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2018 Mac Mini

It is pretty insane what AAPL has done in the 25 years that I've been a "hodl"-er.

Looking at the historical chart, my guess is that your stock has multiplied well over 200x! That's winning the lottery.

I think we bought ours ten or twelve years ago, and it's gone up to about 10x - which I'm not complaining about at all.
 
Shit like that is why I just cannot deal with Apple anymore. I love the OS so much, but what if my drive dies a day before a delivery? I guess I can have a bootable Thunderbolt drive ready to go and not experience much of a performance hit, but do they seriously expect me to just...run my computer like that full time from then on? Like, now my system drive is an external drive -- forever? Maybe a tech can do it, but do they expect people to pay to have their hard drive replaced? I guess then...Apple Care is basically required, then?

I'm holding my breath for 2019's Mac Pro, but if it has soldered on anything (and also probably has its base model priced at $6,000), then I'm 100% out the door for good.
 
I guess then...Apple Care is basically required, then?
Does installing your own RAM void the warranty? That's what I'd like to know. In that case, is there any point in buying Apple Care? I'd like to have AC in case the hard drive goes out, but not if they're going to say "Oh! You installed your OWN RAM? Tough luck. We aren't replacing your hard drive."
 
Those of you who work on machines with soldered hard drives: what the hell do you do when your drive dies? Just buy a new computer?

I think perhaps the question is - has anyone who has a soldered HDD ever had it die? Likely you wouldn't know, it would just stop working. All modern phones and tablets - certainly Apple ones - would come into this category. With no vulnerable connectors or moving parts, I guess failure rate is pretty low.
 
As an SSD has no moving parts isn't it just as, or almost as, likely that a motherboard component (which are mostly soldered) will fail?
 
As an SSD has no moving parts isn't it just as, or almost as, likely that a motherboard component (which are mostly soldered) will fail?
No. A motherboard component may fail at some time, but there are computers more than 20 years old that still work. There are computers from today going to be working in 20 years from now, but no SSD will last as long as far as I know.
 
No. A motherboard component may fail at some time, but there are computers more than 20 years old that still work. There are computers from today going to be working in 20 years from now, but no SSD will last as long as far as I know.

Ok I should have said in my post "within the normal life expectancy of a music/DAW based computer" - which seems to get shorter all the time ;)
 
No. A motherboard component may fail at some time, but there are computers more than 20 years old that still work. There are computers from today going to be working in 20 years from now, but no SSD will last as long as far as I know.
Would you WANT to work on a 20 year old computer?!? Let's see, 20 years ago I was using a G3 - I'm not sure it would be good for anything but very slow web browsing...
 
Windows 10 doesn't crash either but we don't want to go down THAT road do we?!? My point is that Mac users are paying 4 times as much for the same hardware for the privilege to use MacOS and Logic? Are those worth it? I've used them and to me they are nothing special. I don't have money to burn like that especially on computers...

Hell yes, they are worth it. Win 10 DOES crash, been there, done that, got the t-shirt. My experience of course, but to me it`s worth it to have a machine that I can count on day after day, without worrying about whether or not it`s going to deliver for me. For that reason, I`m willing to shell out for another Mac when that day comes.
 
Shit like that is why I just cannot deal with Apple anymore. I love the OS so much, but what if my drive dies a day before a delivery? I guess I can have a bootable Thunderbolt drive ready to go and not experience much of a performance hit, but do they seriously expect me to just...run my computer like that full time from then on? Like, now my system drive is an external drive -- forever? Maybe a tech can do it, but do they expect people to pay to have their hard drive replaced? I guess then...Apple Care is basically required, then?

I'm holding my breath for 2019's Mac Pro, but if it has soldered on anything (and also probably has its base model priced at $6,000), then I'm 100% out the door for good.

Soldered hard drives are not a new concept. No matter what computer you have, there is always a chance for a major component to fail.
 
Hell yes, they are worth it. Win 10 DOES crash, been there, done that, got the t-shirt. My experience of course, but to me it`s worth it to have a machine that I can count on day after day, without worrying about whether or not it`s going to deliver for me. For that reason, I`m willing to shell out for another Mac when that day comes.
That's absurd, they're using the same components. I could build 4 Windows machines to have backups for the same price...
 
That's absurd, they're using the same components. I could build 4 Windows machines to have backups for the same price...

And also have complete customization and full repairability.

But not everyone builds computers or wants to mess around with the setup. They want to work right out of the box with little to no thought. That's why Apple does so well. Ease of use and ecosystem. Their computers have almost never been cheaper/faster than a custom PC. But they just work well.
 
I’ve worked on some form of mac continuously since 1989. Had a motherboard go down in 1997 that was a real bummer. But besides that never had a component or internal hard drive go down (soildered or otherwise). And most of this time was at a studio with 5 running continuously (so maybe 30 or 40 macs in that time). My current 2 both have fixed hard drives, but I’ve had more problems with external or 3rd party hardware than apple (many third party HD’s have gone down, will never buy cheap again). And apple care for me is like asking a college student to mix my next film, not going to happen. ;) (But I have tech skills).

The bigger issue for Macs is usually will the applications I want (like the latest Kontakt that I need to run the newest library I just bought) still run on my old OS? Or are they just too damn CPU intensive to run smoothly? No? Then how much are the new computers? Luckily many pros in LA always want the latest gear and sell their “old”, fully loaded mac pros or minis at half price, so picking up a mint one off of ebay or craiglist is not difficult.
 
The bigger issue for Macs is usually will the applications I want (like the latest Kontakt that I need to run the newest library I just bought) still run on my old OS? ?

There you go, basically the computer will last until one day you can no longer update.
Typing from a 2011 Imac. This computer hasn't went down once, solid as a rock. My wife got a new macbook this year because her 2006 Macbook finally wouldn't run new forms of browsers and things...but it still runs (slowly) and I use it from time to time. I don't mind making an investment in something that lasts.
However, if you can't upgrade it throughout the course of it's life, then it's a serious issue. I'm going to do my best to squeeze another two years out of this one (I noticed the last O.S is not compatible with mine) but I do have my eyes open for options in the future. I don't really want to be stuck in a car with a ten year lifespan that I can't change the wheels/tires on.
 
If a soldered-in hard drive failed, couldn't you still boot and work from the external Time Machine backup? I've never tried this with newer Macs, but back in the old days, I remember having internal drive crashes and booting from external drives. Or even the CD-ROM drive. (Or in the really old days, the cassette drive. Or in the really, really old days, the vinyl LP drive.)
 
If a soldered-in hard drive failed, couldn't you still boot and work from the external Time Machine backup? I've never tried this with newer Macs, but back in the old days, I remember having internal drive crashes and booting from external drives. Or even the CD-ROM drive. (Or in the really old days, the cassette drive. Or in the really, really old days, the vinyl LP drive.)

You can boot from any drive that has the OS installed. Just use Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper to make a bit identical clone onto an external drive and if the soldered drive fails, you are still fine.
 
Does installing your own RAM void the warranty? That's what I'd like to know. In that case, is there any point in buying Apple Care? I'd like to have AC in case the hard drive goes out, but not if they're going to say "Oh! You installed your OWN RAM? Tough luck. We aren't replacing your hard drive."

Not high on my list of things to worry about. My experience with every Apple Store I've been to is that they bend over backwards to help you.

As an aside, I've been working on these things all day long since 1985, yet they still know a lot of things I wouldn't have known in a million years. We deal with different issues.
 
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