How long does a Mac last?

Hi.

I am a Mac User and need the experience of the community on the reliability and longevity of the compact Macs.

Have had a G4 Mirror Doors since 2003. At one point, had to change the optical drive, but otherwise had been trouble free for almost 9 years, until now that it looks to have become electronic waste.

From a capability point of view, it was doing great until the last software upgrades that overtaxed the 2 GB RAM.

Have been shopping to replace with a used Mac-something and am interested in the Mac Mini or iMac. What I want to know is, how reliable is the hardware configuration in the compact Macs compared to the more traditional tower configurations? Can they be expected to last for a decade?

How we use our Mac:
Graphic design and document processing - not the heavy video or gaming applications;
e-mail and web browsing - as I've always found Macs to be inherently safer and less hackable;
no need for the expandability of a tower, just need something quick and capable of handling design software, lots of fonts, and the occasional 100 MB Photoshop file.

Thanks for your advice.

Looking for and "expecting" any computer to last for 10 years is, imho, sending someone on a fools errand. There is not a computer made that can be "expected" to last for a decade.

Although, having a computer, any computer, that lasts 8-10 years in an office environment running the same software every day, not requiring OS upgrades and other software in order to perform it's function, can and does happen quite often. I've got P3 Dell & HP boxes from 2000 & 2001 that were just retired in the last year.

Computers and their respective parts can and do break. I'd suggest the odds of a mini or iMac lasting 10 years is no better and no worse than that of any other computer you could purchase. There is some percentage of the ones made in the 80s and 90s still running today. We could ask if they will last 20 or 30 years instead of 10. Who knows?

Bob's comments are right on... how long a computer will be usable is often based on how you intend to use it. Provided the parts still work, a computer can be usable for many years. My father had a Mac SE (maybe 1987-ish), 4MB RAM and a 40MB HD, running system 6.0.8, which he retired about two years ago. It still had Pagemaker 1.0 on it. Compared to more advanced systems, it was nearly "instant-on" and did what he needed, simple word processing, tied to a 20" grayscale display for his writing. Most of his more current computers are still 7-10 years old - a G3 iMac SE (1999), a G4 tower (2003), and a couple if iBook G4s (also around 2003). He doesn't see the need to move to more recent OSes, and is fine running Tiger or Leopard.

I have the very first G4 mini purchased in early 2005. Still works like new. Only thing that could stand replacing is the optical drive which can be done. Even that still works but it's getting old.

Bob's comments are Spot on!

Thank you, Guys.

I also agree with Bob re: the fool's errand. There are no guarantees.

I suppose what I wanted to know is if anyone was keeping score on hardware issues related to different configurations. For example, a 1 or 2 year old Mini will likely fit my needs very nicely, but if that configuration has had (fill in the blank) issues over the past 5 years, I'd like to know about them to make the best decision. Money is very tight.

BTW, I still have my first Mac, a 128 k upgraded to 512 and then to 1 MB. I do not actually use it any more, but it still runs just fine some 27 years later.

Still have on hand a running 1990 original LC, 128MB hard drive and 8MB memory running OS 7.0.1. Only thing that has failed was the hard drive which was replaced October 1998. Need it for my Apple camera.

My personal Murphy's Law: Expect to purchase a new computer every 5 years. Technology waves are moving faster and faster with each passing year. Hardware architecture seems to be changing at a somewhat rapid pace to keep up with what new software needs seem to be.

I also personally have a bit of paranoia built in to my thinking in that there's a reason things aren't "built the way they used to be". Look at cars for example... Sure, it wouldn't be economical from a fuel standpoint to continue building them like the tanks they used to be... but if we had alternative fuel sources, then perhaps that wouldn't be an issue.

My grandparents had an Electrolux vacuum that was still sucking the floors bare after 40+ years.. today, you'd be lucky to see a vacuum last 10 years.. and that's being generous I think. Computers IMO are no different. Manufacturing standards IMHO just aren't what they used to be. But then again, a lot of the products I'm thinking about, were not made by slave labor workers in less than ideal conditions.

That however, is another story entirely.. but one that should not be overlooked when considering what the topic is about.

Doug

I routinely see Mac hardware running far longer than I would have expected, but as time goes on (starting immediately from when you buy a machine), a number of technological forces begin conspiring to make that machine obsolete as quickly as possible.

What really "ages" Macs is the changes that continue to take place on the internet, and the changes in processors and software (graphics processors included). My 2007 Blackbook still does nearly everything I might ask it to do, but since then HD video has become a huge factor, graphically-intense programs like Google Earth are the norm (my Blackbook's Achilles Heel is its graphics chipset), and some software has since come out that really leverages the graphics card (like Adobe CS5 -- but I haven't got any real graphics hardware for it to leverage!).

This is what makes my Mac start to feel "behind the times" after "only" four years -- about a year longer than I expected, so I'm not unhappy about this. Do I *have* to upgrade? No, and I don't expect that moment will come for a number of years yet, but do I *want* to upgrade to continue expanding what I can do with my hardware? Yes.

I have a PowerBook from around 2001-2002 and it just stopped working, dont know what happened to it. I also have an iBook g4 that is still running good.

chas_m said:

What really "ages" Macs is the changes that continue to take place on the internet, and the changes in processors and software (graphics processors included).

This is what makes my Mac start to feel "behind the times"

Click to expand...

Yep. That's exactly why I upgraded from a G3 to a Core 2 Duo and OS9.2.2 to OS X 10.5.1 (now running 10.5.8) My Mini is nearly four years old. The G3 was seven, I think. I donated it two years ago, and I bet it's still running.

I gave a writer friend of mine my old G3 original iBook (graphite, the one with the handle) and it worked until about two years ago -- roughly nine years. Came with OS 8.6 or 9 (can't remember), ended up with Panther. The design may seem quaint or funny now, but they were pretty remarkable computers for their time.

My iMac is 5 years old now, and with Lion is at the end of its life. Up until Lion everything would work on it even if it wasn't a speed demon. Lion won't run on this one. I put an SSD in it so now program and file loads are very fast and it makes the whole thing seem faster. Maybe that'll extend the life for another year or two.

Hilarious fact: Your Power Mac G4 MDD is one of the *least* reliable macs ever made, ha! They had a major issue with Power supply failures. If I were you and wanted the longest lasting machine, get out your card and buy the next Mac Pro (not Macbook Pro) It's a cool running open air, repairable machine.
The tight spaces of the minis and iMacs will kill them over time, they numbers show it. The local college maintains a fleet of always on iMacs that are on year 3 now (2008 model) The #1 thing to fail: Logic Board, they run hot and 24 hour use burns them out one by one, the new ones are far worse.* Second: Display (however all machines have a weird stripe pattern showing.)
If you can't get the Pro, go for the Mac Mini top end model, it does not have a built in display so they are that much more reliable, one less thing to go wrong.

*(Apple's design policy on cooling systems and safe running temps is getting scary. The warranty will basically not cover death by overheating now, I should know, look at my machine. I had major overheating issues including temps near 100C at the CPU they said nothing was wrong, I asked what the CPU temp was for it to become overheating in their book. The Apple in house rep said 112C, 7C over the Intel rated critical failure point of the 2410m. What is different from the 2410 to the 2415 in my Macbook Pro? They removed the shutdown at 100C. That is wrong in my book.)

Interesting as my iMac G5 iSight was used NON STOP 24 hours a day for 6+ years and never one hiccup. Finally had issues. The old Chinese Caps with bad formula issue. Changed the Caps, came right on.

I used it HARD also. 24 hours a day. It rarely slept. Now on a 4 year old iMac intel. Same usage and so far very reliable.

I do like the Mac Pros, but just saying.....

Look at your G5 (and the plastic iMac as well) and a new one, the new ones are much thinner and twice as hot due to a much higher TDP. The New minis are said to be egg cookers.

I OWN a Aluminum Thiner iMac. That is the one that has been on 4 years now. I am it's 2nd owner and it was used almost non stop in a business. I find it cooler than the iMac G5 or plastic iMac as you called it. Some of that is the G5 is a BLAZING HOT CPU, but I do not find the thin Aluminum iMac any hotter than the older Intel iMacs.

Sonicjet said:

L The New minis are said to be egg cookers.

Click to expand...

So are the old ones. I bought mine in '07 and stacked it on top of my modem/router. Bad move. I'm convinced that the Mini cooked the modem, as in fried it. When I replaced it, it got its own spot on the desk.

I still haven't bought a replacement for my PowerBook I got in 2005. I kind of cheated though, since Apple gave me a free replacement/upgrade early 2008 MacBook Pro when the PowerBook's screen died in 2008 while still in warranty. >.>

The older Minis vent downward out the bottom vents. If you put it on a modem and used it hard, all the heat went down into the modem. My first 1.25 Ghz mini is still going strong. Sold it to a friend years back and he abused it for years then got an Intel and gave it back to me. Still works. Using it as a Web Server 24 a day.

Am surprised and pleased this thread is still attracting interest.

The resolution to my issue was finding a used Mac Pro (2008 2 x 2.66 GHz dual core, 3GB RAM) for a little over $600 on eBay.

Running Leopard, it still boots faster and loads InDesign CS4 faster than my new 3.4GHz Quad core 4GB RAM PC running Windows 7.

I'm going to try upgrading to Lion and adding some memory, and am sure to have at least 5 more years out of it.

On the original G4 MDD, still do not know what failed. Was able to install the hard drive in the optical bay of the MacPro. Everything is there and accessible. Just have to re-register all of the software (since it was not set aside to migrate to a new OS?).