How long do your computer usually last?

[palec]

Macs (not high-end models) for everyday work usually last for 3 years, then they start to feel slow with continual sofrware upgrading. HD failure is common thing, regular backup is heavily recommended.

 

[willie_901]

A UPS won't protect you from everything, the best thing is to leave it unplugged when you're not using it and don't have it on around thunderstorms. And Saturday nights when drunks run into telephone poles.

I am curious to learn about a scenario where a proper UPS won't protect you.

By proper I mean an UPS designed to cleanly cut off power when the battery is about to die. For a dozen years I had over 2 million dollars of scientific equipment protected by a room-sized UPS. We had failures due to lightning, wind storms, ice storms, telephone pole accidents, contractors severing underground lines, etc. We never experienced a single failure. Best of all when a vendor would try to blame component failure on poor quality power to avoid responsibility for warranty and service-contract repairs, we would show them to the UPS room and laugh.

 

[E.M]

imac 2005

http://www.etiennemichiels.com

 

[semordnilap]

I keep two machines–desktop and laptop. Desktop is a first generation Mac Pro from 2006, still running without problems. I've upgraded the storage along the way but I don't have any problems with it, and expect it to do what I need it to do for a few years more at least.

My last laptop was a 2003 12" powerbook, which I did have to replace the hard drive and battery on. With older laptops I don't always upgrade the OS, and that machine was still running Tiger when I basically gave it away. I bought a Macbook air this year and it's great, but still slower than my five year old Mac Pro.

 

[totifoto]

My first computer was a PC and lasted me for 7 years, bought another PC and after only a few months using it I sold it and bought a Macbook Pro, that was about a year ago.

 

[bwcolor]

I probably have twenty plus computers. My small Atom based servers usually fall apart after a year or so. The fans usually stop, or some mystery death. Not reliable, but I run them 24x7. My office iMacs and Mac Minis get replaced somewhere between every two and three years, so I replace them before they crash. My Jan 2008 Mac Pro is still going strong, but replaced faulty memory under OWC warranty and replace main drive every two years and all other drives are Raid 5. Just picked up an OWC 120GB SSD for the main drive. Should be at my house when I get home tonight. My PC's aren't used much. Just for specific tasks not available with Mac. Atom based netbooks are going strong. Have three, two of which run 12 hours per day. Macbook Pro, took one year to get it to function, but last year has been good.

 

[Keith]

My current PC is six or seven years old and really struggles with the file sizes from my D700 and X100 so a 24 megapixel digital is not an option for me.

Every day I turn it on and it works I thank the gods for letting me use it for one more day! 😀

 

[Doug]

I've only run Macs, starting with a 128k model in 1984, and can't recall any that failed. Hard drives, sure, and monitors fade away. Looking back at the record it seems I run them about 7 years, by which time they feel old and slow, and won't run the current OS version. Now, the problem is the lack of Intel processor in my 2004 dual-G5 PowerMac at home. Current OSX and lots of software now require Intel. The 20" Cinema Display burnt out one of its two fluorescent illuminators a year or so ago, so it got a new screen. I may replace it with the 2-yr-old 27" iMac from the office and get a new office iMac...

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

My old Powermac G4 (dual 1.25 ghz) MDD was bought new in 2003 and I just replaced it a few months ago with a new Mac Pro because the PPC processors weren't compatible with some software I needed. The old G4 still works though! It did have a power supply failure a few yrs ago, and I installed a new one that I bought from a local Apple Specialist. The part was $150, a lot for a power supply, but its the only thing that's ever failed on it and the $150 was less than a new computer! Kept me going a few more yrs till I could afford a new one.

 

[gavinlg]

White plastic imac - 2.16ghz, maxed out @ 3gb ram. Had it since 2005, never been turned off. Still runs perfectly.
White plastic macbook bought 2006, still runs perfectly.

Previous to my Macs, we had Dells, IBMs, Gateways and they never lasted more than 2-3 years without grinding to a halt, intermittently restarting by themselves, or just slowing down to a mush.

 

[craygc]

I had been managing OS and application updates carefully on a 2004 Apple G5 desktop with a plan to attempt to extract 10 years out of it. However, I recently bought an 11" Macbook Air (with a little pimping) that was for the purpose on not having to carry my heavy windoz machine for biz travel. Unfortunately, after seeing the performance of the MBA I realised just how bad the G5 had become and that I probably didn't need a MacPro to replace it.

So, after 7 years of the G5 I finally replaced it with a Mac Mini - which after experience with the MBA was pimped with the i7 processor, an SSD and max RAM - unbelievable how powerful such a small box is. It is then paired up to my NEC monitor and I use a NAS - as previously - for data storage. I have tried working 550MB RGB scans of 6x7 negs and its quick - this would have brought the G5 to its knees.

 

[Thardy]

iMac 2006, with three external drives. Latest external is a 4T and I just learned about time machine for auto backup.

Before that many many PC dating back to a 286 machine. I think my old Mac book from '93 might still turn on.

My kids had some Sony vaios which lasted about a 1.5 years, and we replaced them with MBPs, which have been going strong for a couple of years.

Finally, we have a couple of PC notebooks around here that have lasted a long, long time.

 

[ColSebastianMoran]

My approach is: Buy middle of the line laptop, buy AppleCare, use it every day. When AppleCare runs out (3 years), that machine gets a new disk drive and goes to someone else in the family; I buy a new one. Cycle continues. So, six years for each laptop.

After that, they still run, but generally the performance has been so comparatively weak that the older machines are only turned on for occasional interest or to run some old piece of software. Old machines run OK as servers for a long time, if I update the disks every few years.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

My current laptop is going on five now. I back things up on an external hard drive to be careful, but I just bought a new battery for it last year so I'm hoping to at least get another year out of it.

On the other hand, this sheet metal beauty is going on 25, and still running strong!:

Lemme guess: not made in China? 99% of the computer parts that have failed on me were made there. I now shop diligently to see where it came from. Which is why I still have a computer that's over 27 years old, another that is 16, another which is 12 --and still using as a Linux server--, and my current one is almost two, because the previous one died (the motherboard was made in you-know-where).

I've had three four hard drives die on me. When I noticed where they were from, that's when I began to take notice. It was a horrible week. Always make backups!!

 

[Peter^]

Never could get my around the notion one of them things.

 

[Sonnar Brian]

I am so in luck. Yesterday I found an unopened Box of 5.25" high density Floppies. And a boxed IBM OS/2, V2.1. An OS that I never used.

My guess is the 1GByte drive that has been running since 1993, came with an ATT Pentium 100, will be running after the 500GByte in this Laptop fails. The 1GByte drive sits in a Pentium Pro bought in 1996, gets used 5 days a week. I use the 1GB as backup for source code.

 

[NLewis]

I've been using Macs for over twenty years. I replace about every 3.5-4 years. The older machines usually stick around for low-intensity use (music servers, hand-me-downs) for a couple years until something breaks that isn't worth fixing.

 

[Stephen G]

My macs seem to last longer than my old PCs did. They generally get the highest customer satisfaction & reliability ratings. You may pay a little more up front, but you get more in terms of software, and a cleaner, more integrated package.

They actually hold some value as well. When I had a 4 year old mac laptop, I sold it for 30% of my original cost. Most 4 year old Dells go in the trash, or you pay someone to recycle it for you 🙂.

Taking a quick peek - my 2.5 year old iMac can be sold on eBay for 50-60% of my original cost. It still is more than fast enough for what I do day to day, and only chokes when I'm doing too many things at once. Image processing in Lightroom or Silver Efex is no issue. I plan to use it at least 18 more months.

I do recommend upgrading RAM down the line in any computer if it still has spare capacity. It really brings new life to an old machine.

These days any computer with multiple processor cores is going to feel reasonably zippy. A lot of recent hardware advances have been on making more and more cores, and more power-efficient processors.

For your image processing needs, multiple cores aren't necessarily fully utilized that you will notice a big difference from 2 to 4.
The big step is when all CPUs went multi-core a few years ago.

 

[thegman]

I use Mac & PC, not noticed any reliability difference really. Cheap Macs break quick, so do PCs. I tend to replace computers before they need to be replaced, although at my work, they run computers until they run no more.

 

[Stephen G]

My parents are still using a bottom-of-the-line Macbook from early 2007.
Not only does it not break, but it's still powerful enough to run the latest & greatest OS X Lion.

My sister's iBook from 2005 has survived drops, dings and bumps.. and never died. This includes knocking it off the bed so hard she ripped the power adapter out of the wall.

Quite simply, most "bottom of the line" Mac's compare with "top of the line" to "medium line" in the PC world. On some form factors, such as Macbook Air size compact powerful laptop, the competitors are actually MORE expensive.

In my PC days I only used Thinkpad laptops, which were considered best of the best in build and reliability. Went through 3 of those, none of which lasted more than 3 years. All of them had major component failures requiring shipment to manufacturer in the first 1-2 years (motherboard, hard drivesx2, cd drive, keyboard).