Theory: How to make a MacBook Pro last longer

Posted on February 8, 2008 by Benjamin Koe

I normally advise people to bidget S$1,000/year for personal computing procurement. In other words, get a S$3,000 laptop keep it for 3 years and dump it. It makes sense because that’s as long as any warranty would cover you for.

But I now have a new theory on how to make that purchase last longer. And for this theory, I’ll use my MacBook Pro as the subject.

So here goes…

2007
Bought my 15″ MacBook Pro new for the cheapest price you can get. (S$2,970)

2008
Upgrade RAM to 4GB. Get good quality chips like this one from Crucial which I got. This will help the computer perform at its best. And why get it so early? Because RAM has a life-cycle and may not be produced in later years making it a rare commodity which raises the prices again. (S$351)

Before the first year is up, I have to remember to get Apple Care which would cover me for the next two years. (S$629)

2009
By this time, the lithium-ion battery would have been reduced to a 30min UPS and need replacement to accompany my mobile lifestyle. (S$232)

2010
The MacBook Pro will probably start feeling its age here even with 4GB of RAM because applications developed at this time will want a faster processor. To keep up with performance, my best bet is to replace my HDD with an SSD which could give as much as a 5x improvement in performance. Today they are amazingly expensive, but by 2010 they should drop dramatically in price. (~S$350)

At this point, AppleCare doesn’t cover the MacBook Pro any longer, but since I’m ripping out the only moving part of the computer, I’m relatively safe.

2011
No more upgrades, just hope the LCD doesn’t develop dead pixels. But it should perform perfectly for the rest of this year.

I would have spent a grand total of S$4532. A S$500 saving over my S$1,000/year plan.

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5 Responses to “Theory: How to make a MacBook Pro last longer”

  1. jer, on February 9th, 2008 at 12:38 am Said:

    that’s provided you don’t get bored of it being old first. :P

  2. Why Should You Know, on February 9th, 2008 at 12:47 am Said:

    i sorta thought that out for my Acer Aspire 1690. Upgraded memory to the max 2GB recently at really low price. Hoping to extend life of laptop for another 3 years! as for warranty..not necessary. just do all the backups! when hard disk crashes, just change it! =)

  3. priscilla, on February 9th, 2008 at 1:34 pm Said:

    I would love to make my Macbook pro work harder but! I have this obsession about buying new macs and iPods everytime a new one comes out. sighs..

  4. Ivan Chew, on March 15th, 2008 at 2:44 pm Said:

    If you factor in inflation, savings might be less I think. The best advise I got wrt buying computer equipment was, “Buy stuff only when you need it, rather than what you think you need”. In cost accounting terms, all costs are sunk costs… kinda like money spent to buy food, in my opinion.

  5. Anonymous, on April 5th, 2008 at 10:12 pm Said:

    I think you can get two sticks of 2gb Ram (4gb) for about 160 sing dollars from OWC, considering you can wait for the shipment.

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