How Much Longer Will My Laptop Last

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RainbowDoll59

New Member
I am currently a first year graphic design student and I have a mac book pro from 2012 that I use for school. I have no problems with the laptop. The only main concern I have is the resolution isn't full 1080 HD. I'm expected to graduate in 2018 and I'm really hoping my laptop will at least last me until then because the graphic design program I'm in prefers macs even though in my opinion a good high end PC is just as good for graphic design as a mac. Here are the specs that I know of

Mac Book Pro mid 2012 model

OS: Half is OSX El Capitian other half is Windows 10
Hard Drive: 725 GB HDD
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Processor: Intel Core i7 3520m cpu @ 2.90 GHz
Graphics: Intel HD graphics 4000 1792 MB graphics memory
 
Tough to say really, the thing could die tomorrow. Impossible to know the true longevity of any given machine.
 
True but considering that I take good care of the laptop and it has last me for 3 years already I expect it to last me until the technology gets way too outdated for my needs, which sadly I feel it already is starting to happen since as I said it doesn't have full 1080 hd resolution.
 
RainbowDoll59 said:
True but considering that I take good care of the laptop and it has last me for 3 years already I expect it to last me until the technology gets way too outdated for my needs, which sadly I feel it already is starting to happen since as I said it doesn't have full 1080 hd resolution.
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In terms of technology, yeah its not the newest, but the specs are probably fine, but the resolution limitation may hinder your progression for your studies.

Not much you can do about that, unless you buy a new machine with 1080 or higher..or plug into a monitor, but that defeats the point of a portable laptop
 
Looking at specs alone you have an i7 and a decent amount of RAM. You should be fine until 2018. Newer CPUs aren't a lot faster than this i7 from 2012 - not fast enough to warrant buying a whole new machine anyway!

Maybe one day you could upgrade the RAM to 16GB and then replace the HDD with an SSD to really speed it up. That will help ensure it's longevity. I think once you have an SSD in it you won't even need to consider about getting a new laptop.

Too bad it doesn't have a higher resolution display. I don't even know if you can upgrade the display yourself, but I would try to overlook that and remember that the machine isn't really that old and that Ivy Bridge CPUs are still very capable. Think of it like this: my old Surface Pro with an Ivy Bridge i5 and 4GB of RAM was still fine for Photoshop and could even do a bit of Premiere Pro last year and your machine is faster than my old Surface Pro (and probably runs much, much cooler too!)
 
Yeah the technology isn't the latest but it's still not bad. The resolution is just something I'll have to deal with since I can't afford a new mac and don't want a new mac and then not want it anymore 2 years from now as I really prefer PCs more than macs.
 
RainbowDoll59 said:
Yeah the technology isn't the latest but it's still not bad. The resolution is just something I'll have to deal with since I can't afford a new mac and don't want a new mac and then not want it anymore 2 years from now as I really prefer PCs more than macs.
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Hold on, you said you preferred Macs to PCs in your original post and now you're saying you don't want a Mac again because you prefer PCs? :p Unless I misunderstood your first post...

What is the resolution of this laptop? 1366x768?
 
You misunderstood I said in my original post that the program I'm in prefers macs even though I prefer PCs. and the resolution of my laptop is 1280x800
 
Upgrading the drive would really speed things up for you, and ssd's are very durable. The only down side is that you need to install osx on the new drive..
 
Though I could use more hard drive space I think I'll do with what I have for now. Right now I don't seem to need that much hard drive space as I usually save my files onto an external hard drive so most of what's on my computer's hard drive is taken up by programs such as adobe creative suite.
 
You can use ssd as an external drive with a thunderbolt connection the transfer speed are up to 40gbs but I am not sure.
the regular 2.5" ssd are cheaper compare to PCI express and m.2 sata.
 
Only you can decide if the resolution is going to annoy you. We're not the ones using this machine.

If it is, don't spend a penny on this laptop and save for something else.

If you can live with it, think about an SSD and/or increasing the RAM.

In terms of CPU power though, this Ivy i7 is still perfectly adequate and your laptop will still be a very good performer with an SSD and more RAM. It already is a pretty powerful machine even with 8GB RAM and a hard drive.
 
I didn't mention this earlier but I do have savings that I use specifically for school. So far the resolution hasn't bothered me too much and hopefully it won't be too much of a bother as I continue with this program. Also since I really don't want to use my savings to get a new mac just for a better resolution and then get rid of it in about two years I'll think about using my savings that I use specifically for school to update the Hard drive and RAM. However, since I prefer PCs I might get rid of my mac book sometime after I get my degree. In that case I'll just leave it as is.
 
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