Original Greaser Bob - 10/25/2020 16:08

I'd go for it. My experience is that old Macs don't "get slow". Apple will stop allowing updates to new versions of MacOS to prevent that from happening. Every Mac I have owned (on #4 now) ran just as good the day I stopped using it as the day I pulled it out of the box. I only upgrade to new models to get the latest OS. I recently upgraded so I could update to Big Sur when it soon releases. My old one was a 2012 model that would not be allowed to update.

I have this one set up with MacOS on the internal drive and I moved photo/music libraries to a super fast Thunderbolt IV external SSD. All app data is stored on iCloud. The next hardware upgrade will be a piece of cake. Just switch out boxes, no pulling data over from the old machine. Will probably upgrade again within a year to get onto Apple silicon. This machine was purchased used off of Craigslist to get me by until then and will be passed on to my wife who is currently running another 2012 model.

You could even run that Mac off of an external drive. Google how to instal MacOS on the external and how to boot from it. Wouldn't even need to open the box to switch drives. Easy peasy.