UKC

Any tips or advice? Looking at a 2012 model (previous model) with i5 and 16gb ram.

Any issues with transferring ownership of the OS - I've seen a thread suggesting internet recovery works if the machine is locked to the old user's account.

What about machines sold with Office or Adobe products - are these tied to the Apple ID - is it possible to take ownership of these?

Any hardware unreliability in that model?

In reply to Philip:

Nice little machines as they are fairly easy to work on - but be careful with the IR sensor though if putting a new SSD in, as it can break if you are as cack-handed as me. Not a major issue but it stuffed the 'on' light so confuses the Mrs.

As they are the last model to have relatively easy access to RAM and HDD they keep a high price. Add your own RAM to keep the cost down. I have the i7 version here happily running Windows10 and OS X El Cap.

If the previous user was stupid enough to send on his data then remove drive, wipe, and reinstall - you will want an SSD for the OS and a terabyte HDD for the data.

Neither Office nor Adobe will be tied to an Apple ID but if putting a new HDD in they might want the serial reinstalling, so make sure you have the keys to any software that might need reinstalling.

cheers

b

In reply to ben b:

Thanks for the info. I've decided to go with a 16gb version - Apple original memory, I've got it at a good price - cheaper than the 4gb allowing for £90 memory, and it saves a job. Went with the one without office and adobe - they were site licensed installs from the seller and wouldn't be valid for a re-install. I'll probably install a version of open office as I'm switching from Fedora linux not Windows, if I need Office I'll get it later. I'll try out the FOSS software on a mac (darktable, GIMP, etc) before deciding if the commercial equivalents are essential.

I'll probably put off the hdd replacement until el cap is released and do a new install of that to the SSD.