Do Macs degrade slower than an average PC

[Guest]

well I don't have any statistics for all hardware in the world. But here my statistics:

 

I had around 4 Windows Notebooks. From Acer to Dell to Dell to HP to Lenovo. On average I used them for 4 year. I was able to give all of them to someone else to use them for another 2-4 years. But I'm a very careful person. A lot of the models I used were also used by colleges - and some have a talent to break stuff or drown things in coffee...

Usually I kept the original Windows version, or upgraded out of curiosity. In 4 years experiments would cause a fresh install about 3 times?

 

2013 I switched to a MacBook Pro. Which is this machine here. Like the hardware. It keeps up with time much better than the other machines. But same story for the OS. Some failed Mac OS upgrades caused a fresh install about 3 or 4 times (one directly after the other and one Ubuntu experiment not counting).

 

So - OS side: for me the same thing. If you're a bit careful you can live with one install for years - be it MacOS or Windows. Hardware side: I will argue the aluminum body copes better with time. But that might just be aesthetics. My other notebooks were all made of plastic or magnesium or some exotic mixture of a dozen materials. If you are careful: no scratches, no broken USB ports, no broken display hinges, all buttons on the keyboard working.

 

All notebooks I had felt quite warm when using day by day. Would not argue if one or the other runs hotter by default. The HP notebook I had was surely a winter edition...

 

In summary: the Apple notebook I currently use really feels younger after these years (I did replace the WLAN card last year).

 

Aaaand I'm not getting one with that touch bar and no USB3 ports. The Ubuntu experiment on the MacBook pretty much pissed me off with the restrictions Apple applies to the hardware you own. Probably back to a Windows machine. Maybe Dell saves the day with a reasonable Linux Notebook 

[corrado33]

I will say this.

 

In all my years of owning both mac and PCs, I've had to reinstall windows more often than I've had to reinstall macOS. Windows DOES seem to eventually get "clogged up" by installing then uninstalling programs. Where as macOS doesn't seem to have that problem. In fact, I have pretty much a yearly/bi yearly windows reinstall just to get everything sorted out on my main windows rig. I haven't had to reinstall macOS in.... many many years. Usually what happens is that something in windows will go wrong. I'll start getting an error that I can't track down or is a pain to fix, or I'll start getting a bug that'll start to annoy me (freaking taskbar not hiding when playing full screen videos.).

 

So I get annoyed, say "fuck it" and reinstall windows. Then everything works fine for a year or so.

[IntMD]

15 hours ago, TheKDub said:

Well, I have a 2012 MacBook Pro (13" 1280x800, i7-3520M (2.9GHz), 8GB of RAM, and upgraded to a 250GB SSD). It has held up quite well. I've only had it for a few months now so I can't say how much it has degraded, but I highly doubt a similar range Windows laptop from nearly 7 years ago could hold up as well as my MacBook has.

 

Being Ivy Bridge, and only 2c/4t, it's not great for heavy workloads, and can get rather hot, but for web browsing, office/school work, and light photoshop use, it does a great job.

I have a Lenovo Yoga 2 13" 1920x1080 i5 4210U with 8gb RAM & a 250gb SSD. I bought this new sometime in 2014, probably 2nd half. Your processor has more cache and a higher clock, but also a higher TDP. The only thing I have done with it is replace the original SSHD with an SSD that I had lying around as a spare (and not a particularly good one, either).

 

Mine still works perfectly, boots to Windows in plenty under 10 seconds, and is snappy for everything it does - web browsing, old games etc. It was also considerably less in cost than any Macbook, never mind a Pro. It has travelled around the world with me being thrown around all over the place and jammed in to bags with all kinds of other crap in them.

 

Longevity is not just for Macbooks, and anyone that thinks so is frankly naive.

 

I will also add, this entire thread is just a shitshow of fanboys on either side as per standard for these threads.

 

[GoldenLag]

17 hours ago, TheKDub said:

Well, I have a 2012 MacBook Pro (13" 1280x800, i7-3520M (2.9GHz), 8GB of RAM, and upgraded to a 250GB SSD). It has held up quite well. I've only had it for a few months now so I can't say how much it has degraded, but I highly doubt a similar range Windows laptop from nearly 7 years ago could hold up as well as my MacBook has.

 

Being Ivy Bridge, and only 2c/4t, it's not great for heavy workloads, and can get rather hot, but for web browsing, office/school work, and light photoshop use, it does a great job.

HP Probook 6470b 14" is holding up rather well and im currently typing on it. did a Ramupgrade as i used it for casual gaming for 4-5 years and added an 120GB SSD as it is now an Student laptop. 

 

considering i used it for gaming for quite some time it has held its own really well. 

 

this was 5760 NOK in 2012 which should be about 500$ (or less) at the time (adjusting for taxation and currency). it has held up quite well and i did a reinstall of the OS when i swapped to an SSD, before that it was somewhat bloated after years of me not caring at all, but far from un-usable. 

[ewitte]

Actually heavily used Macs have tons of issues.   They make them for sure over function and cheap out old basic things like proper vrm circuits,  capacitors,  solder that starts flaking off,  horrendous  cooling,  etc. 

 

There is a reason proper workstation class components are big...  The constant "smaller" push ...

[OX_S]

My 2008 MacPro is still not only keeping up with today standards but is significantly faster than the average modern day pc. I cant speak for the pc side of things but what from what I've heard/read on the forums and what my pc user friend told me it seems that pc's degrade a lot faster.

[JoeCoke]

As others have asked, what does degrade mean? That could mean a lot of things.

 

If you mean how long does a installation of the OS last, then yeah I'd argue that OS X lasts longer, because Windows rot is a bastard. Unless you baby WIndows or don't do much with it, Windows rot will be noticeable after a few years. I've been on this Windows 7 SP1 for almost five years and its age is starting to show, it just doesn't feel fresh.

 

If you're asking which OS lasts longer, then Windows wins this easy. XP can still be used for basic tasks to this day, and even more then that as long as gaming isn't on your to-do list. I've even rigged Windows 2000 (thanks to a legend named blackwingcat) to be usable for modern web browsing, smooth 60 FPS Youtube playback included. Try doing that on Cheetah!

[mr moose]

If you are looking for the most environmentally friendly option, then both degrade at the same time in a landfill.  My advice is buy second hand and recycle.  Mac or PC is moot these days bar for the store ecosystems.

[Uttamattamakin]

No in the sense that Macs are for practical purposes just PC's with a different OS.  i.e. a Hackintosh. (The only real pro option) .

 

YES in the sense that MacOSX does not really change all that much over the years.  There are YT channels all about can you use a 200X mac in 2018 and the answer seems to be yes for anything from after the switch to Intel.  You may not have the latest OSX but you have OSX and Safari and Chrome and can do 98% of what most people do on the computer these days.  Odds are in 2028 if Apple stays with Intel a mac from now will still be useful.
 

No in that Apple has been known to plan the true obsolescence of their systems.  i.e. The change from OS9 to OSX the change from PowerPC to Intel.    If they change from Intel to their own Arm based chips it will instantly render all intel based Macs obsolete.  Still useful but ... rapidly less useful.   It would be fun to see if Apple fans just go along with that this time.

[Guest]

I think that a lot of what people perceive as degradation with their Windows PC is either they bought a very cheap laptop with weak components, or they accumulated a lot of trash and possibly malware that slows down their PC, whereas Macs tend to have a more curated experience with an OS which is fairly stable so they're likely to be able to go for a longer period of time without issue. I'd say there are a lot of poor Windows PCs out there that would benefit greatly from a fresh Windows install to clean out 3+ years of accumulated trash.

[BeeBee8]

It's more to do with Macintosh than Mac. It's heavily optimised. And apple forcing SSD in a mac makes it feel faster. Most budget windows laptops comes with a HDD and even the first boot takes few minutes to load. As SSDs are more common these days, this gap will eventually reduce. But, the build quality makes it more durable. There are very few manufacturers that engineer a laptop that well. And the overall sentiment in people makes mac having a better resale value. If that is one of the degrading factor you want to consider. The degrading value proposition.

[ewitte]

23 hours ago, OX_S said:

My 2008 MacPro is still not only keeping up with today standards but is significantly faster than the average modern day pc. I cant speak for the pc side of things but what from what I've heard/read on the forums and what my pc user friend told me it seems that pc's degrade a lot faster.

A 10 year old PC with an SSD would feel faster than one off the shelf with a hdd.  Crap components are crap. Your Mac is also old enough to be semi repairable.  They are designed to be disposable pretty much now. 

[Amazonsucks]

On 11/19/2018 at 2:48 AM, corrado33 said:

I will say this.

 

In all my years of owning both mac and PCs, I've had to reinstall windows more often than I've had to reinstall macOS. Windows DOES seem to eventually get "clogged up" by installing then uninstalling programs. Where as macOS doesn't seem to have that problem. In fact, I have pretty much a yearly/bi yearly windows reinstall just to get everything sorted out on my main windows rig. I haven't had to reinstall macOS in.... many many years. Usually what happens is that something in windows will go wrong. I'll start getting an error that I can't track down or is a pain to fix, or I'll start getting a bug that'll start to annoy me (freaking taskbar not hiding when playing full screen videos.).

 

So I get annoyed, say "fuck it" and reinstall windows. Then everything works fine for a year or so.

My last windows install went 4 years before i built a new PC. My current one is from mid 2016.

 

dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth 

 

sfc /scannow 

 

I use those two whenever Windows goes nuts. Im on 8.1 Pro and i only install necessary updates.