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Santa Rosa Macbook Before August?

K

kmann

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 7, 2007
15
0
Atlanta
Hey everyone,

I'm looking at getting a new macbook before school starts in August. Has anyone heard anything about a macbook update with the santa rosa chipset? I'd love to wait for leopard but it doesn't look like that's going to happen, do you think its possible for apple to release a santa rosa macbook soon or should I go ahead and buy one of the macbooks now?

Thanks,
Kevin
 
I think that since the MacBooks just got updated a couple weeks ago, there won't be updates for a while. Maybe not even until MWSF in January.
 
Given that there's no reports of MB sales becoming sluggish and that the MBPs needed something like SR to give them some significant differential in terms of specs from the MBs, it makes more business sense for Apple to hold off updating for a while.

It's never easy to judge the timing of product updates, but I would side with iBookG4user, it's more likely to be a case of later rather than sooner.

To the OP, have a look at this article:
http://www.macopinion.com/index.php/site/more/is_now_a_good_time_to_buy_a_macbook/

Sounds like you're going to have to bite the bullet soon and hopefully that opinion piece will make you feel a bit better about doing it!
 
If it really concerns you THAT much, though, and you can afford the MBP, feel confident in going for it.
 
Taylor C said:
If it really concerns you THAT much, though, and you can afford the MBP, feel confident in going for it.
Click to expand...

thanks for the responses, portability is my main concern so the MBP's larger screen is a big turn off for me (I connect my macbook to an external LCD at my desk)
 
Given they're just updated and looking at their product cycle, i don't think they'll update again until at least MWSF. That way, they'll get SR and mbp will get penryn. If Apple update now, then the Pro line won't be differentiated enough from the consumer line. So if you need it now, just buy now and get the ipod and printer rebates.
 
I'll bet on an update within July. Lots of new competition and Intel will be dropping their prices in late July. So, my guess is Santa Rosa and promise of free Leopard. Maybe even LED backlighting, though less likely.
 
teflon said:
Given they're just updated and looking at their product cycle, i don't think they'll update again until at least MWSF. That way, they'll get SR and mbp will get penryn. If Apple update now, then the Pro line won't be differentiated enough from the consumer line.
Click to expand...

That's ridiculous. They were differentiated before SR, why not after. The Pro gets discrete graphics, faster CPUs, bigger HDDs, Al case, bigger monitors...

I can't see a difference at all.
 
chex said:
That's ridiculous. They were differentiated before SR, why not after. The Pro gets discrete graphics, faster CPUs, bigger HDDs, Al case, bigger monitors...

I can't see a difference at all.
Click to expand...

1) mbp don't have bigger HDDs. the blackbook gets same amount of default HD as the baseline mbp. Apple only gives you the option to upgrade to 250gb on the 17 inch. Of course you can do it yourself, but then it's actually easier to change the HD on the mb than mbp.
2) if the mb goes santa rosa, there wouldn't be a difference in CPU speed between the top white mb/blackbook and the baseline mbp. Right now its 2.16 vs 2.2. What's apple going to do, lower mb to 1.8 and 2.0?
3) When the mb uses GMA X3100, the difference in graphics between the mb and mbp will shorten. Sure, GeForce 8600M GT is much better, but for most tasks, X3100 will suffice nicely.
4) the aluminum casing and lcd size are pure personal preference. I guess you can say the backlit keyboard and such, but that's personal preference too. And who pays $500 just to get that? Of course to some people the edge that mbp provides over mb is enough to justify the extra cash, but if mb gets SR, most people will just get the mb and maybe a monitor instead of the mbp.
 
chex said:
That's ridiculous. They were differentiated before SR, why not after. The Pro gets discrete graphics, faster CPUs, bigger HDDs, Al case, bigger monitors...

I can't see a difference at all.
Click to expand...
Although you might not see a difference, more than one reviewer commented that you got more bang for your buck with the MB and even publications targetting creative professionals (e.g. Macuser in the UK) was advising that the MB deserved careful consideration. The new MBPs make this not so much the case now.

Further to what teflon said, take a look at these benchmarks:
http://creativemac.digitalmedianet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=43717

In the UK, the price difference between a mid-range MB and entry-level MBP equated to about 1,000 dollars - in terms of performance in CPU intensive apps, I wouldn't say that you saw much of an improvement for the extra cash.

In terms of CPU power, until the MBPs were updated recently, they had 2.16GHz and 2.33GHz, compared to the 2.0GHz and 2.16GHz of the MBs. Each range had the same FSB, max. RAM and L2 Cache. It was only when running GPU intensive tasks that you saw a real benefit.

But if you didn't use GPU intensive tasks, as the CPU performance was essentially the same between the ranges, here's what the MBP had over the MB:

Aluminum shell
Lighted keyboard
Ambient light sensor
Auto-dimming display
ExpressCard Port
PCIe graphics system
Higher-resolution display
Matte display option

You may well think the above adds real differential to the MBP compared to the MBs, in which case we'll differ; nice as those things are, I would prefer the differences to give a pep to performance.
 
Actually looks at these recent benchmarks comparing the santa rosa MBP with the current blackbook and you will see the performance difference on tasks which really work the CPU and GPU

http://www.barefeats.com/rosa02.html

Depending on your outlook, it still may not be worth the extra money for the MBP, but there is ~20% gain in CPU-related performance for heavy users.

I've noticed a similar increase comparing a 2.2Ghz MBP with the current 2.0GHz MB
 
SR Macbooks somewhere around October-November. Thats when the LED screens rumor said the rollout of the 13.3'' was targeted for.
 
brettanderson said:
Actually looks at these recent benchmarks comparing the santa rosa MBP with the current blackbook and you will see the performance difference on tasks which really work the CPU and GPU
Click to expand...
Assuming you're responding to what I said, if you read all the thread, my original post said that the SR MBP added a decent differential between the MBPs and the MBs; although I didn't say in my post, this was something that Apple really needed to do IMO. Now that Apple has done it, the argument for going for a MBP is much greater - as such, if it quickly introduced SR into the MBs, the performance differential between machines would be much smaller (i.e. as it was until recently).

chex responded to teflon and (as I read it) said that there was enough differential between the machines before the MBPs had SR - so why not give the MBs a similar performance boost now?

As a response, I used older benchmarks to show that CPU performance used to be very tight between the MBPs and MB, which IMO is reason enough for Apple not to introduce into the MB a similar kind of improvements that you quoted (and I should have done that to show just much SR has made a difference).

As I was using the past tense, old specs for the MBPs and benchmarks from last year, I had hoped it was clear that I was talking about how the performance used to compare, not now - sorry if I didn't!
 
imo apple arent using the X3100 'coz they don't have good drivers for it yet.

even on windows the GMA950 outperforms it in some areas according to the reviews i've been reading.
 
Igantius said:
Assuming you're responding to what I said, if you read all the thread, my original post said that the SR MBP added a decent differential between the MBPs and the MBs; although I didn't say in my post, this was something that Apple really needed to do IMO. Now that Apple has done it, the argument for going for a MBP is much greater - as such, if it quickly introduced SR into the MBs, the performance differential between machines would be much smaller (i.e. as it was until recently).

chex responded to teflon and (as I read it) said that there was enough differential between the machines before the MBPs had SR - so why not give the MBs a similar performance boost now?

As a response, I used older benchmarks to show that CPU performance used to be very tight between the MBPs and MB, which IMO is reason enough for Apple not to introduce into the MB a similar kind of improvements that you quoted (and I should have done that to show just much SR has made a difference).

As I was using the past tense, old specs for the MBPs and benchmarks from last year, I had hoped it was clear that I was talking about how the performance used to compare, not now - sorry if I didn't!
Click to expand...

Oh yeah I see, sorry, I read those posts too quickly!
 
I doubt they will be updated soon since they where just recently updated, I guess Apple won't care about santa rosa in them.

Also there is a rumor about a more touch sensetive trackpad with an update in october.
 
brettanderson said:
Oh yeah I see, sorry, I read those posts too quickly!
Click to expand...
As if you're the only one who has ever done that :p

As I said, the link you gave was v useful as it showed the current differential between the machines, so it all worked out for the best...
 
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