My iMac has died after almost 5 years of service =)

[mrsir2009]

After almost 5 years of service, my white intel iMac has died. Its been used as a family computer for most of its life... so its been used pretty much ALL day everyday for all sorts of things.

I'm wondering if this is a long or a short lifespan for an iMac of its time? How long have your iMacs lasted?

 

[JNB]

After almost 5 years of service, my white intel iMac has died. Its been used as a family computer for most of its life... so its been used pretty much ALL day everyday for all sorts of things.

I'm wondering if this is a long or a short lifespan for an iMac of its time? How long have your iMacs lasted?

I have a G5 non-iSight that's still in daily use. Only repair was a PSU replacement a few years ago. Still the original 80GB HDD, too. Still going strong.

 

[yoak]

I have a iMac G3 running in my daughters room. Mostly used for watching DVDs these days.
I also have an iBook that´s 5 years old. It still runs, but tends to have kernel panics quite often.
My daughter play the ocational game on it.

 

[Makosuke]

I'd actually call that rather short; my parents have a ~8-year-old G4 iMac that was mistreated and in near-constant use until six months ago, and it's still working fine apart from needing the optical drive replaced. We still have two first-gen G5 iMacs, about 6 years, in regular service at work (which did, admittedly, need repairs for the power supply issue), plus an eMac, and I know of several G3 iMacs that still work.

If you get into pro machines, my personal work G4 has been on 24x7 (it handles backups in addition to my everyday use) for over 8 years without any significant issue, and we have Yikes G4s that are pushing 11 years old that still work.

Obviously those are just single points, but 5 years for a Mac isn't all that long unless treated really badly. Of course, the question is if yours is REALLY dead, or just needs a little TLC and a replacement part or two?

 

[Migra]

On July 25th my first Mac (MBP13") is going to be 1 year old, works great I think 5 years is a decent lifetime, hopefully I'll get an iMac on the next refresh!

 

[aki]

In my personal opinion you can't really compare the old G3s and the modern intel iMacs in terms of lifespan. Those G3s last forever, literally (ok, not "literally"; "practically", say); but from the G5 iMacs on lifespans have been shorter. I put it down to design issues (small/thin form factors, premium on reducing noise etc), and possibly the huge ramp up in volume/drop in overall quality control. Sad but true.

Five years for a G5 is a pretty good run in my opinion. These days I expect an iMac to last at least two years. I wouldn't try and run one to five myself.

Depressing.

 

[Makosuke]

I find it odd when people make blanket claims about the lifespans of current-generation Intel Macs being shorter--the oldest Intel iMac in existence is only 4.5 years old now, so it's not like you'll even be able to offer a direct comparison for a few years yet. Now, the G5 iMacs had widespread problems with their power supplies due mostly to industrywide capacitor issues, but I haven't personally seen any indication at all that the Intel models with the same form factor are anything but more reliable.

Certainly, comparing the older Intel iMacs with the G5 iMacs we have installed where I work, the Intels have gone longer than the G5s without issues (both of our G5 iMacs had their power supplies fail with the capacitor issue after 3.5 years of use, repaired out of warranty for free and now fine); our two original-gen Intel iMacs were fine for 4 years, at which point one started to develop monitor lines. We have four ~3-year-old AL iMacs, none of which have, thus far, had any issues at all.

Not saying that it's not possible they're going to be less reliable in the long run--if nothing else, due to drastically higher thermal load I'd expect them to not fare as well as the VERY cool-running G3 iMacs--but it's rather early to say. And if anything, based on my personal experience, I've seen the quality control go UP in recent years, not down.

 

[aki]

Certainly, comparing the older Intel iMacs with the G5 iMacs we have installed where I work,

...

And if anything, based on my personal experience, I've seen the quality control go UP in recent years, not down.

My thoughts are based pretty much only on the iMacs I have personally owned, I'm not in a workplace where I see lots in operation or anything, so you may well be right . I just have memories of how rock-solid my old G3 seemed, and iMacs feel like they are always about to explode hehe.

 

[AlphaDogg]

I wouldn't call that a short lifetime, but I wouldn't call it long either. My dad has a late 2008 model 20" iMac, which was purchased in early 2009. It is still running strong, with not a single kernel panic or any other error yet. Before this iMac, he had an AMD Compaq tower. It lasted him about 4yrs. My father and I expect this to last well out of the extended AppleCare warranty, hopefully as long as your iMac lasted.

If I were you, I would just be grateful that a computer lasted you so long, and go out and treat yourself to a new iMac. Sell the broken one on ebay/craigslist for parts. Or you can salvage the parts from it yourself and sell each working part individually (casing, RAM, LCD....) and it might amount to more than you would get from an ebay auction or a craigslist transaction.

 

[mrsir2009]

I've also got a Mac Classic thats been in service for 20 years and its still going strong... And a G3 iMac thats been in service for 10 years... Just luck I guess