Launching programs has little to do with CPU relative to disk speed. I'm sure an SSD on a machine with a 2 GHz Core 2 Duo processor would launch applications much faster than a 2.66 GHz Core i7 with a mechanical HD.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
New macbook pro 15" i7 2.66 first impressions
- Thread starter harmonica01
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Launching programs has little to do with CPU relative to disk speed. I'm sure an SSD on a machine with a 2 GHz Core 2 Duo processor would launch applications much faster than a 2.66 GHz Core i7 with a mechanical HD.
Laptop woke from sleep at 98% battery charge
activated dashboard, mail, adium, safari, pages, numbers +wifi at 8:37am to be precise.
Now at: 1:11 pm battery at 47% charge
So that is roughly 4.5 hours in 50% battery on normal surfing and commenting on here, mailing, typing, checking spreadsheet and chatting
Brightness at lowest +1 setting and can see it just perfectly fine, energy settings on battery set to never sleep cpu/hd/screen
Just passing this on, battery life really is surprising on this so I retract my earlier concerns
activated dashboard, mail, adium, safari, pages, numbers +wifi at 8:37am to be precise.
Now at: 1:11 pm battery at 47% charge
So that is roughly 4.5 hours in 50% battery on normal surfing and commenting on here, mailing, typing, checking spreadsheet and chatting
Brightness at lowest +1 setting and can see it just perfectly fine, energy settings on battery set to never sleep cpu/hd/screen
Just passing this on, battery life really is surprising on this so I retract my earlier concerns
Hi, are you happy with the 500GB 7200 rpm? that's the one I ordered, waiting for it now, i could still cancel order and go for 5400 rpm, what do u recomment, worth the 50$ and 2 weeks wait?
Thanx
It's not 2 weeks - I added that option and even though my order wasn't placed until 10:50AM PST on Friday the i7 in my sig has been shipped and is on it's way.
Its about 2 weeks for me, i live in UK, its due tye the flight problems. So wat should i do? Better to have 5400 hitachi or a 7200 rpm seagate? Cause the 7200rpm is seagate right?
Thanx
The 7200 500gb = seagate
the 5400 500gb = toshiba (only downside is 8mb cache on this drive) this from a few colleagues here who also received theirs at work. Everybody putting in hitachi's 500gb 7200rpm drive for fist and prolly only upgrade since they come with 4gb standard now
Battery life now at 4:27pm
13% so that is... from 8:37am to 4:27pm
so will round off about 8 hrs sure enough
my setup again for newcomers:
15" hi res 1680x1050 matte screen
i7 2.66ghz
4gb 1067 ram
500gb 7200rpm (my own drive not standard apple one)
Running pages, numbers, mail, adium, ical, safari + wifi with brightness +1
Energy settings all nilch so never went to sleep today I would just turn screen off when leaving for bathroom and run to cafeteria
istat showing 2.12gb downloaded in background this session
I'm thoroughly impressed and pleased with this, I really think ppl can pump 10 hours of word processing out easy with low brightness
On older games like scbw and diablo 2, manually disable integrated vid card to force it to play on 330m GT
otherwise game play really choppy as it seems to be too little to call in bigger card, and too much for intel's
otherwise game play really choppy as it seems to be too little to call in bigger card, and too much for intel's
how did you get istat to display network use? everything is working except for that. it worked perfectly on my old unibody.
Well I actually dropped the one you see in my signature in Dallas coming home Sunday night from a photo gig. I nailed it hard and busted it up pretty good. So today after getting estimate and dealing with insurance company. I picked up a 15 2.66 I7 with AG screen. Got it home ripped out my 8gb of ram put in new one and also took out my two Crucial P128 SSD drives and installed in new unit. Did a very quick test with one of my photo files. My camera shoots 40 mpx images BIG . So in a raw processing program called Capture One which is VERY core dependent a full res 16 bit Tiff file is 230 mgs. Old machine below same drives and ram took 26 seconds to process a file . I7 with same damn SSD drives and Ram it took 16 seconds. I say it is a smoker. About as close as you will get to a MacPro except i might put some Extreme OWC drives in running Raid O. I'm a power user but I need to be portable. So shaving 10 seconds off is pretty damn huge. 
When your doing 400 images under deadline it is staying in business
When your doing 400 images under deadline it is staying in business
Aperture does not support my files. Bummer.
BTW forgot to mention you can find a AG high res screen at the Apple store with the basic 500 5400 drive ( Slow dog) but if you want glossy hi res or a 7200 drive it's a BTO. Kind of strange how they have it worked out and not sure why but I was not intending to get the AG screen and i actually like it. I needed a machine to walk out the door with so if your looking for a 15 I7 with AG you may get lucky at the store. I would call first. Mine was at the Biltmore store here in Phoenix and still have some more.
BTW forgot to mention you can find a AG high res screen at the Apple store with the basic 500 5400 drive ( Slow dog) but if you want glossy hi res or a 7200 drive it's a BTO. Kind of strange how they have it worked out and not sure why but I was not intending to get the AG screen and i actually like it. I needed a machine to walk out the door with so if your looking for a 15 I7 with AG you may get lucky at the store. I would call first. Mine was at the Biltmore store here in Phoenix and still have some more.
BTW mine is running pretty cool also maybe 3 or 4 degrees cooler than the old box and I have been doing a lot of moving data around so have not really stressed it out yet . I will run about 50 files in the morning that will certainly max the system.
I will freely admit as part of the 10 percent that use the express port it does suck they have left this off this unit. Sorry but not all professional users want 17 MBP. I will speak for the 10 percent GIVE IT BACK PLEASE
I will freely admit as part of the 10 percent that use the express port it does suck they have left this off this unit. Sorry but not all professional users want 17 MBP. I will speak for the 10 percent GIVE IT BACK PLEASE
Battery
I have calibrated the battery and the max reading has been 5hrs 15 minutes at 100% - actual life 4 hours - using safari, firefox, address, mail & ical. With people posting 7 - 8 - 9 hr battery life - I will calibrate again within the week and then if no higher than 4 hrs actual usage does it make sense to check back with Apple? Or is this luck of the draw?
Definitely cooler - in temperature- (and speed) than previous model g4 and 13" c2d.
Loving it!
I have calibrated the battery and the max reading has been 5hrs 15 minutes at 100% - actual life 4 hours - using safari, firefox, address, mail & ical. With people posting 7 - 8 - 9 hr battery life - I will calibrate again within the week and then if no higher than 4 hrs actual usage does it make sense to check back with Apple? Or is this luck of the draw?
Definitely cooler - in temperature- (and speed) than previous model g4 and 13" c2d.
Loving it!
Hi, can someone answer my question please? Which is better, the hitachi 500gb 5400 rpm or the seagate 500gb 7200rom? Hence should i buy the new MBP i7 with hitachi 5400 standard from store or order it with seagate 7200? thats +$50 and takes about 10 days, worth it??
Thanx!
Thanx!
The 7200RPM drive will give you faster access times to files, so it will improve performance. Not as much as a SSD, but it is still a worthy upgrade.
So it is worth the $50 and the wait??? cause in way i really need it now as my Mac mini G4 is almost DEAD! but if its worth a wait a can try coping a little more with the mini
Great question!
Yes these new Seagate drives are far better than their past models. For the last eight years I've used Hitachi Travelstars (7200 rpm) and while they are generally regarded as the best I'm duly impressed with how quiet & cool this OEM Seagate is. I've tested & currently using six different high end SSD's In my ThinkPad workstations. While very fast, TRIM has yet to be perfected & overall SSD technology is still too young @ too expensive to be considered a good value vs conventional drives. That said I believe in six to eight months SSD's will be ready for prime time.
So I suggest you go for the 7200 rpm drive now. When it arrives you'll be very glad you did.
Cheers...
Could you please elaborate on that? You mean they're different from the ones that caused all the problems with clicking and freezing last year?
Beause if they're not,I wouldn't feel comfortable using them. Regardless of the fix Apple released.