HW or SW?
Make a distinction between hardware and software: hardware-wise your battery will most likely NOT live to be 5 years old. Expect to have to replace it after 2-4 years depending on usage (more likely 2 years
) or just keep it plugged.
On the software side it is very likely that in 5 years time you will no longer be able to run the latest version of MACOS on that machine without painfully slow performance. Keep upgrading until about the 3rd year and then keep the configuration you have. A major factor in future upgradability is RAM. Most new applications and OS's use more RAM than the version before. At some point you will most likely run out of RAM to run upgrades smoothly.
And finaly consider this: when you buy a cheaper model (like the ibook as opposed to the powerbook), you can more frequently buy a new model than when you buy top of the line. (als see: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/130620/). Resulting in higher average performance over a longer period.
The hardware will most likely last 5 years or longer, if there are any hardware problems you will most likely experience them in the first year (or the first weeks). After that: dont drop it and it will last 5 years easily.
Make a distinction between hardware and software: hardware-wise your battery will most likely NOT live to be 5 years old. Expect to have to replace it after 2-4 years depending on usage (more likely 2 years
) or just keep it plugged.On the software side it is very likely that in 5 years time you will no longer be able to run the latest version of MACOS on that machine without painfully slow performance. Keep upgrading until about the 3rd year and then keep the configuration you have. A major factor in future upgradability is RAM. Most new applications and OS's use more RAM than the version before. At some point you will most likely run out of RAM to run upgrades smoothly.
And finaly consider this: when you buy a cheaper model (like the ibook as opposed to the powerbook), you can more frequently buy a new model than when you buy top of the line. (als see: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/130620/). Resulting in higher average performance over a longer period.
The hardware will most likely last 5 years or longer, if there are any hardware problems you will most likely experience them in the first year (or the first weeks). After that: dont drop it and it will last 5 years easily.