Longevity- Four Years Old Today

[bearda]

Let me know when Dell or HP allow you to buy a 4 (or more) year warranty on any of their consumer PCs, then you can talk down Applecare.

I was really under the impression Dell did offer a 3-year extended warranty on most/if not all their PCs, and a 4 year on their higher end ones. I clicked through a couple of their models and they all offered at least 3 year for a reasonable price.

A car or a motorbike also usually have only one or two year warranty...

What kind of cars are you buying? 3 year bumper to bump/5 year powertrain is pretty standard for most makes by now (before you start getting into extended). I know of no car manufacturer who offers only a 1 year warranty.

 

[peglegjack]

I bought the 2.4GHz mid 2007 iMac the day it came out in Aug. 2007. And that was on an education discount that came with a 30 GB 5th generation iPod (which is stacked with 8000 songs, my friend has it now). Since then I upped the ram to 6GB and have gone from Tiger to Leopard to Snow Leopard to Lion. And soon Mountain Lion, so it's definitely pretty awesome to be about to say that, not to mention to have a system that will probably be supported by security updates for at least 7 years.

And I could certainly see it lasting even longer, since the most intensive thing I do with it is some light work in Logic Express (I'm more a hobbyist than a guy who uses 100 tracks/multiple plug-ins). 16 or so is fine with me.

It's also my stereo, DVD player, TV, and occasional game machine. So really I can't complain.

 

[Santabean2000]

I upgrade my computer every year, it comes out to very cheap. 2 Years ago I paid $1100 for an imac which I sold the following year a $1000. Then I bought a newer Imac for $900.

When I resell this one I will only pay $200-$300 for the next model. Keep upgrading every year and you will never feel the pocket killer like the first time.

I can see the attraction in this MO. But I can also see the hassle too.

I like getting the best I can at the time, setting it up just right and then just getting on and using it. I do also enjoy following the advances in tech, but apart from SSDs, there have not been a lot of great leaps forward. Yes, I know CPUs etc are THAT much faster, but the truth is for most average folk like me, the CPUs etc of days gone are still more than capable.

 

[kitsunestudios]

The family's Mac Plus still works.

 

[leman]

What kind of cars are you buying? 3 year bumper to bump/5 year powertrain is pretty standard for most makes by now (before you start getting into extended). I know of no car manufacturer who offers only a 1 year warranty.

Where I live its usually 24 month + you can pay money for an extended warranty (which in fact is an insurance).

 

[talmy]

I've owned 8 "main" desktop computers (2 Macs) and 5 notebook computers (4 Macs), as well as quite a few other systems. While I've liked my Macs vastly more than PCs I can't say that they last longer or shorter -- seems to be about the same failure rate. I do know that they are more expensive and difficult to repair, and I feel my warranties with Dell were better than Applecare. (I could repair the Dell's myself and Dell would ship replacement parts to me overnight -- I have to take my Macs into the Apple store and it takes days.)

Macs do become obsolete faster. The hardware, OS, and software are fairly closely tied together, and if you are maintaining more than one system you can't really have them differ more than a couple of years in age without problems. I'm still using a Windows XP Dell computer I bought 9 years ago, as well as a 2011 HP Workstation at work that runs XP, and Windows XP virtual machines under OS X. They will all run every program I need to use in Windows. The programs also run in Windows 7. Say that for the contemporary OS X Jaguar, G4 iMac, software at the time, and the current Apple lineup and software. The new annual OS upgrade cycle and Apple's habit of quickly dropping "legacy" ports just makes matters worse. Why do my 4 Mac notebooks each use a different video port?? My first one was bought only 7 years ago!

 

[fhall1]

I was really under the impression Dell did offer a 3-year extended warranty on most/if not all their PCs, and a 4 year on their higher end ones. I clicked through a couple of their models and they all offered at least 3 year for a reasonable price.

Thus my point....same as Applecare....I haven't seen anyone offer a longer warranty for a consumer PC than 3 years.

 

[Mike Valmike]

Props to your 2007 iMac and I'm glad to see it performing like a Mac should!

I'm rocking an early 2009 iMac 24" base model, and it still runs like it's brand new, albeit under a heavy load. I'm ready to upgrade because I'm doing much more with it than it was ever designed to do. Encoding blu-rays for use with ATV3 is, shall we say, not fast. Doing it while serving media for said ATV3 is taxing. Doing all that while also serving files for the house... plus heavy Office use... plus occasionally editing video plus plus etc etc... well it still holds up but you can tell it's time to move forward. It was nice that I maxed out the RAM at 8GB for all of, what, $45 from OWC.

Ready for that iMac 2012 refresh, and then this happy 2009 machine is going to spend its retirement in light duty as my wife's internet terminal with Office and such for minor document work. I suspect taking away its file and media serving duties will relieve most of the strain and give it another 3 years of useful life running Mountain Lion and Lynx before it finally has to be retired for Smilodon (see today's XKCD)

 

[Rich2Putt]

FWIW....My previous PC (Quantec) lasted 7 yrs and my current Gateway is in it's 8th yr.

I'll be switching to an iMac once the 2012 become available. Had no issues with Windows 7. I just want to try a different OS.

 

[InlawBiker]

Apple tends to be a fair investment but not always. Some random numbers from my own personal experience.

We had a 2007 white Macbook, bought new for $879. I sold it yesterday for $275. I had so many Craigslist emails I had to ignore most of them.

I have a mid-spec Dell desktop, paid $800 18 months ago. It's worth maybe $400 today, I checked on eBay. In 18 more months it'll be worth maybe $150.

The 2010 27" iMac I wanted back then was $2000. Ebay value is about $1400 now. In another 18 months maybe $1000? That's a guess, total $$ loss is about equal between a PC and iMac. After 3 years though nobody will want the Dell but somebody will want the iMac.

I don't believe the high-spec iMacs are a good value for casual use. They can't be upgraded and in 3 years they can't compete with the newest hardware.

So what's my point? I'm not sure

- Mac & PC both depreciate but the end cost is close to the same. So you may as well get the Mac if you prefer them. And who doesn't really?

- Mac is much easier to sell later.