couldn't wait ...

[w8ing4intelmacs]

... so i broke down and bought an three-month old mbp 1.83 for $1300 off of craigslist last night.

which means, of course, that the merom mbps will be announced today.

 

[iGary]

1300 is an excellent price - I paid that much for a new (refurb) PB in May.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

who cares if they're announced today, that's an amazing price!

 

[extraextra]

I read it as "1.83 MB" and I was like, "$1300?! How is that a good deal?!" Ha, anyways. Congrats on your new computer!

 

[Spock]

I know this is slightly off topic but is 64 bit the only difference between the Core Duo and Core 2 Duo?

 

[w8ing4intelmacs]

I know this is slightly off topic but is 64 bit the only difference between the Core Duo and Core 2 Duo?

slightly faster, slightly cooler. i was more waiting on the other stuff (802.11n, latchless case lock, maybe more memory, and other "nifty" add-ons).

 

[jaduffy108]

slightly faster, slightly cooler. i was more waiting on the other stuff (802.11n, latchless case lock, maybe more memory, and other "nifty" add-ons).

### I think you got a great deal on a good machine. Unless you use some 64bit apps (maya 8)...C2D is no big deal. Enjoy....

 

[w8ing4intelmacs]

### I think you got a great deal on a good machine. Unless you use some 64bit apps (maya 8)...C2D is no big deal. Enjoy....

i forgot to mention longer battery life

 

[ricgnzlzcr]

I guarantee you you wouldn't feel the merom chip in your day to day activities unless you use something very very intensive. You got a great price. I'm also happy about my purchase last night, a sawtooth powermac g4 for $85 SHIPPED to me! I'm excited. I'm such a mac buying junkie

 

[sethypoo]

... so i broke down and bought an three-month old mbp 1.83 for $1300 off of craigslist last night.

which means, of course, that the merom mbps will be announced today.

I did this about 4 months ago, but it was $1500 shipped on eBay with 1GB of RAM. A sweet deal, I thought at the time. Still pretty good today. But $1300 is great!

I HIGHLY recommend that you buy some RAM and install it. The 1.83 MacBook Pro's are great machines, with little difference between them and the 2.0Ghz models. The RAM will really speed things up for you.

Congrats on your new purchase.

 

[Willis]

I read an article about the merom chip. The people took apart a windows machine, slipped in a Merom chip and campared the data from tests with Merom and Yonah. Only a slight performance increase and about 5-10mins extra on battery life.

So really, not much to wait out for. What is waiting for is more effecient machines and high cap batteries. The processor is only a piece of the puzzle.

EDIT: found the link.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2808

 

[w8ing4intelmacs]

thinking about the powerbook (last rev) to macbook pro, there were all these "extras" in addition to a faster processor for the same price:
built-in isight, magsafe power adapter, sata drive, remote control, better battery, brighter screen, and more. and that's supposedly with very little changed from pb to mbp.

i guess i'm expecting the next mbp to be a bigger change (like ibook to macbook) with a lot of nifty extras in addition to the faster processor.

 

[Planner Dude]

Doesn't the merom chip allow for an increase in RAM...from like 2GB to 4GB?????

 

[Abraxsis]

Doesn't the merom chip allow for an increase in RAM...from like 2GB to 4GB?????

Current spec'd procs allow for up to 4GB of RAM I believe. But as I said in one of the other threads, this means nada in the laptop market. Apple would have to increase the available RAM slots to accomodate more than 4GB of RAM (read: THICKER MBP for 4 x 2GB), OR RAM developers will have to create larger capacity RAM modules (4+GB each) which no doubt would cost as much as the computer itself, throw off alot of heat, and require more power. Notebook-wise 64-bit's ability to access more RAM means nothing currently, I don't believe I have seen any PC laptop's that support more than 2GB of RAM either.

A 2" thick Macbook Pro with 4 RAM slots and a 3 pound battery doesn't sound very sexy or sleek to me.

 

[Planner Dude]

I don't believe I have seen any PC laptop's that support more than 2GB of RAM either.

A 2" thick Macbook Pro with 4 RAM slots and a 3 pound battery doesn't sound very sexy or sleek to me.

I don't want to sound like a dell Fan boy or to start another Cr@ppy pc vs mac thread...but I noticed that dell's XPS laptops with CD2 processors have the option of 4GB RAM.

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&oc=M1210S1&s=dhs

Maybe that's why the MBP is taking awhile longer to be released--a redesign to allow 4GB of RAM...

 

[Abraxsis]

I don't want to sound like a dell Fan boy or to start another Cr@ppy pc vs mac thread...but I noticed that dell's XPS laptops with CD2 processors have the option of 4GB RAM.

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&oc=M1210S1&s=dhs

Maybe that's why the MBP is taking awhile longer to be released--a redesign to allow 4GB of RAM...

Wow, first one that I have seen, cool. BUT like I said ... 4GB Shared 533 RAM [add $1,800 or $54/month] ... 4GB Shared 667 [add $3000 or $90/month] ... as much or more than the laptop. Plus look at how think that thing is. For the current incarnation of MPB, 4GB "MIGHT" be obtainable via a firmware upgrade, but 2 x 2GB modules are very expensive. In one of my other posts I suggested they move back to onboard RAM, and have the modules soldered to the board in various locations. This spreads the heat out, as well as increases the max RAM. 1-2 GB onboard, and then upgrade via two empty slots. Even in this case though, really anything more than 4GB with Apple wanting to keep a slim line case is going to require some major redesigns. Probably even a better cooling method. Just more fuel for the "RAM is not currently a marketing point for placing 64 bit procs in laptops" fire.