Macbook air 2015?

[jancivil]

For comparison, I ran a 2010 MBP (13") for like a year, duo-core 6GB and it already had a battery life problem. I paid 300. I would say 350 is a lot for that one.

I could get a few things up in realtime, but certain things, if there is a long tail on cymbals, Absynth or other resource hogs would be something to commit to early, also very high latency and a lot of pencil tool entry, time-consuming

[echosystm]

Long term support for Macs is far better than PCs, but 6 years is a bit too old. I would skip it.

If your budget won't cover a Mac that was made in the last 3 years, I think you would be better served by a PC. However, I wouldn't buy a PC that was older than a year or so. PC manufacturers are generally terrible with firmware updates and stop providing them after a few years.

In this age of constant CPU vulnerabilities, firmware updates are essential.

My brother actually uses a 2013 mbp and I worked on it a few times and it’s pretty smooth.

I'm not talking about performance. I'm talking about Apple still releasing updates for it. This is important for three reasons:

1. Software may only run on a version of MacOS that you can't get.

2. You miss out on bug fixes.

3. You miss out on security fixes.

Lack of updates can basically make the machine a brick, regardless of how well it performs.

350 euro is far too much, in any case.

[Funkaroma]

I’ll avoid that one then. I saw a 2014 macbook pro for around the same money as that one. Maybe a better buy? I’m talking about a base model macbook pro though. Dual i5 and 8gb of ram. I’m looking for good conditions only without the coating issue many have. If I’ll find that macbook air for 100€ I’ll take it though, but I don’t believe they go as cheap as that. At least not over here in the Netherlands.

[echosystm]

Again, I wouldn't buy anything that old, unless you're comfortable with the risk that it will be unsupported in the near future (if not already).

Look up Apple's policy on vintage and obsolete products. They guarantee a minimum of 5 years support, as far as I understand it. If you buy a 3 year old MacBook, you are guaranteed to get support for 2 more years.

PC users balk at policies like this, so I'm going to pre-empt that. I have seen PCs from prominent manufacturers stop receiving updates after one year. Apple is far better at long term support, but a lot of folks don't appreciate or understand this. For example, there are a lot of PCs in the world that have unresolved Intel CPU vulnerabilities.

[Funkaroma]

Again, I wouldn't buy anything that old, unless you're comfortable with the risk that it will be unsupported in the near future (if not already).

Look up Apple's policy on vintage and obsolete products. They guarantee a minimum of 5 years support, as far as I understand it. If you buy a 3 year old MacBook, you are guaranteed to get support for 2 more years.

PC users balk at policies like this, so I'm going to pre-empt that. I have seen PCs from prominent manufacturers stop receiving updates after one year. Apple is far better at long term support, but a lot of folks don't appreciate or understand this. For example, there are a lot of PCs in the world that have unresolved Intel CPU vulnerabilities.

If I could afford a new macbook air m1 I wouldn’t hesitate to get one, but unfortunately that’s no option. I see big sur is still supported for mbp’s 2013 and up, so I’d guess that it will it not be supported for much longer, but is that be a big concern? I’d reckon I can’t run certain newer daw updates that will be released in the future, but I wouldn’t mind it that much. And can cpu vulnerabilities all of a sudden occur if a product isn’t fully supported anymore?

[jancivil]

I've needed Apple support twice in my life. I don't know what 'no longer supported' means to the user other than a new machine is going to have the new OS. I certainly used Snow Leopard years past its release, OSX was up to 10 from 6.8, and Big Sur hasn't been out that long. I don't chase the OS. I plan to get to Big Sur but one or two things aren't happening.

[echosystm]

Again, I wouldn't buy anything that old, unless you're comfortable with the risk that it will be unsupported in the near future (if not already).

Look up Apple's policy on vintage and obsolete products. They guarantee a minimum of 5 years support, as far as I understand it. If you buy a 3 year old MacBook, you are guaranteed to get support for 2 more years.

PC users balk at policies like this, so I'm going to pre-empt that. I have seen PCs from prominent manufacturers stop receiving updates after one year. Apple is far better at long term support, but a lot of folks don't appreciate or understand this. For example, there are a lot of PCs in the world that have unresolved Intel CPU vulnerabilities.

If I could afford a new macbook air m1 I wouldn’t hesitate to get one, but unfortunately that’s no option. I see big sur is still supported for mbp’s 2013 and up, so I’d guess that it will it not be supported for much longer, but is that be a big concern? I’d reckon I can’t run certain newer daw updates that will be released in the future, but I wouldn’t mind it that much. And can cpu vulnerabilities all of a sudden occur if a product isn’t fully supported anymore?

I wasn't suggesting you get a brand new Mac. Can't you get something in between 2014/2015 and 2021? 2017-2018 would probably be fine, for example.

Yes, security issues and bugs can happen at any time. If Apple is no longer supporting the product, that is a risk.

[jancivil]

to be perhaps clearer, I don't think 'unsupported' is more than 'no more updates'. In my experience if you call Apple - 2017, needed to install Snow Leopard - they help you. For extraordinary and broken stuff you get Apple Care when buying new.

[Passing Bye]

I’ll avoid that one then. I saw a 2014 macbook pro for around the same money as that one. Maybe a better buy? I’m talking about a base model macbook pro though. Dual i5 and 8gb of ram. I’m looking for good conditions only without the coating issue many have. If I’ll find that macbook air for 100€ I’ll take it though, but I don’t believe they go as cheap as that. At least not over here in the Netherlands.

If you are really hang up on getting old Macbook, than don't spend too much on it, most listings you can find is from people who couldn't sell the same, personally I follow listings on daily basis and good stuff is gone in mater of hours, so first advice, don't rush it, just wait until good deal comes on, give yourself two weeks and just hunt for your prey.

Second, if you think entry level Macbook Pro i5 from 2014 is good enough for your needs, than 2012 Macbook Pro i5 will serve you as good, Intel didn't had that big leaps in performance for years, so difference in performance isn't that big, but there should be in price, you are stuck on Catalina, but Live 11 still supports minimum of High Sierra, so you should be good to go until the end of version 11 at least.

Third, there was issue with failing graphics cards on most models, so maybe wisest thing would be to get one with just integrated CPU one, which entry level Macbook Pro's do have.

Overall, if you find great 2012/2013 model for peanuts, go for it, difference between them and 2014 isn't that big as price difference suggest, don't go lower than 2012.

[Lerian]

You should check the 2020 huawei d14 with amd 3500u cpu. 8gb faster ram. Ssd lightning fast. Cpu more powerful than a 2015 mb air (i7 2.2). No retina screen but cpu wise i think is miles ahead. Price should be around 450-500 usd used. You also get the windows platform with much much more freeware available, and also top performance using the reaper daw. You can also use 32bit older vsts, some of them are excellent.

Also apple have the bad habit of dropping support for older hardware these days. I'm stuck with mojave on my 2015 i7 mbp, which kind of sux. Catalina drops 32bit software and big sur have even more compatibility issues.

https://hwbench.com/cpus/amd-ryzen-5-35 ... e-i7-5650u