I have purchased 3 Macs since I got into them during college. I started with a Performa, then upgraded to a beige G3 about 2 years later. I have been using the beige G3 ever since. Unfortunately for me, I still have both of these old machines and have yet to figure out the perfect upgrade scenario. I suffer from significant Mac lust, so I am always pining for the latest and greatest. The problem (?) is that they run forever and by the time I am ready to upgrade, my old Mac no longer has any value and I am stuck adding a new machine to my stockpile of old ones.
So, how often do you upgrade to a new machine? Has anyone here found the sweet spot for selling their old Macs and upgrading to a new model, or are you stuck doing the same thing I do? Do you purchase new or old…..high-end or low end?
I have no hard and fast rule. I am typing this on my 7th personal mac. I tend to get a new one when either there is something genuinely useful I want to do. (I remember the sadness when I had to switch to a graphical user interface on the internet (who out there remembers !go.X)) or when one of the kids/spouse/extended family member takes my mac as their own. Also once when Apple kept my box for 7 weeks for repair (well technically my exes, but still a reason). I have at this moment no reason to even consider a new box and likely will wait for the direction of the ‘media centre’ to become clear and a box is available that I can be reasonably assured will grow with that vision.
So, how often do you upgrade to a new machine? Has anyone here found the sweet spot for selling their old Macs and upgrading to a new model, or are you stuck doing the same thing I do? Do you purchase new or old…..high-end or low end?
For my personal, every-day machine, I go about two years, though I’m now on a nearly three-year-old AlBook, so there are exceptions (I haven’t traveled much recently, or seen the new PB’s displays).
For some older Macs, I make them ‘hand-me-downs.‘ It’s how I make friends. For others, I can always use a backup or a server for some dev work. My oldest Mac is a sunflower iMac, just shy of 4 years old. It’s running vanilla OS X 10.4.3, PHP, Apache, MySQL, and Postfix. It’s basically a mail server.
If I knew more about Apple’s roll out of Intel-based Macs, I might consider a new dual-core dual CPU, but it won’t make me type faster.
I usually upgrade every one to two years. My first mac was a 350 MHz iMac G3 (indigo, slot load). It was very slow with OS X, but it worked just fine otherwise. I then graduated to an 700 MHz iMac G4 and I still have that in our guest bedroom. I briefly had an eMac 1 Ghz before I sold in on Ebay and got my current Mac Mini 1.25 GHz as soon as they came out. The version of eMac i had didn’t have USB 2.0 and I really needed it. I will probably keep the Mac Mini until the Intel based macs comes out and then upgrade to an Intel based Mac Mini or whatever Apple replaces the Mac Mini with.
I am on about a 4 year upgrade cycle. What happened last was an upgrade from a G3 ibook to a 12” ai PoweBook and then the iBook was handed to my wife. Unfortunately, about a year ago the iBook’s HD bit the dust. So, we went out and bought a new iBook for her and I bought a HD to install in the old iBook myself. I figure I still have a couple of years with the PB. Probably 2nd or 3rd gen Mactel.
I love the 12” PB. I guess it would be considered low end, but I liked the size better than the 15 or 17. I did get a SD, so it was the high end of the 12” model. I’ve never sold an old mac. In fact, I still have every one I’ve ever purchased. Mac Classic II, PM 72000, iMac DV, 12” G3 iBook, 12” PB and 12” iBook G4.
Let’s see if I can remember a pseudo correct timeline. I bought an 8500 in college, around ‘95 I’d guess. I just gave it away 2 years ago after the hard drive failing having spun 24/7 for all that time. I’d already gotten a G4/450 which I’m using now. I *just* replaced it this year for imaging work with a DP 2.0. I cannot believe how long I made that G4 work given the volume and file sizes I’m dealing with daily. All of the PC guys who claim how theirs is cheaper than Mac have been going through 3 high end PCs for every Mac I’ve had. I like my upgrade cycle. I’d hate to have to buy a new machine every two years.
I just bought my first Mac this summer and I have no plans on replacing it. Certainly not until the three year warranty is finished. I would like to bump the memory up to the max of 2 gig, though.
My next upgrade project (If I can find the money) is to get my wife and son to change to Macs. Or at least Linux. Anything besides that other OS. I don’t think they are currently that interested. After all, they have me to play sys admin and work at keeping all the malware at bay.
I’m upgrading about every 3-5 years at the moment. First was the iMac rev A, then the lombard, and recently the eMac. I always buy my macs second hand ( here in holland there is a great second hand market for macs, i got a 1.25gig emac for about $500). As i upgrade the older version gets given to family, that way the parents get a better internet computer.
The next upgrade will be the replacement for the powerbook. i’ll probably wait until the intel books come out and then get a cheap ppc book (always the best time to go shopping, just when the latest big thing comes out!!)
I have had pretty much the same upgrade path as ‘volk’.
LC
Performa 630
Beige G3
iBook 700 (2003)
Mac Mini (March 2005)
I had upgraded the Beige G3 in a lot of ways: hard drive, memory, video card, PC card with more ports, even a processor upgrade. Cumulative cost easily the cost of an iBook.
With the advent of the Mini, everything has changed. Forget upgrades. It’s cheaper to just buy a new Mini. (One exception: a Mini needs an immediate RAM upgrade.) I think a Mini will give two years of solid service, and then it’s cheap enough just to buy a new one, with all the most recent features (Intel processor, et al.) Upgrading processors? Only for the big guns with big tower machines. For the rest of us, it would be silly.
My iBook has aged, but still meets all requisite demands for WP and spreadsheets and email, undemanding applications that I would use on the move. My Mini is for ‘power’ apps such as all the photo and iMovie work.
I’m NOT saying that a Mini is only good for 2 years. It depends on your needs and how demanding the MacOS becomes with each new version.
I just bought my first Mac this summer and I have no plans on replacing it. Certainly not until the three year warranty is finished. I would like to bump the memory up to the max of 2 gig, though.
My next upgrade project (If I can find the money) is to get my wife and son to change to Macs. Or at least Linux. Anything besides that other OS. I don’t think they are currently that interested. After all, they have me to play sys admin and work at keeping all the malware at bay.
I’m with Tera. I love the ‘hand me down’ routine. I got a Mac, then gave it to my wife, and got a new one. Then got another Mac, gave the second one to one of my kids. You see how that works. I get new, they get old. Repeat.
I upgrade every 2-4 years, depending on cashflow and whether there’s anything new that computers can do which my current computer can’t take advantage of. (e.g. CD-ROMs, Firewire/USB, PowerPC applications, soon Intel.) By staying well below the cutting edge speed-wise, I maintain a healthy detachment from the high end Macs’ price premium.
Recently, I went through a spate of quick upgrades. In about four years I upgraded three times. From a G4 Cube (bought because my G3 “Smurf Tower” committed suicide) to a dual 800 G4 (for better games) to a 12” Powerbook (when I started grad school and portability became more important than games). I found that the resale value of my old Macs on this cycle was substantially higher.
Makes me wonder whether a 1-2 year upgrade cycle is actually more cost effective since you can readily sell your old Mac on eBay for a decent chunk of change. Once Macs are 3+ years old, they rarely seem to command more than a few hundred online.
I bought my first mac in the South Pacific! When I was in Japan (I was stationed there for 3+ years) it was surprising the number of computer stores offering Macs. So on leave to the mainland Japan I bought my Performa. After that point my upgrade has been about once every three years, give or take. My Tibook (Rev. A) will be replace once the Intel Macs hit the street. My desktop was replaced last year so it should last (by running 90%+ application requirements) for another year or so.
I do about every three to four years, depending on what’s hot. I used to upgrade more often, but OS X runs rather well on three year old Macs, some older. I just gave a neighbor kid a sunflower iMac G4 with a fresh install of OS X. It’s a bit slow compared to a new Mac but the kid said it was the best computer he’d ever seen. He’ll have it for a couple more years but will probably blow out those little crystal ball speakers first.
You know, this may sound a bit odd, but I view my Mac as yet another monthly expense. It’s a key source of news and entertainment for me, so I value it highly - $100/mo to be exact. When the pot gets big enough for something shiny and new, I do it whether I need to or not. The hand-me-down process takes care of my old machines (I think my family loves me for me, but it might just be for my old hardware). So, I rarely have to worry about old equipment failing and I spend on my Mac what most people spend for their Cable + cell phones. Given that I spend way more time on the Mac than on cell phones or watching TV, that’s not bad.
I guess my point is rather than looking at an upgrade as a large, gotta do it every 3 years activity, treat your computer as a service. Decide how much you value the experience and sock that amount away each month. Then buy what you want when you can.
My understanding is that most US businesses depreciate computer hardware over 3 years. That isn’t a hard and fast rule on the back end, because some may be slow to actually replace, but upfront, when I purchase equipment, I usually must signify it’s depreciation schedule for internal posting. Most places I’ve seen use the 3-year rule, although tax law allows you 5 years to depreciate. Corporate policies for 3-yr equipment include buying extended maintenance for up to 3 years. After that, companies usually don’t extend warranties on what they own, they just expense any repairs, since the plan is to replace the equipment soon after that time.
With that in mind, I SWEAR computer manufacturers build in only 3 years of daily-use shelf-life (or do you say MTBF?). That seems very true of hard drive life. I’ve seen so many computers and drives act up or fail at the 3-yr or almost 3-yr mark. I should make a scientific study of it. I’m certain it would show, without damned lying with statistics, that the things are pre-Kevorkian-ed to check-out when they’re 3 years old. Sometimes, it doesn’t matter if the computer ran every day. When its 3 years are up, they’re up. OK, so I’m paranoid. What else is new? You’ve been warned.
