Core 2 Duo MacBooks Announced

[kinster]

least its only £20 extra for black, (after you put a 120gb on the white)

which aint to bad,

Hmmm.. now i am strongly thinking about a blackbook, was gonna get a 17" imac, but now hmmm..... the blackbook seems good, exact same specs just the intergrated graphics, and 40gb less space,

but the midrange whitebook seems even better for £80 more than the imac you get the same stuff, just half the hard drive space and again intergrated graphics,,

hmm i dont know what to do

I was so tempted to get the blackbook, but an extra £100 to upgrade from 80gb to 120gb and being black wasn't worth it, so go the white 2ghz

 

[theman5725]

I no longer have the newest apple laptop. :/

 

[mahonmeister]

ddr2 has to be installed in sets of 2 not 1. so 1 ddr2 1gb would not work as I understand it. hence 2X 512mb ddr2

I'm not a RAM expert but the low-end MBP has a single 1GB ddr2 so-dimm so you can't be correct. Pairing of dimms is for a small performance boost and is not mandatory.

Good updates Apple. I just couldn't see them going into the shopping season without an updated MacBook. I hope those who firmly said this wouldn't happen keep there mouth shut from now on.

 

[Karpfish]

Most consumers are just looking for something that'll let them check email, browse the net, write a paper, store some family photos maybe, and thats all.



that was actually my point

your wrong. Many PJ's used ibooks, and upgrade to macbooks. for some even pros the macbook pro is too expensive. I also do a good amoint of photo stuff on my macbook and it isnt that bad, but id rather use my imac(will eventually upgrade to mac pro, probably after the summer though)

 

[Manic Mouse]

Most consumers are just looking for something that'll let them check email, browse the net, write a paper, store some family photos maybe, and thats all.

Teens and students, who probably make up a good deal of MacBook sales, most certainly do play games.

 

[gleepskip]

People really need to stop saying "if you need dedicated graphics you're a Pro user". Consumers play games, no matter how much Apple tries to tell you otherwise. An X1400 BTO would make the Macbook a magnificent computer.

X1400? Myself, I wouldn't be so picky. Apple could put just about any mobile GPU with its own dedicated memory in the MacBook and I would be ecstatic.

I can't afford a MBP and I don't want to spend $1100+ on a machine that will not even support all the eye candy in Tiger/Leopard, much less play games.

I bought a Thinkpad about 7 or 8 years ago that does not have graphics acceleration. It is only reasonable that, by 2007, a premium brand like Apple would spend 5 (or 10 or 20) more bucks and put a real GPU in their MacBook.

 

[50548]

Why is everyone so up-in-arms about the integrated graphics in the MB? It's over $1000 cheaper than the MBP. It's a consumer machine, not a pro machine. If you would even notice the difference between integrated and dedicated graphics, that means you need an MBP so pony up the money and get the better machine. And if you don't think that's true, you're confused.

If you're looking at most consumer machines the GMA950 is STANDARD along with a few other integrated ATI/NVidia options for the AMD side. Even with a build to order option you're not getting a big leap with the 7300/X1300.

I REALLY think Apple should add a BTO option for dedicated graphics. It'd make the MacBook the best selling Mac.

The thing is: even though I am one of the most rabid fanboys here, I would buy only a new MB if I were really compelled to...and this "compelling" element for me is the GPU, since my iMac serves me perfectly well as a desktop.

I am not a heavy gamer or GPU user, far from that...but I wouldn't be happy to get a slower performance for Call of Duty (the only game I play at home, along with HoI Doomsday) than that of my iMac G5 2.0 with an ATi 9600...that's what I wanted to confirm, since BareFeats's graph benchs look horrible for the MB...

Apart from the 950, the MB looks awesome...although my desire still stands...a brand new 12" MBP. I don't wanna spend more than 1000 extra CHF for a 15" MBP.

 

[PODshady]

Mac OS 10.5..... sooner than expected??

I am almost wondering if Mac OS X 10.5 will be released sooner than expected... perhaps at MacWorld Expo 2007 in Jan. I only wonder because Apple has its entire product line transitioned to feature a 64-bit Intel processor (except Mac Mini). Apple said at WWDC 2006 that Leopard would bring enhansed 64-bit support beyond the UNIX level. So could this mean that Apple is getting ready to release Leopard soon???



-----------------------------------------
15" MacBook Pro, 2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB DDR2 SDRAM, 200GB HD, Glossy Display
12" iBook G4, 800MHz PPC G4, 640MD DDR SDRAM, 30GB HD
30GB White iPod (w/ Video Playback)
1GB Black iPod nano (w/ Nike+ Sports Kit)

 

[Sam*]

Not enough info to say if you've even got a point. What's the dimensions, weight, and feature set of this other laptop?

I'm not sure why people keep doing this. Before the MBPs went Core 2 Duo, we had a poster here on MacRumors complaining about the value of Apple laptops - and his "proof" was a much less expensive laptop that was built like a brick and weighed about that much. Why do you think Dell, HP, and the like have some laptops that are under $1000 while their other laptops with the same processor are up around $3000? It's not just marketing - sometimes it's the quality of the components, and almost always its the amount of engineering needed to design a thin/light/sexy laptop versus a brick. Heck, it may not even be a mobile processor in the low-end laptop (Dell has done this before, and they are quite up front about it).

The pcworld one for £699 is a philips-x56

its got the 1.83ghz c2d
80gb hard drive
1gb ram
dual layer dvd
224mb intel gma900 intergrated
and its 12" and 1.85kg (so about 0.5kg lighter than a macbook?)

Here it is anyway

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/editorial/philips-x56

 

[ironring2006]

First MacRumors Post

Hey folks, my first MR post here, thought I would make it a good one. Just ordered my first Mac, the 2GHz C2D MB (White). Upgraded the RAM to 2GB. I've been holding back on posting and buying since July. Held back on the posting because I didn't have anything unique to say other than "Me too! I want a C2D MB." Held back on buying because I really only wanted the MB for when I started my Master's degree (in Electrical Engineering) this past September. I skipped on the Nano deal because I had just bought one earlier that summer when my ancient first generation mp3 player (Iomega Hip Zip!) that my GF was using died and she inherited my shuffle. It always seemed that the upgraded MB was going to be "Next Tuesday".

I currently already have 3 PC's so it wasn't like I was without a computer. Alas, the MB will be replacing my aging PIII 700MHz Thinkpad that lasts about a minute unplugged. I just told one of my friends that I've improved my battery life by about 3600%! It's still got some life in it, but I wanted a laptop that I could take with me without being tethered to a power cord.

Anyway, I first used OS X when I was on my work term and our entire group ran on Macs. As the lowly student in the group I got to use an old G3 Powerbook and a G4 Tower (great machines, but everyone else had Ti/Albooks, G5 iMacs, Dual G5 towers, oh, and a couple cubes in the group as well!). This was in a heavy scientific and engineering field so it showed to me that Macs are good for more than just Photoshop and Final Cut. Also, I found it quite funny that the only thing that crashed on me was Excel. I still think Finder needs some work, but other than that, I was overall impressed with the OSX experience.

Boot Camp was the real kicker for me though, since the majority of my Master's work is going to require a lot of number crunching and simulations in Matlab, and with the Intel switch, Mathworks native Intel OS X version isn't due out for another year or so. So I would have had to run it on a G4 if I wanted a portable Mac.

I'm really excited about running Front Row as well, as the MB will also be replacing my (super loud) Media Centre PC, which is going to be relegated to a general file server. The remote control and interface looks simple enough that my gf will be able to navigate her way through the music, tv show, and movie collection that I have on her own without having to use the ghastly setup that is on the Winblows machine.

Anyway, sorry for the long post, but just thought I would say Hi and introduce myself to the Mac world. Sure is different than the Apple IIe that I used to play on as a kid...

 

[justflie]

I am almost wondering if Mac OS X 10.5 will be released sooner than expected... perhaps at MacWorld Expo 2007 in Jan. I only wonder because Apple has its entire product line transitioned to feature a 64-bit Intel processor (except Mac Mini). Apple said at WWDC 2006 that Leopard would bring enhansed 64-bit support beyond the UNIX level. So could this mean that Apple is getting ready to release Leopard soon???

While I hope you're right about leopard, unless i missed something, the Mac Mini still has a core duo and not the new core2duo. I'm pretty sure the core duo is still 32-bit.

 

[ITASOR]

I no longer have the newest apple laptop. :/

Same thing I said. At least it was just a processor change...no awesome new features or anything.

 

[NewSc2]

The pcworld one for £699 is a philips-x56

its got the 1.83ghz c2d
80gb hard drive
1gb ram
dual layer dvd
224mb intel gma900 intergrated
and its 12" and 1.85kg (so about 0.5kg lighter than a macbook?)

Here it is anyway

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/editorial/philips-x56

queue in fanboys --

"okay, so it's got a bigger hard drive, a superdrive, and 1gb RAM.. but.. but... but... it doesn't have OSX!! PWNED!!!1!1oneone"

 

[iW00t]

Is the GMA 950 the new integrated graphics from Intel that's rumoured to be fasterer?

 

[bketchum]

I am almost wondering if Mac OS X 10.5 will be released sooner than expected... perhaps at MacWorld Expo 2007 in Jan. I only wonder because Apple has its entire product line transitioned to feature a 64-bit Intel processor (except Mac Mini). Apple said at WWDC 2006 that Leopard would bring enhansed 64-bit support beyond the UNIX level. So could this mean that Apple is getting ready to release Leopard soon???

I'm quite sure Apple will announce Leopard early. They like to look like overachievers. They showed it with their quick transition to Intel. And you see it with their conservative earnings estimates. I'd put some money on it that they'll announce early availability.

Here's my prediction: At Macworld in January, Apple will announce Leopard will go on sale in February. Stab in the dark, for certain, but that's how I imagine it.

 

[hagakure]

anyone think....the new macbook have the 802.11 n-draft??

btw...they fixed a the random crash problems already

Thanks for the note...how was that finally solved? Was the software able to solve the random crashdown syndrome? I have read about users installing that software but still experiencing some problems....Thanks again...

 

[buffalo]

Out of curiosity, I just speced up a Dell XPS M2110 to the same specs as the mid-range MB and the price came out to $1,408.

PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T7200 (2GHz/667MHz/4MB) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005 edit
UPGRADE TO WINDOWS VISTA Express Upgrade to Windows Vista Home Premium from XP Media Center Edition edit
A/V COMMUNICATION PACKAGE Integrated Webcam and Mobile Broadband Antenna edit
MEMORY 1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz (2 Dimms) edit
HARD DRIVE 80GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive edit
OPTICAL DRIVE 8x CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability edit
VIDEO CARD Integrated Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950

link

 

[081440]

While I hope you're right about leopard, unless i missed something, the Mac Mini still has a core duo and not the new core2duo. I'm pretty sure the core duo is still 32-bit.

Ummm.... reread the that post again.


But I too believe that Leopard will be released early! Apple must take away some of the spotlight from Microsoft, and I heard they will be releasing Vista around the 20th of January so MacWorld would be perfect!! I hope that they make two versions of the mini though. One Core duo that is 500 or less and one with a Core 2 Duo to give it the performance boost (although all 64-bit line would be good too)


I can't wait to see what kind of a difference in speed Leopard makes on my now 2 year old Powermac G5! 64 bit throughout should be awesome!

 

[justflie]

Ummm.... reread the that post again.


But I too believe that Leopard will be released early! Apple must take away some of the spotlight from Microsoft, and I heard they will be releasing Vista around the 20th of January so MacWorld would be perfect!! I hope that they make two versions of the mini though. One Core duo that is 500 or less and one with a Core 2 Duo to give it the performance boost (although all 64-bit line would be good too)


I can't wait to see what kind of a difference in speed Leopard makes on my now 2 year old Powermac G5! 64 bit throughout should be awesome!

lol, that's what i get for correcting papers while reading forums. Sheesh. All hail the mighty Mac Mini, the switcher hook.

 

[Philberttheduck]

i thought they'd at least up the stock ram.

unnecessary upgrade imo, considering that the speed updates are less than 25% faster.

nonetheless, thanks apple.

 

[Rocketman]

This was in a heavy scientific and engineering field so it showed to me that Macs are good for more than just Photoshop and Final Cut. Also, I found it quite funny that the only thing that crashed on me was Excel. I still think Finder needs some work, but other than that, I was overall impressed with the OSX experience.

Nice first post.

What changes would you make to Finder?

What applications were your Mac collegues running (besides Office) in science?

Rocketman

 

[ascrules]

grrr

All of these updates are absolutely killing me...

I have been using my 1ghz Titanium Powerbook for almost 3 1/2 years (and in that time I have not turned the machine off except for the occassional restart). I know it's time for me to get a new comp soon, but I am afraid that I won't love the new one as much as I love my Ti, or that it'll just "feel weird."

The C2Ds MBPs were enticing, but now these C2Ds MBs are just mocking me. What to do...what to do....

 

[szsiddiq]

your wrong. Many PJ's used ibooks, and upgrade to macbooks. for some even pros the macbook pro is too expensive. I also do a good amoint of photo stuff on my macbook and it isnt that bad, but id rather use my imac(will eventually upgrade to mac pro, probably after the summer though)

im not saying the MacBook cant do these things. many professionals will shy away from the price of the MacBook Pro, but they'll always agree that it is the better option for highend video editting, and graphic design. again, i never said the MacBook couldnt do many of these things, its just that its not designed to.

Teens and students, who probably make up a good deal of MacBook sales, most certainly do play games.

they do, and the ones that do, will buy a pro, or a PC. Apple's focus with the macbook isnt gaming, and at this point, it doesnt need to be. most people still just need their computers for basic things, NOT gaming. adding a real GPU to the macbooks as a strandard would unnecesarily raise costs (or lower apples profit margin) for people who wouldn't put it to use.

 

[szsiddiq]

Nice first post.

What changes would you make to Finder?

What applications were your Mac collegues running (besides Office) in science?

Rocketman

as a recent convert, one thing i can say, is that the program list in the start menu of windows is a nice feature...with finder, to get to a program u dont use much, uve gotta open and close the finder window. one work around to this, which is really great, is the spotlight.

 

[Eidorian]

Earth to Eidorian. MacBook is already the best selling Mac.

Well it'd be an even better selling one then. I deal with people with some hardware sense to know that it's worth a dedicated video chipset albeit not hardcore gamers. Then again they're building their own rigs anyways.

Because consumers plays games too. Everything about even the lowest end Macbook is sufficient for playing games. Except for the graphics card.

The difference between the low end and high end macbook does nothing for performance in games, at all. The difference in price would be much better spent at a dedicated graphics card.

Most consumers are just looking for something that'll let them check email, browse the net, write a paper, store some family photos maybe, and thats all.

Yep, I just helped some Windows people order some nice AMD Compaq laptops for $600 w/NVidia 6150's and 1 GB of RAM. I think RAM would give them the biggest performance boost in Office and FireFox.

The thing is: even though I am one of the most rabid fanboys here, I would buy only a new MB if I were really compelled to...and this "compelling" element for me is the GPU, since my iMac serves me perfectly well as a desktop.

I am not a heavy gamer or GPU user, far from that...but I wouldn't be happy to get a slower performance for Call of Duty (the only game I play at home, along with HoI Doomsday) than that of my iMac G5 2.0 with an ATi 9600...that's what I wanted to confirm, since BareFeats's graph benchs look horrible for the MB...

Apart from the 950, the MB looks awesome...although my desire still stands...a brand new 12" MBP. I don't wanna spend more than 1000 extra CHF for a 15" MBP.

The sad thing is most consumers don't know anything about video cards and chipsets. I still get complaints from people buying brand spanking new machines and they can't play any 3D games. I keep telling them about the video card and they're amazed that they spent all that money (On a PC no less) to get integrated video. The 9600 was a good card too.

Is the GMA 950 the new integrated graphics from Intel that's rumoured to be fasterer?

No it's the same one from the original MacBook. The Intel GMA X3000 is the future integrated video chipset.

http://guides.macrumors.com/Merom