[X4U] Evaluating Used Mac Prices

[Randy B. Singer]

On May 1, 2012, at 8:58 PM, catsoul wrote:

> any thoughts on how well modern macs "age?"
>
> is there a drying out of components losing their physical  
> resiliance? a wearing out of data pathways?

Macs have almost always aged well physically.  Whenever I've brought  
up the subject at user group meetings, I've found that, like myself,  
quite a few long-time Mac users have one or more old Macs that they  
retired to their closet never to be used again, but still in  
perfectly working  condition.

Macs do tend to slow down with age, mostly because users rarely, if  
ever, do any routine maintenance on them with regard to software.  I  
created an entire Web site about this to help folks avoid this.  It  
isn't a hard problem to avoid.

I usually tell folks that a Mac is good for about 5 years.  Not  
because it won't still be in perfect shape after 5 years, but because  
after about 5 years technology will have advanced to the point that  
you will want to upgrade to be able to use new software and newly  
released technology.  Also, Apple and many software developers tend  
to stop supporting hardware that is over 5 years old.  (i.e. Macs  
older than 5 years usually can't be updated to the latest version of  
OS X, some software will no longer be updated for your Mac, security  
updates may stop, etc.)

___________________________________________
Randy B. Singer
Co-author of The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th, and 6th editions)

Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance
http://www.macattorney.com/ts.html
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