Out With The Old And In With The New.

Perhaps there's something in the air, it's the time of the year or a modern day Timothy Leary has dropped the Apple Cool Aid into the water supply. But here at The MacDoctor more and more, clients both old and new, are approaching us looking to replace their current Mac hardware. We suspect the reasons are more practical than air or water borne with many hard working and trusty G3's and G4's coming to the end of their productive lives. Many of these machines are still in working order, but a combination of storage, upgrade and service issues are leading many clients to think it may well be time to put those 5,6 and 7 year machines out to pasture and upgrade to Apple's latest and greatest.

It's a decision we often find ourselves being asked to advise on and happily hand out the same key points to one and all. First, has the current machine earned it's keep and proved cost effective to date? Second, what is the lifetime a new purchase is expected to cover and does any possible investment make sense and seem economical over that same time scale? Third, are you using and relying on any current or future machine enough to make it worth your while investing in a brand new machine? And lastly, what are you hoping to gain from the upgrade to a more modern machine?

Once clients have answered those questions, sometimes with our help, the answer is usually clear to either invest in new hardware or stick with the machine they have. If the decision is to invest in new hardware we then advise two more things. One, don't economise on a purchase intended to last 4/5/6/7+ years. What we mean is don't try and save £200 say, on a a more powerful processor, larger hard drive, more memory, faster graphics card etc. Over the planned lifetime of the machine, these savings make little sense when divided yearly. Certainly don't spend more than you can afford but do buy as much as you can for your money. Two, consider purchasing Apple Care for your machine, not at the point you make the initial purchase, but towards the end of the first year.

That's it. If you need anything else you know where to find us!