2nd pre-unibody 2.4GHz/8600GT vs. new 2.6GHz/9600GT macbook pro

[Mr.Bullitt]

Hi guys!

In June I am looking to buy my first Macbook Pro. I have settled for the 2.4GHz unibody with 4GB and I will buy a 500GB Seagate 7200rpm 16MB momentus HD on the side and put the standart drive in my PS3.


However, I have the possibility to aquire a 2nd hand, about 1 year old Macbook Pro 2.4GHz, 4GB, 200GB 7200rpm unit with matt display with the nVidia 8600GT card.


The question is - how much performance difference will there be between the models because of the 667MHZ DDR2 vs. the faster 1066MHz DDR3 memory in the new unibody?

RAM is important for RAW conversation. And I work a lot in Adobe Lightroom.


I am also curious about the 8600GT vs the new 9400/9600 graphic chipset.


Thanks guys

 

[daneoni]

10-15%

 

[pablol]

My guess is the performance gains will be very minimal. I recently upgraded from a 2.16 CD MBP to a 2.4 "Penryn" MBP (not Unibody) and can't really say I noticed any major speed gains in the applications I use (Logic Pro, Traktor, Ableton Live, Safari, iPhoto, iTunes).

 

[clyde2801]

Make frakkin' sure the prior gen mbp has, or is eligible for, extended applecare. A lot of people have reported major issues with the 8600 graphics card frying on them.

 

[Mr.Bullitt]

Make frakkin' sure the prior gen mbp has, or is eligible for, extended applecare. A lot of people have reported major issues with the 8600 graphics card frying on them.

Niether will have Applecare. In july it will be 1 year old and Danish law requires Apple to provide 2 years min. of warranty.

Does this model have failure rates higher than what would be considered "normal"??

Is the problem like the one reported with the unibody 17" and overheating?

any problems with the new unibody 15" I should know of?

 

[Some Guy 555]

Nothing wrong with the 15 inch unibody mbp. I picked one up a month ago (mid april) and love the thing.

2.66ghz/4gb/320gb @7200


The only thing worth mentioning that you may want to consider is heat. I am a power user, in that when I decide to use my laptaop, which is now my uMBP, I use it for hours and hours at one time. This thing generates MASSIVE heat in the top left corner when doing the following:

1. Benchmarking (for those that do that sort of thing).
2. Running bootcamp for windows and gaming on it.
3. Letting it run for longer than 2 hours.

The heat temperature is around 68 to 74 celsius when its hot at the top left corner. Thats about 154 to 165 degrees fahrenheit. Just watch out if your thinking of getting a faster processor, originally I wanted to get the 2.93, but after seeing how hot my friends 2.66 got I changed my mind quickly.

The 2.4 should be good for you, probably much less heat than my 2.66. Careful putting in a new internal hdd though. Make sure you get a proper 2.5" SATA (serial ata) one.

 

[Mr.Bullitt]

Nothing wrong with the 15 inch unibody mbp. I picked one up a month ago (mid april) and love the thing.

2.66ghz/4gb/320gb @7200


The only thing worth mentioning that you may want to consider is heat. I am a power user, in that when I decide to use my laptaop, which is now my uMBP, I use it for hours and hours at one time. This thing generates MASSIVE heat in the top left corner when doing the following:

1. Benchmarking (for those that do that sort of thing).
2. Running bootcamp for windows and gaming on it.
3. Letting it run for longer than 2 hours.

The heat temperature is around 68 to 74 celsius when its hot at the top left corner. Thats about 154 to 165 degrees fahrenheit. Just watch out if your thinking of getting a faster processor, originally I wanted to get the 2.93, but after seeing how hot my friends 2.66 got I changed my mind quickly.

The 2.4 should be good for you, probably much less heat than my 2.66. Careful putting in a new internal hdd though. Make sure you get a proper 2.5" SATA (serial ata) one.

2.5" SATA or SATA-2?


In a way I prefer the pre-unibody macbook pro design, espeicaly the look of the keyboard and the matt screen.