As the years wear on, it can seem like your once nimble computer has somehow gotten slower. It certainly is a strange phenomenon that this once brand new and sprightly machine suddenly feels sluggish. Has something changed? Did you just get used to it? Do you need to spend hard earned money to purchase a new computer? Well, if you’d like to know the answers to these questions, then keep reading…
While new computers seem fast, there is a good reason for this: they are designed to speed up everything that you are used to doing on a daily basis. This can be browsing the internet, watching YouTube videos, typing up reports, creating spreadsheets, editing photos. On a pro level, this could mean video editing, 3-d design, music production, and much much more. The thing is, all the stuff you are used to doing has been designed for computers that have been out for at least a year. With that in mind, developers make sure everything you do on a daily basis is quick. On the other hand, when you buy a new computer, it will be exceedingly fast because all of that software that was designed for older computers is now running on a much faster machine. Remember, on average, computers (and iPhones and tablets) all double in speed about every year and a half.
By the same token, your older computer, let’s say anything over 6 years old, will suddenly feel quite slow every time you update your software. This is because the new software is designed for newer computers. And as an industry professional, I can tell you that anything over a few years old is no longer catered to or really properly tested. This leads the the phenomenon where your computer feels slower. Of course it isn’t any slower, it is simply doing more complicated things.
On top of that, Apple in particular is guilty of hamstringing its customers by making it almost impossible to upgrade any of its devices built in the last several years. For example, it is now impossible to upgrade a MacBook or an iPhone if you suddenly find you need more storage or memory (which would speed things up). Apple is incentivized to do this because if you suddenly find you need more space, you must purchase a whole new device. You can clearly see how this benefits Apple.
However, all is not lost. For the most part the pace of computing is actually slowing down as we run up against the limitations imposed by physics. So your computer is likely to last longer than one purchased, say, in 2002. Secondly, the things we do on computers isn’t changing all that much anymore. While in the early 2000’s it would seem almost impossible that a computer could stream movies, nowadays even an old machine has no problem streaming. An in fact, most of what people do on computers is easily handled by older machines. This leaves professionals as the last group that need more frequent updates, and even that group is shrinking. It now only includes 3-d designers and some leading edge video editors.
Also, in many cases, older machines, such as the Macs built before 2015 still have upgradeable parts. One of the biggest things you can do to speed up your machine is replacing your old hard drive with a much faster and more reliable SSD. For most machines, Hawaii Mac Support can give you a fixed price to swap out your old drive (typically around $300) which will improve your performance by about 10 fold. In many cases that is enough to add five years of extra life to your machine. This article is being written on a Mac mini 2014 that was upgraded and is now almost as fast as a new machine.
And there are many other fixes that we can perform to make your machine feel like new again, from removing outdated software to updating and reseting your systems. And if you do need a new Mac, we can advise you which one will suit your lifestyle. If that sounds up your street, then get in touch.
Mahalo!