Who says an 8-year-old MacBook Pro is too old? Today’s featured setup relies on a new M2 MacBook Pro for most of the real work, but a 2015 Retina model still contributes regularly.
“Used it for school but recently graduated in May, only use for it now is YouTube/visuals until it dies,” graphic designer and Redditor izzyontheweb said. “Could you believe it’s a 2015 model and still works amazing?”
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M2 MacBook Pro carries the load while 2015 Retina model stays in the mix
Izzy showcased the old-and-new setup in a post entitled, “My productive paradise.”
The commenter who asked Izzy what he does with the old MacBook had his own tale to tell. “I have a 2015 15-inch still and that thing is a work[horse],” he said. And then he asked about Izzy’s other MacBook, correctly presuming it, rather than the old-timer Mac, drives the setup.
“You’re right, powering my setup is a 2022 MacBook Pro M2 chip 8G, works beautifully!” Izzy replied. “I pretty much have all of Adobe suite open 24/7, Spotify and maybe 15+ tabs open all at once and never any issues or lagging.”
1440p monitor suits him fine
Along with this laptops, Izzy runs a 34-inch LG 34WP88CN-B display. Here’s how he described his use of it:
I’m a graphic designer and pretty much only use Apple products so my focus was compatibility/color accuracy/power output/reliability. It has an HDMI port and a USB-C port perfect for my two MacBooks to power the monitor and additional ports for my bluetooth USB mouse and USB light bar.
It also has an IPS screen which is great for color accuracy when designing projects, 3440 x 1440 resolution so not quite 4K but the HDR10 fills some of the gap. Also the USB-C outputs 96W of power, so far I haven’t yet had to worry about charging my laptop and it also acts as a display port.
It is only a 60Hz, I would of preferred 144Hz for gaming but for all these specs I would of had to go 4K resolution and drop another $300-$500 just for that small difference, wasn’t worth it since it’s already a great somewhat affordable monitor. Crazy enough, I never have issues with blurry text or lines though at any scale, even on the far outside of the monitors curve!
Unusual mechanical keyboard
An interesting detail in the setup is Izzy’s choice of mechanical keyboard. It’s a wired IrisLab JRIS65 Milky White mechanical keeb. It runs into a MacBook USB-C port via a “$10 coiled wire from Amazon.” And in the photo above, you can see some keycap swapping appears to be in progress.
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Computers:
Display:
Input devices:
- IrisLab JRIS65 Milky White mechanical keyboard with Glorious Panda tactile switches
- Coiled USB-C cable for keyboard
- Logitech MX Master 3S wireless mouse
Gaming:
If you would like to see your setup featured on Cult of Mac, send some high-res pictures to info+setups@cultofmac.com. Please provide a detailed list of your equipment. Tell us what you like or dislike about your setup, and fill us in on any special touches, challenges and plans for new additions.
Apple's powerful laptop with M2 Pro chip, 14-inch Retina display, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD storage, in space gray (renewed).
