Comment by maz1b
2 days ago
While I can appreciate the intent of this blog post.. I don't see how the title should be "repaste your Macbook" when touch ID breaks and the button stops working.
Doesn't Apple offer this service if you have AppleCare+? or even if you dont? that way its on them?
I think if you use your laptop beyond three years, you might want to worry about shit like that. But you really should consider getting something decent instead.
I use leased laptops for work and I generally replace them after three years with whatever is new and shiny. I recently upgraded from the M1 macbook pro to a shiny new M4 Max. And damn this thing is fast. My build speeds massively improved. This is cutting hours of time in a week. Which is an unbelievable upgrade of my quality of life. And it also means I run tests more often and pro-actively instead of going "I could do it but it's going to take five minutes". My build speeds are now routinely below 1 minute. Ram throughput and having more CPUs are making the difference here. I was expecting my builds to be faster with a new laptop. But not by 4-5x. So, I don't think I'll ever be faffing about with thermal paste. Because that would mean I'm penny pinching instead of getting a massively faster laptop.
It's a judgment call of course and a bit personal. Not everyone needs a fast laptop. But I gladly spend a bit extra for this stuff. On the current contract, my new laptop is costing 100 euro per month. That include apple care coverage. And it's a 48GB M4 Max. Worth every penny. I'm not going to worry about thermal paste because I'll upgrade before that becomes an issue.
I don't think creating more e-waste is the answer, especially for things that still work properly with marginal improvement over time. Neither it is the option for most of the population. Use it as long as you can and squeeze the most of the things you already have.