Merom MacBook Pros are out

The Apple Core2 Duo portables have been unleashed, and so I too, will start unleashing my savings and upgrade. The pricing is very impressive since you get a considerable upgrade from the previous generation MacBook Pros for the same price.

If you’ve been holding out to get a MacBook, waiting for the “right-time” to take the plunge, I’d say now is pretty much an ok time to get one. Consider this:

Comparing the USD 1,999 models (lowest-end) 15″ MacBook Pro line, for the newer model you’d be getting:

1. CPU base speed matching the previous top model (2.16Ghz)
2. A newer, more efficient CPU in general (Core2 Duo/Merom)
3. A base RAM matching the previous top model (1GB)
4. A base HDD size that’s bigger than the previous top model (120GB)
5. A IEEE 1394 (FireWire) 800 port, which absent from the previous line.
6. A faster (6x) and dual-layer capable superdrive

Now I’m sure that succeeding versions will still follow the trend, but for the price, I think the models that just came out are very competitive (as compared to the value of my powerbook when it came out)

As for me, I’m getting one for sure. The question will be which model to get.

Lowest end is USD 2k, Top end 15″ is USD 2.5k (I’m not even considering a 17″ because I always thought it was too big)

The question is, is an extra 500USD worth having a roughly 17MHz CPU speed bump (2.33GHz instead of 2.16), 256MB VRAM (instead of 128), and an extra gigabyte (2GB instead of 1) of RAM?

Doing the BTO route in the apple site, you can only see the exact price difference as far as the RAM goes, which is roughly 172 USD. Let’s say that’s PhP 8.5k now while being more expensive, it’s within reasonable limits [for laptop ram] to be considered an extra expense. So for now I’ll just scrap that from the equation and focus on the other two.

What you’re really paying for here is the extra 17MHz and the the double video RAM. Now I’m inclined to think that the VRAM matters because the lowest end of the new line didn’t match the top end of the previous (it remained with 128, instead of going 256 for a base) It may be a marketing ploy, or simply because it’s uncommon to have a mobile graphics card with 512MB vram in the first place. But in terms of ram, in general, double is always better.

And of course the bigger question is if 17MHz faster really is considerably faster? If it’s only a matter of paper specs and synthetic benchmarks, then I’d say I don’t need 2.33GHz. The biggest question though [that will never be answered] is how much exactly [of the price] was alloted for the VRAM, and how much for the CPU?

Not like it matters, you can’t BTO ¹ Build-to-order those two components. If I were allowed a BTO option, I’d say I’d get a 2.0GHz model with 256MB VRAM and downgrade the actual RAM, and just buy cheaper 3rd party RAM modules.