Snow Leopard and 32-bit Intel Macs

zoolook

Hi there. I am a newbie, so I'll start with a 'hello'!



I wondered what people's opinions are on the future of 32-bit Intel Macs are. I have a Core Duo BlackBook, and am a aware that they were relatively short lived. Everyone seems to be focused on PPC's being left out of 10.6, but although Core Duos will probably run, at what price?



It seems to me that each generation of CPU inside Macs has had at least a 3 or 4 year life (G3, G4, G4, Core 2 Duo), but the Core Duo was only in Macs for 7 months.



I was hoping this would see me good for 4 years. Any thoughts?

bbwi

core duo's are 64-bit. You'll get plenty of life, more than 4 years

Marvin

Snow Leopard will work on the original Intel machines - the betas have been tested on them.



You would benefit from upgrading, especially to a machine with an Nvidia chip but there's no rush.



Snow Leopard should run better than Leopard so if you get by fine now, your computer isn't going to be obsolete in either compatibility or performance when the new system comes along.



I have to say though, if you don't need firewire, I'd question why you wouldn't upgrade. The old Macbook had a glossy screen too so it's not really much worse and the build quality and graphics performance are so much better on the new one. It's lighter too.



Given that the blackbook was more expensive, you might be able to upgrade for very little money. It's quite good to keep on top of upgrades because your machine just keeps depreciating over time anyway. Even if you don't need a new computer, having the warranty is nice.



I think quite a good cycle to get into is:



1. buy a machine

2. close to a year later buy Applecare

3. 1-2 years later again, sell the machine with whatever warranty is left. Go to step 1



You always have a warranty, you should have little trouble selling as people like to buy machines with a warranty and your machine won't depreciate all that much.

zoolook

Quote:

Originally Posted by bbwi


core duo's are 64-bit. You'll get plenty of life, more than 4 years

Actually the original Core Duos are 32-bit; and for me it was an odd step, as my previous machine was AMD-64 based.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marvin




I have to say though, if you don't need firewire, I'd question why you wouldn't upgrade. The old Macbook had a glossy screen too so it's not really much worse and the build quality and graphics performance are so much better on the new one. It's lighter too.



Given that the blackbook was more expensive, you might be able to upgrade for very little money. It's quite good to keep on top of upgrades because your machine just keeps depreciating over time anyway. Even if you don't need a new computer, having the warranty is nice.



I think quite a good cycle to get into is:



1. buy a machine

2. close to a year later buy Applecare

3. 1-2 years later again, sell the machine with whatever warranty is left. Go to step 1



You always have a warranty, you should have little trouble selling as people like to buy machines with a warranty and your machine won't depreciate all that much.

Thanks for the advice. Before 'switching' (yes I was a switcher in 2006), I used to game a lot on my PC and was an upgrade freak. One of the reasons I went to Mac (aside from Vista, I was a beta tester and hated it from the very early days), was to drop out of that aggressive upgrade cycle. I'd upgrade my gfx card at least every 9 months (from 1997 to 2005) and CPU and MOBO every 12 - 14 months. I can't even start to tell you how much money I spent, just for a few FPS more...



Anyway, I am happy with the performance of my MacBook and while I am not so hung up on hardware now, I really like to keep everything bang up to date software wise (I got Leopard day one). I do really like the new MacBooks (I'd probably go Pro next time though), but at the moment between Grad School and saving for an apartment (in NYC of all places), an upgrade is going to have to wait until around Feb 2010 (after I graduate).