting on that machine, but it does have a purpose that I use it for, and I do need it for that purpose. It originally came with OS 10.4.7 I believe.

If you want to stay on the cutting edge, you may want to eBay your hardware when you anticipate a new one being released.

If you sell right when the AppleCare expires, then you would be giving up some money. If the machine has even just a few months of AppleCare coverage on it when you put it up for sale, it will give the buyer additional confidence about the purchase and will sell for slightly more.

 

[TallManNY]

Expect it to last five years. The complaints are the vocal 1 percent.

 

[benwiggy]

I would recommend using it until it stops meeting your needs.

I concur. Macs are built to last, and will serve you a long time. I ran my 2006 iMac until the end of last year. It was running out of disk space, couldn't upgrade to 10.8 and was a bit slow running the latest large software packages.
My 2009 MacBook is still working really well, with a new SSD and maxed out RAM.

I wouldn't work to a timetable. See how your old machine is doing in 3 years time, and see what the new models are offering. (And see how much cash you have!)

Some people sell their Macs on eBay as soon as a new model comes out, of course!

In short: there is no rule of thumb for this, except to use your current Mac until you feel you've got good use out of it, and your are able to justify the investment in a new one.

 

[phoenixsan]

Imho.....

if you earn a living with your computer, you maybe need to be always on top. If you use your stuff in a medium-heavy workload, maybe now-3 years is a good time to upgrade. And using computer stuff for no critical work can give you up to 5 years before serious upgrade. Still, numbers can vary based in the care of the equipment and the presence of functional or cosmetic issues. And less no forget disruptive software ( as OS updates).....

 

[redhatlab]

Thank you all for your reponses.

I use my computer for my freelance job as a web developer, so I don't render videos or play games on the computer, but I will watch content from youtube, netflix and hulu from time to time.

My current iMac die because of an issue the 2008 model had with over heating burning out the video card and after two video card replacements I think it is time to move on.

I also agree that they are really good machines and I was able to take mine from the OS in 2008 (Panter I think) to the current Mountain Lion and if the video card was not the issue I will no be posting here because it work like a charm. The sad part of the story is that only the video card is bad the rest of the computer is in great shape.