I think buying "headroom" doesn't make sense at Apple's upgrade pricing. Buy what you need to get the job done; buy a new one when it no longer does the job well.
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Investing in a high-spec model with "headroom" versus buying a new machine more frequently
- Thread starter Sami13496
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When M3 comes to the end of the line, they’ll all become obsolete at the same time, regardless of spec. But if you buy one with higher specs, especially more ram, it’ll keep up for longer. But realistically, will you keep it long enough for this to be an issue? I know I do, but most people don’t.
I think that is a really good argument. Also, I think technology development moves faster, than your money is worth, so the uptick you have to pay more for 2 years more power usage, isn't worth it compared to just buying the lower end model in shorter time frames.
The big thing is that Apple's specific BTO pricing for "headroom" disincentivizes buying more than what you need to get the job done today. I think the logic for Wintel may be - likely is - different since there are more user upgradability options after purchase.
Buying more of a computer (such as a pro when you could use a consumer model) then what you might need could make sense back in the 1990's, but doesn't make sense now. Buy what you need now.
Right. Or for things to get worse. I prefer the M1 MBA wedge shape to the one they introduced with the M2. So in that sense getting the M3 would, at least as form factor goes (for me), be a downgrade.
Well, it's like this. There are decisions based on what I needs, what I wants and what I can afford.
When I was putting together Windows machine, I always bought the latest Asus Republic of gamers Mother board and paired it with the fastest Intel CPU. I have kept my LanLi Nautilus case because I liked it. Still have it, BTW with thoughts of a Hankintosh in the future) Started with my current disks/storage and upgraded as I went along.
I tired of building and since we had converted to iPhone/Pad other things, I bought a 27" iMac in 2013. When Apple stopped supporting it, I bought a 2020 27" iMac. (I know, I know. I could have done the workarounds to keep using it, but, as I said I was tired of that).
Now, Apple Silicon has come along and the 27" lMac doesn't seem to be coming. The Mini doesn't have the cores, the memory and versatility I want note the want, not need) and isn't that much cheaper than a better speced Studio. And I would need a display, might as well get the Studio display.
AND, there are more powerful Studio machines that are not THAT much more expensive. (See the above comments about want, not need.)
So, for the above reasons, my wife and I are each gonna order iPad pros tomorrow, ours are 2017 models) and I'll get a M4 Mac Studio when it becomes available.
When I was putting together Windows machine, I always bought the latest Asus Republic of gamers Mother board and paired it with the fastest Intel CPU. I have kept my LanLi Nautilus case because I liked it. Still have it, BTW with thoughts of a Hankintosh in the future) Started with my current disks/storage and upgraded as I went along.
I tired of building and since we had converted to iPhone/Pad other things, I bought a 27" iMac in 2013. When Apple stopped supporting it, I bought a 2020 27" iMac. (I know, I know. I could have done the workarounds to keep using it, but, as I said I was tired of that).
Now, Apple Silicon has come along and the 27" lMac doesn't seem to be coming. The Mini doesn't have the cores, the memory and versatility I want note the want, not need) and isn't that much cheaper than a better speced Studio. And I would need a display, might as well get the Studio display.
AND, there are more powerful Studio machines that are not THAT much more expensive. (See the above comments about want, not need.)
So, for the above reasons, my wife and I are each gonna order iPad pros tomorrow, ours are 2017 models) and I'll get a M4 Mac Studio when it becomes available.
I’m a photographer. My RAW photos, going back about ten years, take up nearly 4 TB, but that’s because I’ll often take 1,000 RAW photos at a time, or around 50-60 GB per shoot. And I save everything.
My 512 GB laptop is fine for me. I dump my photos to the laptop, do my edits, and move everything to an external 4TB SSD, and I copy that to my 11TB RAID 5 Synology, which also holds my gets backed up to a 10TB backup drive.
I understand that’s not for everyone, but that works well for me.
I just buy refurbed or the used $2k one.
I meant more from the seller's side of things. Even if you list it everywhere for sale and shout it from the rooftops, would be buyers are either few and far between, suspicious of your intentions, or just shady.
This type of thing is what I get concerned over more than anything is OS and Hardware running life span.
=======================Example of Current OS that it runs on. How many years longevity?>>>>>>>>>
So with overlapping years+ iMac Pro from 2017 being the oldest.=7 years!!!!
=======================Example of Current OS that it runs on. How many years longevity?>>>>>>>>>
Mac’s that run macOS Sonoma
These are the Macs on which you’ll be able to run macOS Sonoma.- iMac from 2019 and later
- Mac Pro from 2019 and later
- iMac Pro from 2017
- Mac Studio from 2022 and later
- MacBook Air from 2018 and later
- Mac mini from 2018 and later
- MacBook Pro from 2018 and later
So with overlapping years+ iMac Pro from 2017 being the oldest.=7 years!!!!MacBook Pro from 2017 was out in 2023.This type of thing is what I get concerned over more than anything is OS and Hardware running life span.
=======================Example of Current OS that it runs on. How many years longevity?>>>>>>>>>
Mac’s that run macOS Sonoma
These are the Macs on which you’ll be able to run macOS Sonoma.
You can do the Math,
- iMac from 2019 and later
- Mac Pro from 2019 and later
- iMac Pro from 2017
- Mac Studio from 2022 and later
- MacBook Air from 2018 and later
- Mac mini from 2018 and later
- MacBook Pro from 2018 and later
Also given the cost of technology performance decreases over time, you've paid a lot more for hardware you didn't need than it will cost when you actually need it.
Also if you time your upgrade at a reasonable point you can still get decent money for the old machine as its a fully working system.
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A 10 year old Mac will be unable to connect modern peripherals without adapters, not support modern video codecs (meaning poor performance and low battery life when doing audio/video calls, etc.), have storage that may fail and lose your data at any point and will not be worth anything on a trade.
It will also no longer get security updates, OS updates and therefore application updates.
If you don't use the machine for anything serious or it performs well enough at a very rigid fixed workflow and is not connected to the internet, then sure keep running it until it dies.
But if you can't afford for it to fail at an inopportune time, or you can make use of higher performance, rolling upgrades on a 3-5 year basis make sense.
Sure, but in reality to go to a new cpu its usually new motherboard time by the time there's an upgrade that makes sense, and you're basically up for the full cost of your components and the hardware upgrade dance of making sure your PSU, case, etc. comply with modern power requirements and IO standards.
Yeah you can stagger GPU and CPU upgrades but frequently by the time the GPU is worth upgrading there are new CPU instructions you'll want and/or new PCIe standard as well...
For a given value of "last".
I've got 10+ year old Macs lying around that are quite capable of doing many things and would be 100% better than nothing. I could probably stick Ubuntu on them and get a "safe" browser and email which is all many people need. Even my "dead" 2011 17" MBP still works if I disable the dGPU. But that doesn't mean that they're still suitable as a main machine.
...and, as I think I said earlier, that is primarily because the biggest single step forward between 2010 and ~2015 was the arrival of affordable SSDs - so the ~2012 machines that came with SSD punched above their weight while previous machines could have SSDs retrofitted. I don't think newer machines are likely to be so long lived mainly due to the endless updating of software "because security".
Absolutely.
I used self-assembled PCs for years and, usually, by the time there was a compelling (say) CPU upgrade, the CPU socket was incompatible, the RAM was too slow, the motherboard had the wrong versions of USB and SATA and it made more sense to keep the old machine as a working server/spare/hand-me-down than gut it. The only things that did get "upgraded" or re-used tended to be GPUs and "specialist" cards (Soundblasters, video capture, SCSI...) - and the "upgrades" were often a consequence of re-using an old part. I do miss having expansion cards and internal storage on Macs, but they were never a magic cure for obsolescence.
Yeah this.
I recently bought a 10+ year old Mac Pro - but mostly as an art piece/curiossity, my iPad Air will out-perform it in most things, and my 3 year old MacBook Pro will certainly destroy it in everything else.
I still build my own PCs for gaming and yes... that's pretty much it.
The way things are going however I don't think I'm going to build another PC, at least not as a desktop.
Installing games via porting kit / steam and native availability has put a nail in that enough for me to not bother any more.
All this seem to come down to the same arguments of leasing a new car versus buying a new car, where often the best economical answer is to buy a used car, unless you are in the position to take advantage of business tax incentives (in the United States).