How relevant will the imac i7 be in 5 years?

[BuckeyeBengal]

Hello everyone. I am really close to getting a 2009 i7 referb and was just wondering how long I can expect this thing to last me. I am still using a 2001 dual 733 and yes it is really really slow but I got it for 25 bucks so what can I say..lol
So coming to this new mac will be a definite upgrade.. But since using my old mac for the past year can I expect my new imac to last the same and hold up years down the road? I am planning on keeping this for many years... Thanks everyone!

 

[ECUpirate44]

Yes, it will last.

 

[Peter.Howard]

All depends on what you are going to use it for and if you are going to be keeping up with the latest versons of the OS etc..

email, websurfing, music and video will work just as fine now as they do in 5 years time.


get the fastest verson of the i7 you can afford, you can always add an SSD and more RAM later.

 

[BuckeyeBengal]

Thanks for your help!

 

[MacHamster68]

i would not keep a new iMac beyond apple care ,, if you are not lucky and the problems started within apple care , then of course you can keep it , as problems beyond apple care makes it to expensive to get repaired
and in 5 years the i7 will be a base model , still working sort of , not the fastest any more , but suitable for basic surfing emailing and some office work
5 years is a incredible long time for a computer

but my iMac G3 still runs like on the day he left the factory 9 years ago , but that was a different generation of iMac's , build to last

 

[Cox Orange]

(...)email, websurfing, music and video will work just as fine now as they do in 5 years time.(...)

(...)but my iMac G3 still runs like on the day he left the factory 9 years ago , but that was a different generation of iMac's , build to last

Though watching movies on the internet will perhaps be a problem somewhen, or am I wrong?

I am still owning an iMac G3 DV (most reliable Mac I ever had), I do now longer use it for internet and expieriencing problems with my ibook G4 1,33GHz with internet movies, yet (reasons: divx7 not supported under OS 10.4.11, video coded with that is not playable it seems. Secondly some movies seems very demanding, when streamed). Can't that happen with i7 somewhen, too? I mean, who knows what standards and protocolls they invent in the future...

 

[bossxii]

While CPU speeds maybe double or more it's current speeds, the i7 will be more then enough to run most any programs they build in the next 3 to 5 years. It's potential is so untapped right now it's probably not even fully used by 95+% of the people buying them. It will be no different than how people view a slower C2D now, capable of handling most daily tasks but not the fastest thing out there for working with video editing, handbrake (CPU intensive) work.

The one advantage (untapped) the i7 has is Hyper-threading, only a handfull of programs actually take advantage of this and likely a few years off from making good use of it in daily activities such as gaming. Hell most games, which tend to stress our computers the most, rely more on GPU than CPU. The i7 even as a quad core can be very underutilized today.

FWIW the company i work for still use P4 CPU in a Dell at work with 1.5gigs of ram and intel graphics. It runs all our office software, Falcon (order entry/inventory) software just fine. Is it a bit slow at times? sure but it gets the job done. Oh and those systems are approx. 8 to 10 years old.

i7 are leading edge tech, the GPU will be much more outdated in 5 years than any other part of the iMac.