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Core Duo MacBook
- Thread starter Sobering
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it should run leopard fairly decent but i honestly don't know how its going to handle Photoshop CS3. the core duo macbooks seem almost ancient now with the sr macbooks. you definitely have the right amount of ram but like i said i really don't know about the photoshop.
That is exactly the same machine I am using right now. I am deeply in love with it (though I suspect we will be parting ways around Jan. 15th next year), and it runs both leopard and CS3 quite nicely. Since you are starting fresh, you should consider buying a larger capacity, higher speed harddrive, which can be had for relatively cheap (160GB 7200 RPM for around 150 on newegg, for example) and it will really help performance. Just throw that puppy in before installing leopard and you will be a happy camper.
I also have a MacBook with the exact specs as the one you're buying. I can't vouch for CS3 because I don't have it, but Leopard works perfectly for me, as do the Cinema Display and two external hard drives I have attached to it.
My wife's original Core Duo macBook (bought about 3 weeks after they launched) is still going strong, runs Leopard, and runs CS3 without issue. Jack up the RAM to the 2GB Max. It's 2 generations old, but still just a crack over a year old and is still a very functional machine.
i didn't really mean in performance but since that we have had core 2 duo and then the speed bumps with that, then now SR.
The big changes were the move from CD --> C2D and then the increased bus speeds with the "SR" upgrades. From waht I've read, it's a 20-30% increase. Now, depending on what you do you'll may or may not notice it. Apple just replaced my CD MBP with one of the new "SR" MBPs. I haven't dug too deeply into apps yet but so far with Leopard installed I didnt' notice much of an increase in speed (same RAM, etc.)
I am the one who owned the Macbook in question, and it ran Leopard beautifully. I could not even tell a difference between Tiger and Leopard (but I was not a heavy app user).
This was a very capable machine the short time we owned it
This was a very capable machine the short time we owned it
I'm good here but I don't do Photoshop. I do have Parallels Desktop, however, and a vm swallows up a lot of resources. My MB is faster than any non Apple product I've seen.....I mean it's got Leopard inside but runs like a chetah 
Isn't it already at 2GB?
I'm presently running a CD Macbook, 2.0GHz with 1 GB of ram. CS3 Photoshop seems to run fairly well with that, so it would be safe to assume that 2GB would run it very nicely.
I owned the Rev A Core Duo Blackbook last year, only with 1GB RAM. It did not run CS2 too well. Very sluggish in all areas of usage actually.
I took it back eventually and was able to exchange it for a similarly specced iMac which handled CS2 amazingly.
It's likely mine was an isolated issue, you'll have more RAM than I did too, and besides CS3 is a Universal app, so... I imagine you'll see no problems.
I took it back eventually and was able to exchange it for a similarly specced iMac which handled CS2 amazingly.
It's likely mine was an isolated issue, you'll have more RAM than I did too, and besides CS3 is a Universal app, so... I imagine you'll see no problems.
