Same here, until about one year ago. By then, the no-longer-supported browsers on it barely worked for anything except BitOG. The XP computer still functioned well for spreadsheets, etc.
How many people are using really old PCs on a daily?
- Thread starter bowlofturtle
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An i-5 with an SSD and 12GB of RAM isn't so bad specs wise. The SSD and more RAM is what really makes the difference over a computer with a regular spinning hard drive and maybe 4GB or 8GB of RAM.
I have a 2014 Macbook Air with an SSD, i-5, and 8GB of RAM. It is just used as a garage computer for looking up DIY videos, parts, etc and it works great for that.
That doesn't even make sense. It's like saying a 4 cylinder car is good enough because after a few years a V8 will seem slow.
It really depends on what you are doing with your computer, but a machine with more memory, a faster processor, and more storage space will have the capacity to do more tasks at the same time over one that has lesser specs.
I have a 2020 Macbook Air with M1 chip, and 16GB of RAM. I also have the garage computer which is a 2014 Macbook Air, i-5, SSD, and 8GB of RAM. Just surfing the web or watching youtube is very similar on both of them. The startup time of the 2020 is MUCH quicker, and the big difference becomes apparent when you start doing multiple things at the same time, or something power intensive like video editing or graphic design. It is absolutely not marketing, but will seem like just hype if it is overkill for your needs.
Man some of you guys are using dinosaurs, I really hope none of them are connected to the internet. To give you an idea of the possible vulnerabilities of XP, Win 7, Win 8, etc, our security department at the university will immediately disconnect these devices from our network as soon as they are detected due to the risk.
An i-5 with an SSD and 12GB of RAM isn't so bad specs wise. The SSD and more RAM is what really makes the difference over a computer with a regular spinning hard drive and maybe 4GB or 8GB of RAM.
I have a 2014 Macbook Air with an SSD, i-5, and 8GB of RAM. It is just used as a garage computer for looking up DIY videos, parts, etc and it works great for that.
That doesn't even make sense. It's like saying a 4 cylinder car is good enough because after a few years a V8 will seem slow.
It really depends on what you are doing with your computer, but a machine with more memory, a faster processor, and more storage space will have the capacity to do more tasks at the same time over one that has lesser specs.
I have a 2020 Macbook Air with M1 chip, and 16GB of RAM. I also have the garage computer which is a 2014 Macbook Air, i-5, SSD, and 8GB of RAM. Just surfing the web or watching youtube is very similar on both of them. The startup time of the 2020 is MUCH quicker, and the big difference becomes apparent when you start doing multiple things at the same time, or something power intensive like video editing or graphic design. It is absolutely not marketing, but will seem like just hype if it is overkill for your needs.
The Intel Core-i3/i5/i7 series hasn't really changed its name in over a decade. My understanding is that they've had pretty minor changes in each "generation. Still - the newer generations do seem to have excellent performance at lower clock speeds, but even a 10 year old Core i5 is pretty good.
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We had a really old up until a few years ago then we finally replaced it. We feared it getting hacked eventually. Plus super slow computers suck lol. It was one of the old dinosaur computers that thing was super heavy to move. My dad got a good deal on a Samsung computer at Staples. I laughed at him and still do to this day. I’d rather use the old Dell than some crappy Samsung that’s just as slow as that computer was lol. I wanted him to buy a Mac. I’m currently saving up for an Apple laptop.
Are you sure about that? I just got gifted a Macbook Pro someone was going to throw away and asked me if I wanted it for my kids. Knowing nothing about Macs, I had to do a deep Google dive to see if what I was receiving was trash-worthy or worth keeping. It's a 2013 Retina model, I5 CPU, 8GB RAM, SSD from factory, has a gorgeous high-res display, but almost nothing is user-replaceable. I read that the unibody models were discontinued in 2011 or so.
Either Wikipedia and countless forums are wrong, or you have your Macbook productions years off, or my Google-fu skills need improving
The mid-2012 models were the last Unibodies. They came in 13/15/17" versions with the Core i5 and i7. Apple kept one single model in production until October 2016 - the 13" Core i5 model that I have and that I got new in 2015. But the mid-2012 Unibodies had USB3 and Thunderbolt 2, which previous Unibody models didn't have. Base configuration was 4 GB RAM and a 500 GB 5400 RPM drive. The first Retina models were available simultaneously which gets rather confusing.
MacBook Pro "Core i5" 2.5 13" Mid-2012 Specs (Mid-2012 13", MD101LL/A*, MacBookPro9,2, A1278, 2554*): EveryMac.com
Technical specifications for the MacBook Pro "Core i5" 2.5 13" Mid-2012. Dates sold, processor type, memory info, hard drive details, price and more.
everymac.com
Introduction Date:June 11, 2012
Discontinued Date:October 27, 2016
Some of those Retina MacBook Pros did have theoretically replaceable SSD cards, but aftermarket replacements are very hit or miss. There were only two reasonably reliable replacements from Transcend and OWC. Memory was soldered straight onto the main board without any kind of expansion/replacement. I do remember some older Macs that had memory soldered, plus an expansion port for an SODIMM.
- Transcend Information, Inc.
Here we bring you the inside knowledge and valuable tips from Transcend, all shared in our columns!
www.transcend-info.com
MacBook Pro SSD (Solid-State Drive) Upgrades - OWC
Upgrade your MacBook Pro factory hard drive to an OWC SSD for up to 6x the capacity and 106x the speed of the original drive.
eshop.macsales.com
Apple Proprietary SSDs: Ultimate Guide to Specs & Upgrades | BeetsBlog
Apple’s SSDs are confusing. Are they M.2 drives? What connector do they use? AHCI or NVMe? What drive can I use to upgrade? We have answers. We’ll tell which SSDs work in which MacBook Pros, iMacs, Mac minis and more.
beetstech.com
Another issue with Macs is how Apple provides hardware support. Apple has a 5 year cycle (from last production) for providing replacement parts and service in most areas. It can be up to 7 years in certain areas, like California where it's required by consumer law. And they say that Mac OEM battery replacement may be provided up to 10 years. When I got the battery replaced in my MacBook Pro, the model was discontinued over 6 years, although I'm in California where I was still under the 7 years.
Obtaining service for your Apple product after an expired warranty - Apple Support
Learn about your options for getting service and parts for Apple devices that are past their warranty period.
Owners of iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, or Apple TV products may obtain service and parts from Apple service providers, including Apple Retail Stores and Independent Repair Providers, for a minimum of 5 years from when Apple last distributed the product for sale.
Service and parts may be obtained for longer, as required by law or for up to 7 years, subject to parts availability. Additionally, Mac laptops may be eligible for an extended battery-only repair period for up to 10 years from when the product was last distributed for sale, subject to parts availability.
If I could win98 onto web2.0 there is no need to worry about malware, I actively tried to get malware up and running on one machine and it just crashes.
Win98 doesn’t even get love from Russians writing malware
The same way Windows 98 is impervious to modern viruses is the same reason it can’t connect and load most websites, though bob’s site still works
My 2012 Dell Optiplex runs a pair of monitors and Windows 11 just fine.
My home/home office has an old 4-core i5 machine, 2 iMacs; one from 2010 and the other from 2011, a 2010 Dell laptop and a 2012 Lenovo ThinkPad W series. All run Ubuntu flawlessly.
Dell E6410 for home. No idea how old, I bought it for $25 from work, when they cycled it out. I did increase the RAM and put in a pretty big SSD, like 256GB or something like that. IIRC I replaced the keyboard once on it, but it's broken again, so BT keyboard to the rescue. Drives an external 1920x1080 screen over the VGA port. Works--but I think it's time is coming. The other day the video card quit and I had to reboot.
Not sure what I'd buy, but maybe anything for $300 off Tiger Direct? Thing is, I get a decent work laptop every couple of years.
Not sure what I'd buy, but maybe anything for $300 off Tiger Direct? Thing is, I get a decent work laptop every couple of years.
No 17” in 2012, and also the unibodies never got TB2. The 15” retina was the only one in 2012. The 13” didn’t come along until 2013.
I wish they had made a 17” 2012. The only quad core 17s are 2011s, and the 15 and 17 2011s have GPUs that will fail if they haven’t already. 2012 15s don’t have GPU issues.
The first Retinas use the same blade SATA as the Airs 2010 forward. They can be replaced with an m.2 SATA using an adapter.
The Mac Pro 6,1 brought a proprietary AHCI blade PCIe drive that soon made its way to the MacBook Pro and Air. The 2015s all had them, and I think some 2014s. These can be replaced with readily available NVMe drives using a passive adapter and a firmware update.
I have 3 computers. Most of the time, my base Mac Mini M1 desktop blows away my MSI Intel i7-7700 and Asus i5-11600H laptop.
The Mac has 8 gb's of ram while the MSI has 16. The Mac uses its ram better, faster. There has been a few times the mac used swap, when I was editing and encoding a video to HEVC.
Most of you would be well served by the $599 Mac Mini desktop.
The Mac has 8 gb's of ram while the MSI has 16. The Mac uses its ram better, faster. There has been a few times the mac used swap, when I was editing and encoding a video to HEVC.
Most of you would be well served by the $599 Mac Mini desktop.
My bad on that. I've never used Thunderbolt and when I've researched it I could only find Thunderbolt 2 cables/components. And for obvious reasons I've never really worked with any other version but I do remember there was a 17" version at one time.
But trying to replace those SSDs can be pretty frustration - just trying to find the right adapter.
Mine hasn't been online since 2009. But it's useful for work at home that can be stored on a flash drive. Still have a scanner and printer attached to it as well.
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- Jun 13, 2013
- Messages
- 3,084
2011 21.5 iMac, 20 gigabytes ram, just installed a Samsung 870 EVO SSD,
Backup drives are a mix of Firewire 400 and 800…
Just got my paws on a late 2013 27 inch iMac…
Two 8 gigabyte memory chips, Thunderbolt to Firewire adapter, and hard drive temperature sensor on order…
Once I figure out the TDP (65 or 84 watts, I think),
an i7-4790S or 4790 processor will be obtained…
Still have to figure out blade SSD…
Got a new 4 terabyte 7200 RPM Western Digital Black platter to install
that I purchased two months ago…....
Backup drives are a mix of Firewire 400 and 800…
Just got my paws on a late 2013 27 inch iMac…
Two 8 gigabyte memory chips, Thunderbolt to Firewire adapter, and hard drive temperature sensor on order…
Once I figure out the TDP (65 or 84 watts, I think),
an i7-4790S or 4790 processor will be obtained…
Still have to figure out blade SSD…
Got a new 4 terabyte 7200 RPM Western Digital Black platter to install
that I purchased two months ago…....
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Does control-anything work on that? my home keyboard no longer has any indication of which one is c or v, lol. Want to say, mac has some other way to do these things.
The wife and I are using 13 year old Mini ITX computers I built about 8 years ago. I3 (1150) processors, 8Gb of ram and 64 Gb SSD's. Backups and work are on an external 1Tb spinning rust (nothing is stored on the boot disk). Our laptops are 11 year old IBM Thinkpads with SSD's and maxed out ram.
Last month I replaced a third Mini ITX (like the ones wife and I use) for out HTPC with an Intel NUC5i3 I purchased off Ebay. It came with no memory or HDD so I purchased a M.2 NVME off Amazon and used 8Gb of laptop memory I had in the junk drawer (DDR3). Movies and junk are stored on an internal 2Tb spinning rust drive (I bought the high case model) This thing uses 3 watts of power when idle and 15 watts full bore (versus the 56 watts from the old computer).
Everything is running the latest version of Debian Linux.
Last month I replaced a third Mini ITX (like the ones wife and I use) for out HTPC with an Intel NUC5i3 I purchased off Ebay. It came with no memory or HDD so I purchased a M.2 NVME off Amazon and used 8Gb of laptop memory I had in the junk drawer (DDR3). Movies and junk are stored on an internal 2Tb spinning rust drive (I bought the high case model) This thing uses 3 watts of power when idle and 15 watts full bore (versus the 56 watts from the old computer).
Everything is running the latest version of Debian Linux.
My oldest is an Intel i5-6500 (non-K) that has been overclocked to 4.25 ghz for the last 5 years paired with an RX 5700XT video card that is also overclocked. As far as future upgrades go I have a Z390 motherboard sitting around waiting for a 9700k and that'll last me for another 2-3 years or so.
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I have nothing with more than 8 gb ram, either at work, or home. So it's interesting what's considered old. My daily home laptops are core i7 5th and 8th gen. I do use a 2001 Dell 8200 Pentium IV to burn CDs.
