Before even hand its six - month natal day , the MacBook has undergone its first makeover . The change — a Modern processor and ( in two of the three standard MacBook configurations ) more memory , big backbreaking driving force , and twofold - stratum videodisc burning — aren’t quite as substantial as Apple ’s recent enhancement to the 15 - column inch MacBook Pro ( ) , but they bring real value to a merchandise that had already taken the consumer and didactics marketplace by storm .
Core 2 for consumers, too
Headlining the update is a shift to Intel ’s latest central processing unit , the Core 2 twain , in space of the Core Duo chip that power the first MacBook generation . In the showcase of the MacBook Pro family , a similar update had a striking effect on functioning .
With the MacBook , however , the welfare of the brainpower transplanting are more modest . There are at least three reasons for the conflict . First , the Core 2 Duo mainframe in the MacBooks run at the same clock speeds—1.83GHz in the $ 1,099 fundament configuration , 2.0GHz in the $ 1,299 and $ 1,499 models — as their original core predecessor ; in the Pro class , by contrast , the new chips run at slightly higher speeds than the previous processors . Second , while most versions of the Core 2 Duo CPU have 4 MB of performance - enhancing Level 2 cache memory ( twice as much as any Core Duo flake ) , Apple chose to use a stripped - down Core 2 duet with only 2 megabyte of L2 cache in the $ 1,099 MacBook . And third , in the updated MacBook Pro mold the new processors are combine with improvement in graphics processing ; in the newfangled MacBooks , the graphic subsystem is unchanged .
Still , the performance benefits of the Core 2 yoke design are appreciable in many applications . Even the slowest of the new models , equip with a Core 2 Duo lead at only 1.83GHz and indorse by only 2 MB of L2 cache , finished our iTunes MP3 encryption test 17 seconds ( 18 percent ) faster than the fastest model in the original MacBook lineup ; the quick of the raw models did the job 21 seconds ( 22 percentage ) quicker .
Improvements of that magnitude plausibly wo n’t turn you unripe with envy if you ’ve just invested in a Core Duo MacBook . But if you have an older Mac laptop computer , consider this : the Core 2 Duo MacBooks are 55 to 65 percent faster than the fastest iBook — and 27 to 35 percent faster than the last PowerBook G4 — on Macworld ’s Speedmark bench mark suite . ( concord to Apple , the young MacBooks are actually six times faster than the last iBooks on some benchmark . )
Thanks for the memories
Besides their novel processors , the two more expensive MacBook form now include a full gigabyte of memory , twice as much as previously ; the $ 1,099 conformation still comes with 512 megabyte of random memory . In all three configurations , the maximal memory board remain 2GB — only the MacBook Pros have go to a maximum of 3 gibibyte .
As for hard drive capacity , the $ 1,099 configuration still comes with a 60 GB Serial ATA intemperate drive , the same as before , but the $ 1,299 and $ 1,499 configurations now have 80 GB and 120 GB drives , respectively , up from 60 GB and 80 GB in the old generation . ( For all three contour , Apple now offer up drive upgrade to 160 GB at 5,400 - rpm , or 200 GB at 4,200 - revolutions per minute . )
And while the basis model still has only a Combo optical drive ( compact disk - RW / DVD - ROM ) , Apple has added support for burning double - layer ( 8 GB ) DVD+R phonograph record in the SuperDrives in both higher - price MacBooks .
give by their differences , all three configurations offer the same great feature that have made the MacBook such a striking : the gorgeous 13.3 - inch sheeny widescreen ( 1,280 by 800 pel ) , built - in AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR wireless networking , structured iSight camera , Gigabit Ethernet connexion , scrolling trackpad , both optical - digital and analog audio in and out ports , MagSafe power connexion , and a Mini - DVI port wine that can ( with the increase of transcriber that be $ 19 each ) underpin a miscellanea of outside monitor , up to a 23 - inch Apple Cinema HD Display .
As in the original MacBook card , the $ 1,499 configuration ’s black case comes at a hefty premium : that and an extra 40 G of hard drive capacity are all you get for the extra $ 200 Apple charges , compared to the $ 1,299 white variant .
compare to the MacBook Pro model , the main differences are screen size of it , expandability ( the MacBook Pros have an ExpressCard/34 slot , but the MacBooks have no circuit card slots ) , FireWire 800 ( now in all Pro manakin , but still missing from the MacBooks ) , and of course of study carrying out : the difference in CPU speeds is not big , but the Pro models ’ freestanding ATI Radeon X1600 graphic chip is considerably faster than the MacBooks ’ integrated art processing . That last point is worth count not only for publication and video professional , but also for anyone look for a good play political machine .
Core 2 Duo MacBooks Tested
Best results inred . Reference systems initalics . Asterisk ( * ) denotes system tested with optional 7,200 - revolutions per minute hard campaign .
Speedmark 4.5 scores are relative to those of a 1.25GHz Mac miniskirt , which is assigned a grudge of 100 . Adobe Photoshop , Cinema 4D XL , iMovie , iTunes , and Zip Archive score are in minutes : seconds . All systems were run Mac OS X 10.4.8 with 1 GB of RAM , with processor carrying out set to Highest in the Energy Saver preference pane when applicable . The Photoshop Suite test is a solidification of 14 scripted tasks using a 50 MB Indian file . Photoshop ’s memory was set to 70 percent and chronicle was set to Minimum . We record how long it took to render a setting in Cinema4D. We used Compressor to encode a 6 - moment , 26 - 2d DV file using the DVD : Fastest Encode 120 minutes – 4:3 stage setting . In iMovie , we applied the of age video recording effect to a 1 - second movie . We converted 45 minute of arc of AAC audio files to MP3 using iTunes ’ High Quality setting . We used Unreal Tournament 2004 ’s Antalus Botmatch intermediate - frames - per - second score ; we tested at a resolution of 1,024 by 768 pixels at the Maximum setting with both sound and artwork enabled . We create a Zip archive in the Finder from a 1 GB leaflet . To liken Speedmark 4.5 scores for various Mac systems , visit our Apple Hardware Guide.—Macworld science laboratory examination by James Galbraith , Brian Chen and Jerry Jung .
Macworld’s buying advice
All three MacBook models are fast , inflexible , and versatile computing machine . Among the three stock configuration , I like the middle simulation ( $ 1,299 ) best — in fact , I just ordered one . The $ 1,099 model , with no growth in RAM or toilsome drive content and a limited version of the Core 2 Duo central processing unit , lag further behind its more expensive sib than the base configuration did in the original MacBook lineup . ( I ’d like it much advantageously at $ 999 . ) As for the $ 1,499 variation , I do n’t believe it ’s a rational choice , but if you just have to have a opprobrious Mac , it ’s your only pick aright now ; if you’re able to afford a picayune extra to indulge your illusion , why not ?
[ Henry Norr is a veteran Mac technology writer based in Berkeley , Calif. ]
