Merom to come out earlier than expected?

Wow, if that's the case, that would rock. I can't wait to get mine!

Yeah, this is a 100% buy for me if the MBP gets a Merom in August. I have my money ready for the purchase.

Overall it seems like Intel is having good yields on all of their Core 2 products, which is a definite 'good thing' for those buying a Mac.

I was hoping the v2 macbooks with the merom core would be out by september, an august release date following the WWDC would kick ass. I'll keep my fingers crossed for an early sales date. This is great news cyrana Thanks!!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...gy/personaltech

This article was published in the washington post a couple days before this one concerning the conroe core, it has the release date as july 27th which is still good for the macpro's

I don't know about everyone else...

but (IMO) a Core Duo MBP is an impressive stride in Mac Laptops... Obviously I have a first rev MBP, but would a faster chip in a laptop really be of that much benefit?

I'm no computer wizard, but wouldn't the peripheral components really need to be upgraded in order to really see much improvement? Especially in a laptop, where hard-drive transfer rates are usually much lower, lacking a true graphics card, and with power consumption concerns?

I definitely see the benefits when going a custom PC route with ATI and Nvdia releasing optimized motherboards and such, the Core 2 Duo will be a very attractive piece of tech.

Personally, I'd rather see investment in HD technology (in addition to refinement of certian issues)... especially now with the dual boot capacity. 100G is really easy to fill. Techincally, they did help out those who bought the "big" 17" MBP with firewire 800. At the very least, I want that in my next 15" by Jan-Feb. I fear drastically changing architecture (or a shorter PLC) could lead to a series of more critical flaws with results similiar to the disappiontment many had when purchasing the new MBP.

Feel free to disagree with me, call me an idiot, but I think current CPU (Core Duo) is phemonenal, I want better hardware accompanying it.

You can't just take a Chevelle, toss in a cam with huge lope and expect great improvement, everything has to match; the heads, fuel supply, exhaust, intake etc...

I'll agree with jgrimes in terms of the HDD sizes available. 100 GB is fairly small by todays standards but it is running SATA2 which is fairly fast so I can't agreed with the low transfer rates speculated on the MB (can't confirm that cause I haven't bought a MBP yet).

Typically when a new processor comes out don't you usually see the rest of the hardware improving? The hardware available in Jan 2006 when the MBP first came out has improved quite a bit. I expect a new video card in the MBP v2 and I would love to see something better than the GMA950 in the Macbook, it doesn't really fit the bill really well for Vista if you plan on dual booting (min reqs for Vista are 64MB video).

I think the current versions of the MBPs will be the first ones to be replaced or available for a lower price while the v2 MBPs will be available. I'm not sure the Macbooks will be available with the new Core 2's as soon.

I could be wrong though as this is complete speculation, but I would also like to see more hardware improvements, especially if i'm dropping $2000+ on it!

I'll agree with jgrimes in terms of the HDD sizes available. 100 GB is fairly small by todays standards but it is running SATA2 which is fairly fast so I can't agreed with the low transfer rates speculated on the MB (can't confirm that cause I haven't bought a MBP yet).

 

Typically when a new processor comes out don't you usually see the rest of the hardware improving? The hardware available in Jan 2006 when the MBP first came out has improved quite a bit. I expect a new video card in the MBP v2 and I would love to see something better than the GMA950 in the Macbook, it doesn't really fit the bill really well for Vista if you plan on dual booting (min reqs for Vista are 64MB video).

 

I think the current versions of the MBPs will be the first ones to be replaced or available for a lower price while the v2 MBPs will be available. I'm not sure the Macbooks will be available with the new Core 2's as soon.

 

I could be wrong though as this is complete speculation, but I would also like to see more hardware improvements, especially if i'm dropping $2000+ on it!

A few things to think about.

1) Intel has to create chipsets that are Vista ready, there is presently ONE board to date, not yet released, that is Vista ready.

2) Apple knows the heat issues, GPU Artifacts, White MB turning orange, so I think they will ramp up the updates faster.

3) We should see a price cuts along the whole line, in addition, since the new Core 2 slowest is very fast, Apple would do well to differ the Apple line to include the MB line to have dedicated GPU (or new intel chipset) as well as 800 FW speeds and offer the MBP as a dual dual core and quad core. Which by the way AMD is rumored to have come out soon (4 cores one chip) and motherboards with two CPU slots, i.e. 8 CPU's on one motherboard via two (2) CPU's.

This said, for the hack systems, if the new Intel chipsets, Vista ready, this should mean superior editing FX in realtime for FCP as well as the possibilities of dual display.

On the other hand, since the OSX86 is growing, we may indeed see apple come down to earth and introduce new pricing structures, however, a dual core 2 with a hack overclocked to 4.0 on air, may overperform even the best TOP OF THE LINE Apple products, so in some sense, Apple may have to compete especially since laptops and desktops and the generations that use them are very overclock saavy (except Intel boards) yet it is a fact that the top of the line Conroe is unlocked across the board meaning you can set every setting keeping the system to spec for PCIe, etc.

I recently built a hack system, $300, and it blows away a mini and of course, if I spend a bit more I could get better GPU performance, but what I as well as the rest of us lack at this time, (WHICH SHOULD CHANGE WHEN DESKTOPS COME OUT), is dual display.

So, right now, if thinking of investing on hack system or new Apple system, best to wait a month or so to see what happens, especially the rumored new intel chipsets and what motherboards they show up on and whether or not GPU support is offered via the manufacture of the graphic card. It could turn our that:

.i Apple may offer a decent laptop/desktop that offers good bang for the buck

or

.ii A hack system overclocked could overshadow the Apple top of the line systems as Cinebench benchmarks have been broken using the new Conroe.

Just a few thoughts.

I agree that the CPU is just one part of it all... But, we're still talking about a 20% increase in speed due to that. Also, we have SSE4 plus EMT64, which will be helpful long-term I think.

However, you won't see things like NAND cache until next year, unless we get a hybrid drive put in these units. Also, we're still waiting on higher-capacity 7200 RPM drives (biggest is -still- at 100 I think).

Last, are there any new mobile GPUs out yet? Well, ones that you can fit in the MBP enclosure and not increase heat while simultaneously worsening battery life? Only the x1800 is out at this time, and I don't think it's an option...unless the rumoured x1700 part comes out early. So, not sure how much different these will be other than a faster, more future-proof CPU. (perhaps the FW800 as mentioned earlier, etc)

I'm waiting, though.

Well, I hope MBP v2 is much cooler and has less power consumtion.

Well, I hope MBP v2 is much cooler and has less power consumtion.

The newer chips use half the power of the older dies - - translation, cooler.

This is also why they can ramp (cooler) up to 4.0 on air - when websites talk about "air" they mean stock cooling, or stock heatsink.

With newer intel GPU and needing to be VISTA ready, as it dumped ATI for their own motherboards, (ATI will come out with something as well), there should be a cooler PCIE GPU and all before the Holidays.

What you would want to look for in a new motherboard is INTEL Chipsets, new intel GPU on a non-intel motherboard for overclocking. Manufactures of motherboards love when a CPU can be clocked 67% and higher as they know, other than box makers (HP, Dell, Compaq, etc), a majority of their sales come from white box (us) makers and extreme gamers.

Now is NOT the time to buy a motherboard for new conroe. Not now.