Thinking about a used MacBook?

[darealsoulless]

I want a MacBook because they're easily portable and I love MacOS. I want either a used Air or Pro and I want it for less than $500. I'm a broke high school student and don't have the money to buy a new one, and I was wondering if they're even worth buying used. And also, what year and what minimum specs should I look for? I want one I can keep for no longer than 2 more years.

[dizmo]

Always worth checking out used, however I Macs tend to hold their value so good luck getting a decent one for that price.

You might be able to get one of the first gen Airs for that. If you're just doing papers on it I imagine it'd be fine.

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Look for a used 2012 MacBook pro 13. You then put aside and more ram in it. 

[dobo2001]

2 minutes ago, GR1MES said:

I want a MacBook because they're easily portable and I love MacOS. I want either a used Air or Pro and I want it for less than $500. I'm a broke high school student and don't have the money to buy a new one, and I was wondering if they're even worth buying used. And also, what year and what minimum specs should I look for? I want one I can keep for no longer than 2 more years.

With your budget, I'd go for an Air. What size you get is up to you, but I'd gun for one that has at least 8GB of RAM as they are not upgradable. If you want a pro, any Retina display one, which will probably be out of your budget, those do not have upgradeable RAM either. 

[tarfeef101]

2 minutes ago, GR1MES said:

I want a MacBook because they're easily portable and I love MacOS. I want either a used Air or Pro and I want it for less than $500. I'm a broke high school student and don't have the money to buy a new one, and I was wondering if they're even worth buying used. And also, what year and what minimum specs should I look for? I want one I can keep for no longer than 2 more years.

Yeah, buying used is fine as long as the device is in working order, I may not be an apple fanboy but their devices are built to last.

 

I'd say something with an intel i-series CPU, 4th generation or later (e.g. i5-4xxx-U or i7-6xxx-HQ), that way you can take advantage of good battery life.

 

To any annoying people: if he wanted windows, a linux distro, or a hackintosh I think he would've said so.

[mrchow19910319]

A basic 2012 non retina macbook pro. With 5400rpm HDD in it. 

Then you upgrade that machine with a SSD and add more ram in it then you are golden. 

I am typing this on my 2012 non-retina macbook. Works really well. As long as you put a SSD in it, it will feel as snappy as new. 

[Pendragon]

Basically what everyone else has told you. The 2012 non retina model. Except I would say go for the 15in with the quad core and GT650m. You can play basic games like lol and csgo on that gpu and it offers cuda acceleration on professional workloads (any dGPU is better than no dGPU).