Core Duo Macbooks still viable?

[yabai]

I'm looking at purchasing a Core Duo Macbook as a backup for my Macbook Pro and loaner to my family. These aren't THAT close to being phased out by Snow Leopard, right? Just wanted some opinions.

 

[lazydesi]

any plans of networking u r home with wireless N ?

Then NO (it will cost to 90$ to upgrade from G to N card)

No problems with snow leopard till now

 

[iSpoody 1243]

snow leopard only works on intel
core duo is intel
just the first intel adoped by apple

 

[CWallace]

I recently sold my 2.0GHz Core Duo MacBook and I still found it fine for most general Mac applications.

 

[iknowyourider]

snow leopard only works on intel
core duo is intel
just the first intel adoped by apple

Core Duo was the first MB, not the first Intel chip adopted by Apple. I know the Mac Mini had a Core Solo in Feb 2006.

 

[Xtreambar]

Absolutely! I have a 2 gHz Macbook Core Duo that still works great (in term of having enough power to do everything that I need it to do). Sure it takes a while to do video encoding, but I don't think they were ever designed to do that. I wish it had N so that I could use my AEBS's full potential, but, other than than, no real complaints.

 

[ihabime]

There has been some speculation that snow leopard will be 64-bit only, that would rule out the original core duo chips as they are 32-bit only. As a lot of things in snow leopard, it's 64-bit-ness is far from being certain though.

 

[Neil321]

There has been some speculation that snow leopard will be 64-bit only, that would rule out the original core duo chips as they are 32-bit only. As a lot of things in snow leopard, it's 64-bit-ness is far from being certain though.

That would mean alot of pissed off people my guess it'll have two kernal's for the processors one 32 and one 64 bit

 

[ihabime]

That would mean alot of pissed off people my guess it'll have two kernal's for the processors one 32 and one 64 bit

It's already gonna piss off all the PPC users and some of those were sold at the same time as the core duos, so you never know.

Snow Leopard is a big unknown right now, even the current dev preview is a really early build and doesn't signal much about the final form. If you remember the original OSX dev previews, a whole lot changed before 10.0 was released.

 

[nick9191]

Core Duo was the first MB, not the first Intel chip adopted by Apple. I know the Mac Mini had a Core Solo in Feb 2006.

Core Duo was in the Macbook Pro and iMac in January 06

 

[Neil321]

It's already gonna piss off all the PPC users and some of those were sold at the same time as the core duos, so you never know.

Snow Leopard is a big unknown right now, even the current dev preview is a really early build and doesn't signal much about the final form. If you remember the original OSX dev previews, a whole lot changed before 10.0 was released.

Yep granted but what about pro apps like cs3 thats staying 32 bit up until 5 so thats gonna piss a huge amount of people

 

[Subhumanguy]

Absolutely! I have a 2 gHz Macbook Core Duo that still works great (in term of having enough power to do everything that I need it to do). Sure it takes a while to do video encoding, but I don't think they were ever designed to do that. I wish it had N so that I could use my AEBS's full potential, but, other than than, no real complaints.

Of course it was designed to do video encoding... why wouldn't it be? Just because it isn't the top of the line now, doesn't mean that it wasn't top of the line at the time. It won't encode video as fast as a Core 2 Duo, but it was the chip that powered the MacBook Pro for a while...

 

[mBurns]

I definitely think a Core Duo MacBook is a viable machine. People are still using PPC. Most PPC machines aren't even as fast as the Core Duos. There are no indications that Core Duo machines will not be useable on Snow Leopard. Even Core Duos are too new to be obsolete!

 

[patmort02]

I think the core duo works fine if you are just doing standard computing tasks such as internet, email, word processing etc. As long as you throw in a decent amount of RAM you should be fine.

 

[Indohottie]

core duo still rock.. with the exception of no N-wifi.. they are still very much viable.. much better then any G4 ibook or powerbook.

 

[Jak3]

n wifi still isn't even in its final iteration, so once the finalised versions start coming out, the current ones that are being used, some could become obsolete...

 

[iSpoody 1243]

Core Duo was the first MB, not the first Intel chip adopted by Apple. I know the Mac Mini had a Core Solo in Feb 2006.

lol omg
the core duo and core solo are a part of the same range
sure there were single core processors before duo but that single core processor was released at the same time as the core duo used in macbooks, so the core solo is not an older processor

 

[khunsanook]

My core duo MB with 2gigs of RAM has been turned on nearly every day, all day since I bought it 2 years ago. It's plenty fast (CS3, word processing, video projects, Windows/Linux emulation, etc.). I see absolutely no reason to upgrade it yet. Ideally I'll wait another year after a MB redesign before buying a new one (if that redesign comes in the next 6 months. )

 

[tri3limited]

My core duo has an upgraded 1gb of RAM! lol... In all fairness it runs beautifully with Leopard but i am just about to by an iMac 3.06 to do most of the heavy duty stuff and keep my laptop for simple tasks and the portability.

It's big plus is that AE runs well on it... if not when it comes to rendering, and Motion 3 runs better than on a top spec G5 iMac so im happy!

 

[kaiwai]

It's already gonna piss off all the PPC users and some of those were sold at the same time as the core duos, so you never know.

Snow Leopard is a big unknown right now, even the current dev preview is a really early build and doesn't signal much about the final form. If you remember the original OSX dev previews, a whole lot changed before 10.0 was released.

And these PPC people knew the consequences of their actions

They chose to purchase instead of waiting. Heck, I remember seeing people purchase 2 x Dual Core G5 monsters when they could have waited a few months for the Intel Mac Pro to arrive.

I say, let them eat cake.

 

[melonsoda]

I would say that they are still very viable, I just recently got a MacBook Core Duo 2.0ghz to replacement my broken Core2Duo and running Leopard, Photoshop CS3, Dreamweaver CS3, Renoise, iMovie editing it is more than enough.

 

[alphaod]

It may not be the fasted thing on the block, but it will do fine with most things.

 

[relativist]

Your asking about Snow Leopard, so it's hard to know. There are two things SL would bring that might be an issue, namely OpenCL and improved 64bit support. Depending on what the machine is for, and we do not really know enough about the final form of SL to really say much IMO.

 

[Demosthenes X]

Echoing what everyone else has said, my Core Duo machine runs fantastic and does everything I ask of it. That includes Final Cut Express, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Fireworks... you name it.

The only drawback to the CD machines in my mind is the 2GB cap on RAM. I'd really like to be able to stuff 4GB in my machine. But still, no real complaints.

 

[Brien]

Yep granted but what about pro apps like cs3 thats staying 32 bit up until 5 so thats gonna piss a huge amount of people

A 64-bit OS can still run 32-bit apps. It just can't run on a 32-bit processor.

Honestly, I'd wait. I think SL *will* be Core 2 and above only.