Apple Releases Penryn-Based MacBook Pros with Multitouch

[bytethese]

What about the part where doing what bytethese says will void your warranty?

I'm a Systems Engineer and do stuff like this at my firm for a living. I didn't buy Apple Care for this reason. While I'm not an apple certified technician, I'm sure if my mobo, etc went, that I can put the old hard drive in and bring it to a Genius Bar.

 

[gelatin]

RPM is generally a problem for IOP intensive workloads - think manipulation of lots of frames or small files - at some point your overall throughput is affected as well depending on how many reads or writes you're getting per revolution - effectively:

rate = (block_size_xfer) * IOPs

your IOPs (I/O operations per second) can be calculated a number of different ways .. but an easy off the cuff calculation is to simply divide by 60 (assuming a single operation per rotation on average) to get a pretty good theoretical number .. so a 7200RPM drive would get you 120 IOPs vs 70 IOPs for a 4200RPM .. multiply that out by your transfer size and you'll see what your attainable max is to the drive .. (now some of this is obviously masked by the memory buffer cache and other filesystem optimizations to get higher or lower numbers)

.. (btw - i work with a lot of high end storage systems and filesystems) .. fwiw, HFS+ should optimize by reorganizing data blocks on the drives, but SATA and ATA suffer from poor optimization protocols (SATA-II introduced NCQ to mimic SCSI command queueing - but implementation is kinda sketchy)

.je

thanks for the explanation dude, despite most of it being gibberish to me
i will mainly be using it for photoshop, illustrator, flash, dreamweaver and internet browsing, downloading etc. once in a while i might use after effects.

ah ok thanks, dont think that will be a problem for me

does anyone know if the prices on the website are inclusive of tax? when i go to new york i plan on picking up one and wanna know if i get hit with a huge tax on top of the price

anyone?

 

[MarkW19]

And yes you're right - media keys on the top now. Woohoo.

 

[SharkySharky]

My first gen 2.16 MBP is *finally* beginning to feel long in the tooth...

Have to try to hold out...

Nice upgrade!

JT

I feel the EXACT same way. I have a 2.33 MBP from last year. 30 days after I got it they did the previous upgrade and after a month she already felt old. Now not even a year old she is 2 upgrades behind the newest model.... I sure do wish something would "break" on her so I could get a new one from Apple through the genius bar and Apple Care... but alas the ONLY thing to bunk out on me was my Super Drive and Apple just replaced that for me..



Oh and I am NOT complaining one bit! I LOVE my MBP! I have "joked" with my friends that she is my Girlfriend. I am Sharky and since she is my Soul-mate she is named Sharkette. We are in love...

Wedding pictures posted ASAP...

 

[Lefteous]

Look carefully. THE KEYBOARD IS UPDATED! The keyboard keys are updated to follow the rest of the macbook lines (except the color).

http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/design.html

All I see is that the keyboard hasn't been updated (except the media keys). It looks just like before.

I want the new keys ust like in the Desktop keyboards.

 

[Wolfpup]

i can only afford the base model or the refirbed 2.4 and i am only buying on performance (don't need the software update of trackpad).

should i buy the refirbed 2.4 mpb or the new 2.4 mpb based if i don't care about the new track pad thing

is this a true comparison performance wise?:

old refirb:
2.4 ghz
256 mb graphics
4mb l2

new mpb base model:
2.4 ghz
256 mb graphics
3mb l2

is the old one better???? help!!

For the same price? Get the new one!

It's:
1-new
2-has architectural improvements to the CPU that will probably help offset the loss in cache. I wouldn't worry about that much. This thing isn't designed to be run at full blast anyway.

 

[SubliminalMac]

Look carefully. THE KEYBOARD IS UPDATED! The keyboard keys are updated to follow the rest of the macbook lines (except the color).

http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/design.html

dude, the keyboard is exactly the same as all the other MBP... they wont update the keyboard until they do the full form factor, they would lose money doing a factory refit for that and its unneeded right now with no other changes

And yes you're right - media keys on the top now. Woohoo.

they added button decals, there is no physical change to the keyboard

 

[Achiever]

thanks for the explanation dude, despite most of it being gibberish to me
i will mainly be using it for photoshop, illustrator, flash, dreamweaver and internet browsing, downloading etc. once in a while i might use after effects.



anyone?

No, the prices listed on the website do NOT include sales tax unless you process your order to the end at checkout. Expect to be hit by NY sales tax if you buy it there. NY taxes vary by county, so you will be hit with something in the range of 7-9+% depending on where you buy. I believe NYC is about 8% these days (or thereabouts).

 

[GregorBehr]

For those who have been waiting -- was this really worth it?

LOL, nope!

 

[Mr Maui]

(1) Design: I love MBP's design. I for one, never want a keyboard change. The color is sexy. But that does not mean that an improvement is not imminent. Now that a product like the MBA has been released, thinness has become an issue no doubt. Why not make it a smich thinner? .80 instead of 1.0 perhaps? IT would make a huge difference in appeal. ...

The "thinness" of the MBA came at a price ... a premium price for small drive and no optical. A thinner computer is NOT a more effective or useful computer. The MBP with it's current design is still the best designed and (I believe) thinnest computer available with all of its features and capabilities.

(2) Performance: Now the 4BG RAM has pretty much become the standard in high-end computers. Why keep it as an option? Why not include them all in the purchase? At least in the $2500 version. But of course, more money. Well, anybody upgrading from the Apple store is definitely not right in the head. You can buy a single 2GB RAM from crucial for around 60 bucks. The price difference is huge. The vram in this upgrade is remarkable. At least it equals the competition's offerings. Hard drives? The MB and MBP are now almost identical in space. Why not offer a bigger hard drive? Now laptop hard drives can go up to 500GB. But im not really complaining about that. I for one have 5 external hard drives, and a laptop's internal memory will never suffice.

Please provide a link to th "high-end" laptops with 4GB standard RAM you are referring to. Please make sure that it has a price-point attached to it. I disagree that cheaper laptops anywhere come with 4GB RAM as a standard feature (and you referred to 4GB as the "standard" for high end, thereby also referencing the more expensive end). I do not disagree with you on Apple's RAM being overpriced, however. Anyone should realize this by now. Apple could win a few more fans by adjusting their RAM prices to more in line with the real world. As for hard drives ... 500GB laptop drives are not THAT readily available in bulk to make them a "standard feature", I don't believe. I could be wrong, but they are just starting to hit the mainstream now, and everyone would have complained more if Apple had waited on this update until the drives had greater availability.

(3) Display? No attempt at higher resolution yet again. The folks at alienware are offering 1200 (not sure if it's p yet) for a small fee. Yes, i know the technology does not support it yet, but still...some higher resolution screen would have been nice.

Apple did/does offer an option on the 17" for higher resolution and has been known to be a bit lax in their screen updates, but I also believe this is for the next round to be brought in around WWDC, along with bigger drives, faster processors, and BluRay drives.

(4) Blu ray: It's not just about viewing Blu ray movies, but having the option to burn Blu ray DVDs. And now that the so-called 'war' is over, there is no reason why Apple would hold this option back (except of course to hold it back to another upgrade so that consumers would buy ANOTHER MBP specifically for that option.

Apple, like most, did not want to make a major investment in/commitment to BluRay drives until they were certain that it would be the new "standard". HD was just pulled in recent weeks and Apple would have had to delay this update to incorporate BluRay into these updates. Watch for them in the next MBP update.

(5) The optional Apple remote: Thank God we can use our older remotes on any Apple device. Because this epitomizes Apple's lone quest for profiteering, which I am not holding against them. They're a company and a company's sole existence and purpose is profit for them and the shareholders. But for a high-end laptop to shed inclusions? That is unheard of ...

What percentage of laptop users actually use their remotes on a basis greater than 2-3% of the time? Is it something to make an issue over? No! I'd gladly sacrifice a remote for my laptop (which I have never used anyway) to get a good, easy computer at a competitive price. And, yes, Apple is allowed to make money. Trust me, if Dell, Gateway, HP, etc, could make cash the way Apple does, you can bet your rear they would!

(6) Apple is increasingly relying heavily-and rightly so, but to an extent-on its winning card: The OS. As I look at every other competitor in the laptop industry, Apple does not come remotely close to its rival hardware offerings.

Of course, the OS will always be the deciding factor for us who have used it, and for those who are so pissed off with Windows and want an alternative. But to not consider the hardware it is presenting just because it owns the monopoly over the OS? Come on, yes save your maximum upgrades for later tweaks to the laptop, but do not do it so overtly, and expect us, the consumers to not notice it, and react with disappointments. We are talking about a high-end product here, the most powerful laptop this company can offer.

I will probably buy this upgrade, because I need a faster computer, and because I will never buy a windows-operable computer again. And instead of paying $300 for a new battery and Leopard, I will just go with this upgrade, which for me will definitely show a huge difference in performance, at least that is what i am hoping. I am just afraid of the future; that the consumer will continue to pay premium price for a downward spiraling product. But time will tell.

I don't disagree that Apple could be a bit more flexible in their builds now that they are on the same platforms as all PCs (i.e. better graphics options, etc), but Apple is still (in my opinion) the best provider of an overall quality product (and, yes, the OS is a big part of that). For those who want to go with other boxes and builds, they should realize that it has been shown that OSX will work on other boxes. So choose the box you like, install OSX, and enjoy.

JMO

 

[aront54]

I'm happy

It seems that for most posters their computer seems to be associated with their "manhood" (or lack thereof) rather than their use. I use my MBP for software development. If I needed a new MBP at this time (I don't really since about a year ago I order a refurbished 2.33 17" model) I would go for the entry level model and add 2 GB ram which for me would make a big difference. I did just order a new MBP for my daughter who is a photographer. She has the very first MBP model currently, which she will give to her brother (whose G3 ibook just died). I got the mid-level version since the extra vram and other various speed bump improvements will make a difference to her usage. And with the Penryn processor a software upgrade by Adobe will give another 20% speedbump to CS3 apps.

You have to look at what makes sense on how you use the computer. If you just need a computer for office type stuff and home media usage, the MB is great, especially with this new upgrade. If you are a world traveller and want something extremely light the AIR is the way to go. And if you have a relatively recent computer why buy one?

 

[Rabbleboy]

Anyone know any tests showing the increase in speed from the 2,4ghz 3 mb cache compared to the 2,5ghz 6mb cache??

Really need to see some %-increase to make sure if it's worth the ekstra money. And wouldn't mind the ekstra Vram and HD either.

 

[cloudnine]

Seconded. Also, a brilliant post.

Eh. Not so brilliant. Some people have money to burn, therefore ordering a computer that already comes with extra RAM installed is a matter of convenience, regardless of price.

 

[SharkySharky]

Look carefully. THE KEYBOARD IS UPDATED! The keyboard keys are updated to follow the rest of the macbook lines (except the color).

http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/design.html

I honestly HATE the new "command" key. For some reason I just love the old on there. I mean why pry away from the good old days. Heck, if you want to change the "Command" key to help with "Switcher-Confusion" why don't they just make the do the same functions as the "Windows" key on PCs? I honestly wouldn't like this but it makes more sense to me that if they want people to be able to switch over to makes more easily that they would make the "ctrl" key and the or Windows key do similar functions on both OSs...




I want back the "Full-Apple" on the right and the "Empty-Apple" on the left of the space-bar. I don't care if they do the same function, I just want them back....

 

[MarkW19]

For the same price? Get the new one!

It's:
1-new
2-has architectural improvements to the CPU that will probably help offset the loss in cache. I wouldn't worry about that much. This thing isn't designed to be run at full blast anyway.

I'm using a 2.2 (last gen) that had 4MB L2 cache, whereas the new 2.4 penryn I've just ordered has 3. I will have 4GB RAM and a 7200rpm HD in both...I do mainly intensive audio recording/live performance with software instruments/samples in Logic/MainStage - do you think the reduction in L2 cache will make a difference?! Or should I expect a decent speed increase with the new machine?

 

[HLdan]

Hey everyone

Just wanted to say that I have put in my order today for the base 15" MBP - I am so excited about it!

As you can see from my sig I am seriously going up in power and specs so hopefully this will be another keeper for me as the last has been. Although I got that while I was a student so now I have much more cash it will mean hopefully I can start saving for my Mac Pro now - oh yeeeeeah!

Good for you!! That's a big upgrade from your iBook G4. At least you are allowing your current hardware to work till its dying days before upgrading. Some of the people on this forum could take a lesson from you. Too much greediness on this forum, many people currently have Merom and SR MBP's and want to get rid of them just to upgrade to the Penryn and it shows they have no appreciation for what they were blessed with.
Have fun when your new baby arrives.

 

[Mr Maui]

maybe - but when cost isn't an issue and you need more power it's a negligible update.

MacBook got the best deal with regard to updates today, something echoed elsewhere in this forum.

No doubt, but MBP will take the Macbook down a notch at WWDC.

 

[gelatin]

No, the prices listed on the website do NOT include sales tax unless you process your order to the end at checkout. Expect to be hit by NY sales tax if you buy it there. NY taxes vary by county, so you will be hit with something in the range of 7-9+% depending on where you buy. I believe NYC is about 8% these days (or thereabouts).

thanks mate i will be buying it from the 5th av store
planning on spending about $3000 in the store

 

[TESEV]

No mag latch

Disappointed but otherwise indifferent.

No higher res screens

No new keyboard

What do you mean? The layout pic they have on their website looks like it matches the layout of the other keyboards.
http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/design.html

No HD optical drive

Indifferent but sympathetic.

No price drop

Not surprised.

No new GFX card (not that one was really available)

Latest NVIDIA graphics processors?

 

[BigJohno]

Everyones getting hyped about a refresh. Its great they updated this soon. Would everyone buying a new one want to have a 2.4 merom chip for another 6 months until they bring out the new form factor....


THE REAL QUESTION IS...... WHERE THE F IS THE SDK????

WE WANT INFO ON IT, NOT JUST RUMORS, CAUSE YOU PROMISED IT APPLE!!!!

Yeah they had to put something out today to make us feel better because their microsoft ass cant get things out on time. aggghhh Apple Bring us new form factor please. ur pushing it with the mbp case right now.

 

[FleurDuMal]

You have to look at what makes sense on how you use the computer. If you just need a computer for office type stuff and home media usage, the MB is great, especially with this new upgrade. If you are a world traveller and want something extremely light the AIR is the way to go. And if you have a relatively recent computer why buy one?

Exactly. I can't understand what the new MBP doesn't have which anyone would desperately need.

 

[Acuity Mac Guru]

It was worth the wait.

I sold my 17" 2.33 w/3G RAM, 3 weeks ago for $2700 on eBay. I knew the new ones were coming and did not want to be 2 versions behind.

Money has been burning a hole in my pocket, I picked up the 2.6G w/4G RAM today.

Have been in withdraw from my MBP, so it's well worth it to me.

 

[akadmon]

Anyone know any tests showing the increase in speed from the 2,4ghz 3 mb cache compared to the 2,5ghz 6mb cache??

Really need to see some %-increase to make sure if it's worth the ekstra money. And wouldn't mind the ekstra Vram and HD either.

Unless you're willing to keep checking this thread and wading through lots of irrelevant stuff, I suggest you start a separate thread. Actually, I just did that earlier. So far zero response.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/442062/

 

[Hmac]

Quick, everybody. Buy yours now.

I figure we've got about 2 weeks before people start whining about waiting for a MacBook/MacBook Pro upgrade again.

 

[digitalbiker]

You don't keep redisigning the wheel when it works effectively.

This is a ridiculous position to defend.

Apple is all about style and design. Style and design always change. If there was such a thing as a perfect style or design then every pair of pants would be identical. every car would be identical, every TV would look the same, etc. etc.

There are a million things that could be improved on the mbp, for example.

1) New flat, square keyed keyboard - The old pyramid keys pop-off, rub the screen, and have a small foot print per key, and too much travel.
2) HDMI output
3) Blu-ray support
4) Dock connector support
5) Better wireless range
6) Better ergonomics on case, less hard metal feel, slick, hard to hold, too hot to hold in lap due to conductivity of heat through the laptop housing
7) Better access to HDD, Ram, and battery
8) Magnetic latch
9) SSD drive support, possibly in combo with HDD to store OS for fast reboots and quick responsive GUI
10) Possible detachable or rotatable touch screen. To simulate tablet functions or use as a graphics input device with multitouch technology.
11) Different color. Silver is just plain old looking. It looked state of the art in 1999 but now it looks cheap. Black matte is so much cooler and in style.
12) Higher res display. Resolution independence is just around the corner, why not have a laptop that supports it now.

Trust me! When Apple released the first PowerBook it blew people away. Everyone had to have one and it set the standard for generations.

In 2000 when Apple released the TI. It was like no other laptop before it. It not only turned heads but it oozed top of the line features and the competition was green.

In 2008, the mbp is a frankenstein of design. Apple slams updated parts into the same old design without thought at re-designing to improve function. It is not distinctive and it is just matching specs with other manufacturers.

Sad! Let's hope Apple devotes a little of that creative design talent to the MBP in the next update.