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Poll: Do you take good care of your Mac?
- Thread starter Lord Blackadder
- Start date
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For the first X months after getting any electronics I will go into a fit if anything happens (X depends on what it is and how much $). After a while the 'newness' of the item has worn off and a few minor blemishes become 'acceptable'.
My MBP is just over 2 years old and has a couple very minor nicks around the edges, a very slight dent on the bottom, and the keyboard could use some cleaning. The screen is different, DO NOT TOUCH!
My MBP is just over 2 years old and has a couple very minor nicks around the edges, a very slight dent on the bottom, and the keyboard could use some cleaning. The screen is different, DO NOT TOUCH!
I always figure if a computer can't take damage it's not what i'm looking for, it is a tool (or a toy for my purposes) and if it gets dirty i don't care. I carry mine to work and friends all the time in my back pack and works just fine, may not be as pretty as some but...neither am I (lol) so it gives it personality. My 2 year old daughter has even walked across it while it was closed and it's doing great. This is my first Apple laptop so i kind of view it as a test of the durability of the product. And as far as my iMac is concerned it just sits there....i've had soda spill on the base but just wiped it off...don't see how you can really damage an iMac unless you knock it over or something.
I'm completely obsessive about it.
I sold my Power Mac G5 about 8 months ago and the guy told me he thought it was new. Not a scratch and not a molecule of dust inside.
I take unbelievably (insane) care of my machines.
I sold my Power Mac G5 about 8 months ago and the guy told me he thought it was new. Not a scratch and not a molecule of dust inside.
I take unbelievably (insane) care of my machines.
Do you dust the inside?
I use an air compressor and vacuum to clean inside my Power Mac G4's case every few months. It can get VERY dusty in there - although part of that is due to the dustiness of the house/furnace/air conditioning.
If I buy a refurb Mac I hope it will have gotten iGary-level care from its first owners.
I commend your honesty. I'm sure there are others out there that won't admit it.
I just set my laptop on the couch and it slid off onto the floor!
I think there is a difference between laptops and in door machines because after taking care of teh laptop very carefully for a week or so is very tiresome so you become used to a little wear and tear.
I agree - you just have to be careful that your standards don't slip too much. I depend on my laptop for work, so there are many times when I'm too focused on work to coddle it the way some people do.
The big problem is that it (the MBP) requires far more coddling not to end up looking like crap.
Well, the cheap plastics that many PC laptop cases are made from are much more hard-wearing than the brushed aluminum case of the PowerBook & MBP.
I really don't care too much about scratches. I still try to avoid it, but I'm not going to resell my laptop so I'm not bothered by cosmetic damage.
It's NOT brushed it's anodised!
Just like the Touch doesn't have an aluminium/aluminum back, but a STEEL back.
Does it matter? Yes, it certainly does when we're talking about the longevity of a surface.
Yeah - if you do the inexplicable Apple fanboy thing of comparing between a bottom-feeder laptop and a Mac (a fairer comparison in terms of utility and reliability I'll admit, but probably not what you're aiming for in terms of a favourable comparison). Most PC laptops around the MBP's price range - and many a lot less - have far harder-wearing alloy or composite bodies.
Easy there, chief!
I stand by my previous post, whether the aluminum is brushed, anodized or hand-polished by aged nuns in a remote Italian convent.
I'm not going to butt heads with you on this too much, since your appetite for argument on this far outstrips mine. But surely you'll concede that we can disagree on subjective style/appearance issues without resorting to the whole "fanboy" thing? I imagine you think I'm a zealot.
I think you're reading into what I said a bit and projecting though - I should have made it clearer that I was stating an opinion. Apple has always favored an attractive form factor over a utilitarian one.
In my subjective opinion, the PowerBook/MBP are (and have been for years) the best-looking laptops out there and, while more scratch-prone than many PC laptop cases, the alloy case is more than durable enough for me. It may sound funny but the thing I like most about the case is the fact that it is so clean and flat - no projecting legs, no uneven surfaces, no stickers.
But I think you go too far when you characterize "most" PC laptops has having "far" harder wearing cases. I think Apple is probably at or slightly above average in that department, especially if you are talking alloy cases. I haven't seen an alloy case that wasn't relatively scratch-prone, unless it was painted.
Easy there, chief!
I stand by my previous post, whether the aluminum is brushed, anodized or hand-polished by aged nuns in a remote Italian convent.
Tosser is correct - anodising, especially the more dense anodising that is performed on the MBP, does significantly aid anti-scratching. The surface, if it was unanodised (even brushed alu is usually clear anodised) would wear and corrode visibly after weeks or even days, not months or years. But in my case, scratching is not what we're talking about, and the finish doesn't have any significant effect on the strength of the shell as a whole, which on the MBP is paper-thin.
As I said, scratching is not the issue. And my pointers to 'fanboys' aren't to people I disagree with, but to people with no relevant experience or knowledge of whatever we're discussing but with pronounced opinions one way or another, subjectively or otherwise. And while I might speak from a one-sided perspective, I'm not speaking from one-sided experience.
In terms of impact damage, I wouldn't be going to far - because material wise, it's pretty damn obvious to anyone with the slightest awareness of engineering which out of the four would be the weakest:
1. A largely seamless, unreinforced thin aluminium skin
2. A polycarbonate shell
3. A bathtub-style cast or reinforced magnesium shell
4. An injection-moulded, carbon-short-fibre-reinforced plastic shell
If it's not clear, the answer is 1. And "most" PC laptops in the price range of the MBP and lower fall into 2, 3 and 4.
You did mention that "If I did the same with my PowerBook, I would have spent many thousands of dollars by now". In my case, try tens of thousands - because so far I've been getting through about three for-outside-use MBP's a year due to obvious cosmetic defects caused by impact damage, or in a couple of cases simply at rest on a stand. These are either shuffled off to others, repaired if worth it / serious enough or sold. In some cases this can be as simple as say getting up from a seat in the departure lounge and blundering into the side of another bench. While in a laptop bag. I just do not have these issues with any other machine I have from Dell, Lenovo, HP and Sony - and the fact is, that no other class of machine I have - and I have / had many - is anywhere near as delicate as the MBP in everyday portage. And it's due to the way it's built.
I love my BMB,It goes everywhere with me in it's Case-Mate Sienna Red Leather case, safely tucked into my Scooba padded Nylon Bag . It still is in pristine shape. I use i-Klear on the screen,and case front.. I treat my equipment with respect.
It goes everywhere with me in it's Case-Mate Sienna Red Leather case, safely tucked into my Scooba padded Nylon Bag . It still is in pristine shape. I use i-Klear on the screen,and case front.. I treat my equipment with respect.
My macbook has 1 minor nick on the side but that is it. it's now in a clear plastic case. The unit cost me 2400 + the apple care which i think came to 2800 when freight is included. I also use the iSkin cover for my keyboard. But most of the time i use external keyboard, mice and external screen. It sits closed have the time also.
I have down the rip the power-cord out but the magsafe have saved me so many times. I ended up getting a second hand powerbook g4 12inch, if i want to go and sit out side or in the house and eat and drink, i am not concerned if anything happens to this unit, this one too has had the power cord ripped out and the battery replaced.
I have down the rip the power-cord out but the magsafe have saved me so many times. I ended up getting a second hand powerbook g4 12inch, if i want to go and sit out side or in the house and eat and drink, i am not concerned if anything happens to this unit, this one too has had the power cord ripped out and the battery replaced.
I'd like to think I'm pretty careful with my gadgets, theres only a few scratches and dings on the sides of my iMac, considering I used to take it into college, I think it's done pretty well
Since I was a techie when I got my iBook, I was interested in not overloading the machine with too much unnecessary software. But I never saw the need to worry about blemishes and I never polished the thing since its a tool, not a Waterford centerpiece.
This may sound crazy, but I never drank liquids anywhere near my iBook or PC laptop.
This may sound crazy, but I never drank liquids anywhere near my iBook or PC laptop.
I'm fanatic when it comes to the casing of my MacBook, since it's prone to scratches. Whenever I see a mark on the casing, I tend to panic a little but they tend to come off straight away. Luckily, I have never dropped my MacBook, either. The only blemishes I have on my casing are a few surface scratches, which is normal anyway. Also, I polish the casing and wipe the keyboard once a week to maintain my MacBook's beautiful white shine.
Dittunk!
My Powerbook is immaculate. Externally I've always dusted, polished, not a single scratch on it. On the software side I've got it turn off the display after 1 minute, sleep in 10 minutes. The things incredible. I've looked after it and in turn it hasn't aged.
Unlike my Gericom laptop
took such great care of that but through the cheap build quality it's now worthless (despite technically being a powerhouse).
I take pretty good care of my MBP, but I have a kitty who thinks it is his bed. I'm constantly wiping off nose prints and cat hair. He's a punk!
I am extremely anal about the care of my baby. I must wash my hands and use purell before even touching the computer, which is in a hardshell black incase case to protect the exterior. Even a removable blemish has me cleaning the entire computer. I use gloves to touch the thing. I treat it as though it could break any second if I dont keep it- perfect.
Out of my Mac-using friends, I'm the least anal of the bunch. I try to take good care of my Macbook--I carry it in a padded notebook backpack, and I clean it when it gets dirty--but I'm not going to stress about minor cosmetic things. My palmrest is cracking; I could send it in for repair, but it's just not worth the hassle to send it in for a week over a cosmetic issue, especially when it's just going to happen again.That's how I voted.
I used to be super duper anal. If I took my lappy anywhere, I had iKlear cloth and spray as well as the disposable wipes. But after a few different machines, I've gotten to a comfortable place where as long as it looks all right and works well, I'm good to go. I still wipe my lappy off every few weeks or if it gets visibly/noticeably dirty and I don't go banging it around, but I'm pretty casual about it all.
I just have to stop being lazy and back it up.