A laptop that last for years ?

[TroghleM]

My sister is looking for a new laptop. She is going to use it for light tasks (mail, office, web-browsing, etc...). She does not need the fastest, or the sexiest machine out there, but she doesn't like changing her machine, and would like to be able to do it as rarely as possible. 

 

So here is my question : in order for her to stay as long as possible on the same machine, which laptop would have your recommendation? I'm talking about lasting as long as possible without problems, as well as being as repairable as possible with easy to obtain parts (especially battery and storage), when these problems inevitably come. 

 

I'm kinda lost when it comes to that kind of things, since I've always been the kind of guy who just use a desktop for intensive tasks and use old laptops I get from friends until they completely dies when I need one. My understanding is that laptop are kinda like phones when it comes to durability these days, and rarely last more than two or three years, but is there exceptions to that? 

[aaradorn]

If you want something that would last for years you should go for the best, if you get the best now, in 3 or 4 years its still good enough. I wouldnt go with a budget laptop if the laptop needs to last for a long while. There are exceptions to the rule, macbooks can last 6 years (dont know if thats still the case) Dell mobile workstations are great as well. HP makes some really nice options too.

[lightfire]

Erm... Macbook all day long. The battery life is fantastic, and it ages very well. For daily tasks, that's what I'd go for.

[TroghleM]

50 minutes ago, lightfire said:

Erm... Macbook all day long. The battery life is fantastic, and it ages very well. For daily tasks, that's what I'd go for.

Do you know if it is possible, and if yes, how easy is it, to install windows on a Mac? 

 

Additionally, I started looking for old models, refurbished or brand new. I feel like putting a fast SSD in an old model and buying a new battery while they still are cheap in prevision of when it'll get too old might makes sense. 

[Curious Pineapple]

54 minutes ago, lightfire said:

Erm... Macbook all day long. The battery life is fantastic, and it ages very well. For daily tasks, that's what I'd go for.

One requirement was availability of parts, its easier to get moon rock than replace the SSD in a Macbook.

[lightfire]

1 hour ago, TroghleM said:

Do you know if it is possible, and if yes, how easy is it, to install windows on a Mac? 

 

Additionally, I started looking for old models, refurbished or brand new. I feel like putting a fast SSD in an old model and buying a new battery while they still are cheap in prevision of when it'll get too old might makes sense. 

Believe me, you don't want to put windows on a mac  Macbooks are fast because MacOS is super light.

I personally suggest a Macbook Air (2016+ model), they already come equipped with an ssd and they are pretty much bulletproof. I've been using mine for several years now, never had a single problem.

 

1 hour ago, Curious Pineapple said:

One requirement was availability of parts, its easier to get moon rock than replace the SSD in a Macbook.

When would you ever need to replace a macbook's ssd? They are pretty much bulletproof. I honestly don't think there are many windows-based laptops that can last longer than a Macbook.

[Curious Pineapple]

Just now, lightfire said:

When would you ever need to replace a macbook's ssd? They are pretty much bulletproof. I honestly don't think there are many windows-based laptops that can last longer than a Macbook.

My laptop is 10 years old and perfectly fine. If that Macbook goes pop say goodbye to your data. Yes backups blah blah blah, but pulling the SSD is so much easier. Plus it can be upgraded in the future rather than having to ditch the machine or carry around external drives.

[Lord Vile]

1 hour ago, Curious Pineapple said:

My laptop is 10 years old and perfectly fine. If that Macbook goes pop say goodbye to your data. Yes backups blah blah blah, but pulling the SSD is so much easier. Plus it can be upgraded in the future rather than having to ditch the machine or carry around external drives.

If a normal SSD goes poof say goodbye to your data... Apple can and will pull data off your SSD for you if that's not the thing that's died. 

Or you could just not need to upgrade? Plush you can only upgrade RAM and storage on laptops anyway, the CPU and GPU (If it has a dedicated one) are soldered anyway. So what are you gonna upgrade really?

 

Depending on budget I'd go for a MacBook air 256GB or a Pro 4 port 256GB. Both should last you a while and there's no better laptop for general usage, MacOS destroys windows in terms of usability. It is easy to install windows on a mac but the battery life in windows is abysmal (I get 10/11 hours on macos vs 3 on windows) and you're just better off staying on MacOS, it's so much beter than windows in literally every way. If it wasn't for gaming I'd never use windows, sell my desktop and use my MBP for everything.

[Curious Pineapple]

27 minutes ago, Lord Vile said:

If a normal SSD goes poof say goodbye to your data... Apple can and will pull data off your SSD for you if that's not the thing that's died. 

Or you could just not need to upgrade? Plush you can only upgrade RAM and storage on laptops anyway, the CPU and GPU (If it has a dedicated one) are soldered anyway. So what are you gonna upgrade really?

If the board is dead, the data is gone. I can upgrade the CPU in my laptop if I want to, it's socketed, I more meant upgrading the SSD though.

 

Quite funny really, ease of replacing parts and repairing, and running Windows are requirements, so let's recommend Macbooks with MacOS.

[rikitikitavi]

4 hours ago, TroghleM said:

My sister is looking for a new laptop. She is going to use it for light tasks (mail, office, web-browsing, etc...). She does not need the fastest, or the sexiest machine out there, but she doesn't like changing her machine, and would like to be able to do it as rarely as possible.

MacBook Pro (MBP) or MacBook Air (MBA).

My experience with them - battery is the only thing you should change in a few years.

'09 MBP 13" - still works, dated OS ;(

'11 MBP 15" - faulty Radeon graphics after almost 7 years of daily usage and gaming on Windows (Bootcamp), CAD$400 to repair, its original SSD is currently used on PS4.

'12 MBA 13" - still works and gets latest updates, i5 - still quite snappy for your usage.

'17 MBP 15" - abused daily.

 

8 minutes ago, Curious Pineapple said:

Quite funny really, ease of replacing parts and repairing, and running Windows are requirements, so let's recommend Macbooks with MacOS.

If machines work and are supported for years, little chance they would need a repair.

Windows wasn't a requirement.

[Lord Vile]

25 minutes ago, Curious Pineapple said:

If the board is dead, the data is gone. I can upgrade the CPU in my laptop if I want to, it's socketed, I more meant upgrading the SSD though.

 

Quite funny really, ease of replacing parts and repairing, and running Windows are requirements, so let's recommend Macbooks with MacOS.

What on earth are you on about? You can still pull data off a SSD if the board is dead unless you're unlucky. But a motherboard randomly crapping out is a lot less likely than a myriad of other things including the SSD dying. 

 

Macs are very reliable and apple is generally amazing with warranty, the only blot is the butterfly keyboards which are covered under extended warranty by apple. Have had family members have hardware issues with apple products and in all the cases where it was hardware not accessories they walked out with a new device within 2 hours of dropping it off at the store. The accessory replacement needed to be mailed to the store for pickup in a week or 2. Bearing in mind this is like 2 hardware issues over well over 30 devices since the 3GS so that's a <7% defect rate on devices that were run into the ground. I've had to return more PC components than that in the last 18 months. 

[Curious Pineapple]

22 minutes ago, rikitikitavi said:

If machines work and are supported for years, little chance they would need a repair.

Windows wasn't a requirement.

"Do you know if it is possible, and if yes, how easy is it, to install windows on a Mac? "

 

Seems to me that Windows may be needed.

 

14 minutes ago, Lord Vile said:

What on earth are you on about? You can still pull data off a SSD if the board is dead unless you're unlucky. But a motherboard randomly crapping out is a lot less likely than a myriad of other things including the SSD dying. 

 

Macs are very reliable and apple is generally amazing with warranty, the only blot is the butterfly keyboards which are covered under extended warranty by apple. Have had family members have hardware issues with apple products and in all the cases where it was hardware not accessories they walked out with a new device within 2 hours of dropping it off at the store. The accessory replacement needed to be mailed to the store for pickup in a week or 2. Bearing in mind this is like 2 hardware issues over well over 30 devices since the 3GS so that's a <7% defect rate on devices that were run into the ground. I've had to return more PC components than that in the last 18 months. 

Not with the drive encryption on the latest T2 equpped machines, Apples own service guide states the machine must partially power on and the recovery process involves using the "dead" board to copy the data to an external device.

 

I know Mac's are largely reliable, for the most part. The biggest killers of the Macbooks are blown power regulation components which Apple will not repair, and in most cases the board won't power up. There goes Apples data recovery process.

 

I've only ever once had a faulty PC component from new and that was a HDD about 15 years ago. I've broke hardware but never had DOA or early death with new components. Not that it matters really as we're talking about a laptop not a custom built desktop.

[Lord Vile]

22 minutes ago, Curious Pineapple said:

"Do you know if it is possible, and if yes, how easy is it, to install windows on a Mac? "

 

Seems to me that Windows may be needed.

 

Not with the drive encryption on the latest T2 equpped machines, Apples own service guide states the machine must partially power on and the recovery process involves using the "dead" board to copy the data to an external device.

 

I know Mac's are largely reliable, for the most part. The biggest killers of the Macbooks are blown power regulation components which Apple will not repair, and in most cases the board won't power up. There goes Apples data recovery process.

 

I've only ever once had a faulty PC component from new and that was a HDD about 15 years ago. I've broke hardware but never had DOA or early death with new components. Not that it matters really as we're talking about a laptop not a custom built desktop.

Say it with me now "That's why you take it to apple". 

 

Power is fine now they've switched to TB3.

 

In the last 3 years I've had 2 faulty motherboards (AsRock blue team, MSI Red team), 3 GPUs (all pascal 2x1060, 1x1070), 1 kit of RAM (Corsair) and a PSU (EVGA). Literally all i'm missing is a storage drive and CPU to arrive dead and I've completed the set  

 

Why would you need windows for office work (MacOS comes with a productivity suite, windows does not), browsing and mail? That's all taken care of upon thyn first boot on a MacBook. 

[rikitikitavi]

16 minutes ago, Curious Pineapple said:

Seems to me that Windows may be needed

"May be"

 

4 hours ago, TroghleM said:

Do you know if it is possible, and if yes, how easy is it, to install windows on a Mac? 

Don't go for apple if windows is a must, cause not the best experience on macbooks. Otherwise installation is easy and straightforward within macOS built in bootcamp app.

[rikitikitavi]

5 minutes ago, Lord Vile said:

In the last 3 years I've had 2 faulty motherboards (AsRock blue team, MSI Red team), 3 GPUs (all pascal 2x1060, 1x1070), 1 kit of RAM (Corsair) and a PSU (EVGA)

Do you buy everything from miners?!?! Cause no-one I know had so many failures.

[Lord Vile]

18 minutes ago, rikitikitavi said:

Do you buy everything from miners?!?! Cause no-one I know had so many failures.

Everything bought was brand new, worst one was the PSU because I spent £130 because it was SFX and EVGA and they make (rebadge) good things, my current PSU is a G2 that's been going 4 years now, tested literally everything when the new build wouldn't turn on, tested the PSU and all I got was a click, shoved my old PSU in there, bit too big for the ITX case but it does a job. RAM I though it was just a Zen thing but it doesn't work on my fianceés brothers intel build either. 

 

Weirdest GPU was the 1070, would just ramp up to 100% load and fan on the desktop randomly, was especially bad as it was a FE card. Nothing I tried fixed it. 

[rikitikitavi]

6 minutes ago, Lord Vile said:

Weirdest GPU was the 1070, would just ramp up to 100% load and fan on the desktop randomly, was especially bad as it was a FE card. Nothing I tried fixed it

Even fresh Win install?!

 

7 minutes ago, Lord Vile said:

Everything bought was brand new

[lightfire]

Jeez it's a laptop for his sister. Windows was not a requirement. From my understanding he just wants a reliable laptop that will last a long time and is good for the normal daily tasks.

And I'm sorry but Apple is THE way to go then. 

Ssd's aren't even that hard to replace in Macbooks if that's the concern. (Even though it will probably never ever break)

[Lord Vile]

9 hours ago, rikitikitavi said:

Even fresh Win install?!

 

Yup, lucky I had good internet at the time so reinstalling everything wasn't much of a fuss. Haven't had any issue with AMD GPU's though which is weird, had a 580 which I sold to miners and a Vega 56 which I got for like £250 and both were fine.

[Darkseth]

Tbh, a Macbook isn't more reliable as a Windows machine. You can be lucky, or unlucky.

See Louis Rossmann's Youtube Channel. He actually recommends only a few Macbook models out of the last Decade (i think mainly 2013-2014~, maybe 2015 Macbook Pro models). And that only, if it HAS to be a Macbook.

 

For example, Lenovo's Thinkpad series is very reliable, and it can be repaired way easier if anything happens.

 

 

Still, before going blindly to the one of the other side: Does the Sister use an iPhone or Android? Or does she have an iPad as a Tablet?
If she already uses Apple products, that would be a HUGE Reason to go for a Macbook. MacOS simply works so great, when you're already using an iPhone and iPad.

 

It should be easy to install Windows with Bootcamp. But why?
Needing a specific OS only makes sense, if you "need" to use a specific Application.

Browsing, Office etc is not one of those.

If you don't like Apple's iWork suite (which i would only recommend to people who never want to touch anything outside of Apple's cosmos), but Google Docs/Sheets are always possible, or even Microsoft Office (365)

[rikitikitavi]

30 minutes ago, Darkseth said:

Apple's iWork suite (which i would only recommend to people who never want to touch anything outside of Apple's cosmos

Why? It opens/saves/exports all major formats.

[Darkseth]

3 hours ago, rikitikitavi said:

Why? It opens/saves/exports all major formats.

So does Libre Office, yet it destroyed the formatting on a .docx File by not even displaying some elements, and moved the rest ^^

If you don't work with your own files, that's what could happen. And this is, in my opinion, the point where the Application is completely unuseable.

 

Since pretty much everyone (companies on a business level, or private users) uses Microsoft's Suite, i don't see a reason to use anything else. Simply for compatibility 

If that's not an issue at all, then it doesn't matter which Suite someone uses. Libre Office, MS Office, iWork, Google Suite, or whatever else there is.
All of them should have way more features than almost every private Person would ever need.

[rikitikitavi]

Well thats some bad experience;(

Used apple pages throughout school, had no problem. To be fare I didnt have any overcomplicated docx with weird formating, just some simple text/graphs/pics, probably had some substituted fonts here and there.

[Lord Vile]

On 2/24/2020 at 12:30 PM, Darkseth said:

So does Libre Office, yet it destroyed the formatting on a .docx File by not even displaying some elements, and moved the rest ^^

If you don't work with your own files, that's what could happen. And this is, in my opinion, the point where the Application is completely unuseable.

 

Since pretty much everyone (companies on a business level, or private users) uses Microsoft's Suite, i don't see a reason to use anything else. Simply for compatibility 

If that's not an issue at all, then it doesn't matter which Suite someone uses. Libre Office, MS Office, iWork, Google Suite, or whatever else there is.
All of them should have way more features than almost every private Person would ever need.

I've never had these issues on apples stuff. Plus I refuse to subscribe to an office suite. Google dos isn't great offline plus I'm not a fan that you have to be online to activate offline. Libre office I haven't used but I think it's horrendous that windows doesn't ship with an office suite anymore. It used to be a given that you'd at least have word, PP and excel with a prebuilt system.

[Kilrah]

On 2/23/2020 at 10:16 PM, Lord Vile said:

What on earth are you on about? You can still pull data off a SSD if the board is dead unless you're unlucky.

New macs don't have a discrete SSD anymore, flash chips are directly soldered to the board. And they also removed the lifeboat connector that allowed connecting to them to dump the data out from newer machines.

If the board doesn't boot and can't be made to boot again (which Apple doesn't even attempt, gotta go with 3rd party repair) the data is gone.

 

But then again you have Time Machine that makes backups so easy you have no reason not to have any.