Used MacBook 12" Buying Advice

[jcmc]

I have a near 10 year old iMac with a gradually failing hard drive and am looking to replace it, though not in kind. I've moved as much as possible towards using my iPad Pro for daily work, but there are two common applications I do probably need to keep using Mac OS X for in some form.

These are common ones: managing large iTunes and Photos libraries that account for 200-300gb each. As much as the Music and Photos apps have improved on iOS and I use the respective cloud services for both, there's plenty I can only really do on a Mac. So I want something simple and cheap to basically use as a conduit for my music and photos and that led me to think of the MacBook which is easy to pick up for a decent price on eBay.

I know it's hard to estimate, but I was wondering if people familiar with the MacBook might think it would be a suitable piece of equipment for this sort of purpose?

 

[deeddawg]

Sure, but is it really the best choice tool for you?

You make no mention of size/weight - which is where the retina macbook really shines.

Unless you really need those features, you'd possibly be better off looking at a used Macbook Air or 13" Macbook Pro.

 

[Evaldas]

It is a “Pure Zen” machine which is passive cooling. Still hoping for future models with Apple A processors.

And now I’ve been using my MacBook (2017, 1.2 GHz) instead of previous 15” MBP for almost three years for all my macOS tasks, including Xcode + Simulator, Pixelmator Pro, etc.. Sometimes I connect an external monitor.

I have two User accounts on this Mac, and one of it uses 200 GB iCloud Photos Library.

Everything works perfectly. Most of the credit goes to 8.0 GT/s SSD Interface (the 2015 model has 5.0 GT/s, which is almost twice as slow). And in all this time, the speed has not gone down. Here’s today’s screenshot below.

But there are downsides for gamers. With heavy games, CPU / GPU can throttle for lack of a fan. E.g. Tomb Raider 2013 runs pretty smoothly.

 

[4sallypat]

Sure, but is it really the best choice tool for you?

You make no mention of size/weight - which is where the retina macbook really shines.

Unless you really need those features, you'd possibly be better off looking at a used Macbook Air or 13" Macbook Pro.

Agreed - the 12" rMB is good for travel and lightweight use, the Air or Pro with larger storage and screen will do better for photos.

Take a look at the new Air with scissor keyboard starting at $999 !