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Merom 2.33 vs Penryn 2.5

jonnysods

jonnysods

macrumors G3
Original poster
Sep 20, 2006
8,805
7,475
There & Back Again
Hey all, does anyone have any comparisons to those two MBP's? I have the 2.33 right now and I've been given a green light to purchase the new 17inch Penryn, but with Montevina just around the corner, I'm wondering if it's worth just waiting a few more weeks to see if they are updated in July.

If the performance gains are worth it, I'll just take the thing now.

Any specs to post?
 
jonnysods said:
Hey all, does anyone have any comparisons to those two MBP's? I have the 2.33 right now and I've been given a green light to purchase the new 17inch Penryn, but with Montevina just around the corner, I'm wondering if it's worth just waiting a few more weeks to see if they are updated in July.

If the performance gains are worth it, I'll just take the thing now.

Any specs to post?
Click to expand...

It could be worth worth waiting. The Merom is still very fast.

Merom 2.33Ghz
667Mhz FSB
4MB L2 Cache

vs.

Penryn 2.5Ghz
800Mhz FSB
6MB Cache

A few specs.

As you can see, the Penryn is clocked faster (~7% gain). Then there's the faster front side bus, the link to other parts of the motherboard like the memory (I'm generalizing, it's more complicated than that, look it up :D - ~20% gain). After that, the L2 cache, which stores information in use by the processor. That gain can't really be quantified as well as the others, but it can speed things up.

Other things to note, the Penryn takes a little less power, and it has faster SSE instructions, meaning :apple: Pro apps and other apps like games run faster.

To all, if I'm wrong, which I probably am, feel free to (politely :confused::p) correct me.
 
Muncher said:
It could be worth worth waiting. The Merom is still very fast.

Merom 2.33Ghz
667Mhz FSB
4MB L2 Cache

vs.

Penryn 2.5Ghz
800Mhz FSB
6MB Cache

A few specs.

As you can see, the Penryn is clocked faster (~7% gain). Then there's the faster front side bus, the link to other parts of the motherboard like the memory (I'm generalizing, it's more complicated than that, look it up :D - ~20% gain). After that, the L2 cache, which stores information in use by the processor. That gain can't really be quantified as well as the others, but it can speed things up.

Other things to note, the Penryn takes a little less power, and it has faster SSE instructions, meaning :apple: Pro apps and other apps like games run faster.

To all, if I'm wrong, which I probably am, feel free to (politely :confused::p) correct me.
Click to expand...

The Merom one has a 800 Mhz Bus too.

But penryn is a bit faster and runs cooler than Merom.
 
@OP: You won't notice much of difference to justify the costs; since you're asking if you should wait the answer is you should wait since it would be waste of money if you didn't.
 
alphaod said:
@OP: You won't notice much of difference to justify the costs; since you're asking if you should wait the answer is you should wait since it would be waste of money if you didn't.
Click to expand...

Yeah I know, I should wait - it's tough because I have been given permission to buy a new machine, and then my boss gets my current machine, which we just agreed on today. If I tell him I have to wait for an undisclosed amount of time I could get myself in trouble. I want a Motevina MBP for sure, but I'm concerned that Apple are wound up in their iPhone stuff around the same date Intel release the Montevina chips.

Yes they are a different division of the company, but I don't know if I could wait until August with my boss breathing down my neck (he has a crappy 3 year old Compaq, so the idea of a sweet MBP replacing it is giving him cold sweats).

I'll see if can at least stall him until mid July!
 
jonnysods said:
Yeah I know, I should wait - it's tough because I have been given permission to buy a new machine, and then my boss gets my current machine, which we just agreed on today. If I tell him I have to wait for an undisclosed amount of time I could get myself in trouble. I want a Motevina MBP for sure, but I'm concerned that Apple are wound up in their iPhone stuff around the same date Intel release the Montevina chips.

Yes they are a different division of the company, but I don't know if I could wait until August with my boss breathing down my neck (he has a crappy 3 year old Compaq, so the idea of a sweet MBP replacing it is giving him cold sweats).

I'll see if can at least stall him until mid July!
Click to expand...

Dude i'd just buy the 2.5 penryn. The montevina isnt that much an improvement. The Nehalem on the other hand will be.
 
SilverRubicon said:
True. You should ask your boss if he could hold out until June 2009 because you want a MBP with a Nehalem chipset.
Click to expand...

Don't even go there.

Guys, when an opportunity presents itself... how can I resist a free upgrade? I'd just like to to be a little bit sweeter is all by getting a slightly better Montevina - and who knows what type of GPU or redesign they might do?

AHHH! Apple getting into bed with Intel causes all sorts of greedy headaches for most of us MR posters...
 
dukebound85 said:
lol yea ask to wait 5 years, something uber great will be out by then i hope:p
Click to expand...

Now I think you guys are being mean.

How ironic. I can't stand the posts on 'should I wait for this', 'buy now or wait' - now I'm stinkin' doing it myself.

Woe is me.

So, how many days do i have if they upgrade the model and I've already purchased a Penryn?

Ha!
 
Watabou said:
The Merom one has a 800 Mhz Bus too.

But penryn is a bit faster and runs cooler than Merom.
Click to expand...

True, but for the Santa Rosa MacBook Pros, which had Merom+Santa Rosa. 2.33 is one of the C2D generation, being Napa+Merom. Napa had a 667MHz bus.

Really though the bus shouldn't be too much of an issue, I think. Our RAM still runs at 667MHz, and that kinda bottlenecks the performance increase from the faster bus.
 
raymondu999 said:
True, but for the Santa Rosa MacBook Pros, which had Merom+Santa Rosa. 2.33 is one of the C2D generation, being Napa+Merom. Napa had a 667MHz bus.

Really though the bus shouldn't be too much of an issue, I think. Our RAM still runs at 667MHz, and that kinda bottlenecks the performance increase from the faster bus.
Click to expand...

It's weird how the new iMacs got the modded Penryn with the 1000mhz FSB, and got the 800mhz RAM, when it's not even a pro model!

I'd really like those features in the MBP, it's so hard to pull the trigger when you know that it's so close! Nehalem is so far away, but Montevina? It hurts.
 
jonnysods said:
Now I think you guys are being mean.

How ironic. I can't stand the posts on 'should I wait for this', 'buy now or wait' - now I'm stinkin' doing it myself.

Woe is me.

So, how many days do i have if they upgrade the model and I've already purchased a Penryn?

Ha!
Click to expand...

i believe 14 days but you have to eat the restocking fee
 
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