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2.0ghz... looking ahead...

A

arodvb

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 11, 2008
7
0
So I'm jumping from PC to Mac tomorrow, looking at the MacBook... MBP is too much computer for me. I burn DVD's, download torrents, surf the web, and use iTunes mostly. Pretty basic stuff. Don't need the backlit keyboard or extra 70 gig HD, however the 2.0 processor worries me a bit. Will this be enough when Snow Leopard comes out? Would the extra .4 even be noticeable in the new OS? Also, I plan to add 4 gigs of RAM right away.

Any advice is helpful since I've never used a Mac before and don't understand how 'heavy' the OS and programs are, or will be in the future.

Thanks guys! :D
 
it wont make much of a difference at all, and im sure apple wouldnt release a brand new computer that wont work well with their upcoming OS. its just annoying for us that had the old whitebook running on 2.4ghz and then these new ones came out and only have 2ghz for the same exact price...thats just mean.
 
likemyorbs said:
it wont make much of a difference at all, and im sure apple wouldnt release a brand new computer that wont work well with their upcoming OS. its just annoying for us that had the old whitebook running on 2.4ghz and then these new ones came out and only have 2ghz for the same exact price...thats just mean.
Click to expand...

Well they probably dropped 400Mhz, because of the DDR3 and NVIDIA card.
 
I feel the same way. I really want to pull the trigger on the $1299 MacBook but wish it had more than 2.0 GHz. If it were 2.2GHz, I probably would have ordered it already.
 
No one will be 100% sure until the actual Snow Leopard specs are out, but it's very likely the 2.0 GHz Macbook will be fine. Snow Leopard is about improving efficiency and speed of Leopard.

I'm running the latest Leopard on my PowerBook G4 and it's fine with basic computer use.
 
arthursiew said:
Well they probably dropped 400Mhz, because of the DDR3 and NVIDIA card.
Click to expand...
The clock speed of the current $1299 MacBook is the same as the clock speed of the first $1299 MacBook.

(I know GHz isn't the only determinator of speed, but some food for thought.)
 
likemyorbs said:
it wont make much of a difference at all, and im sure apple wouldnt release a brand new computer that wont work well with their upcoming OS. its just annoying for us that had the old whitebook running on 2.4ghz and then these new ones came out and only have 2ghz for the same exact price...thats just mean.
Click to expand...

Appreciate all the responses.

Since the old one was 2.4ghz and Santa Rosa platform (could be wrong on that), and the new ones are 2.0 but Montevina, would that make it likely that the 2.0 is actually faster since it's a newer (better) processor?
 
I bought the 2GHz because they sold out of the 2.4GHz. The extra 400MHz would be nice, but 400MHz is only going to look better on a benchmark and make encodes a few seconds quicker. The additional storage would be nice, but I wouldn't ever need it and could easily upgrade it later if need be. I couldn't care less about a backlit keyboard as I never used the one on my MBP.

Seriously, I've upgraded more than is really necessary and I hardly ever notice faster processors. It is memory and physical storage throughput that really makes a difference. Forget the 400MHz that you don't need nor will notice and get yourself a 4GB memory kit instead, whether through Apple or a third party (e.g. Crucial are selling one for under £100.) You WILL notice the difference with 4GB of memory over 2GB.

What about future OS upgrades? Well, Snow Leopard is essentially an optimized version of Leopard so you should see improvements in speed, if anything. After that, well, you may find yourself looking at a new laptop around that time anyway.
 
rds said:
I bought the 2GHz because they sold out of the 2.4GHz. The extra 400MHz would be nice, but 400MHz is only going to look better on a benchmark and make encodes a few seconds quicker. The additional storage would be nice, but I wouldn't ever need it and could easily upgrade it later if need be. I couldn't care less about a backlit keyboard as I never used the one on my MBP.

Seriously, I've upgraded more than is really necessary and I hardly ever notice faster processors. It is memory and physical storage throughput that really makes a difference. Forget the 400MHz that you don't need nor will notice and get yourself a 4GB memory kit instead, whether through Apple or a third party (e.g. Crucial are selling one for under £100.) You WILL notice the difference with 4GB of memory over 2GB.

What about future OS upgrades? Well, Snow Leopard is essentially an optimized version of Leopard so you should see improvements in speed, if anything. After that, well, you may find yourself looking at a new laptop around that time anyway.
Click to expand...

Excellent! Thanks! I was going to have Apple upgrade to 4gb ram, but I don't have all day to wait while they do it. So if they can't do it in under an hour I'll have to upgrade to 4gb in the future and do it myself. Plan on picking mine up tomorrow! Can't wait to have a computer again, although the iPhone did a good job of getting me by.
 
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