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MacBook Update


It looks like the rumors were right. Well, sort of right. The MacBook line has been updated. Before you get too excited, please note that this is a pretty minor update. The MacBooks can now be properly branded as utilizing the Santa Rosa platform (note: platform, not chipset - Santa Rosa is a branding term, like "Centrino"). The processor choice is now either the Core 2 Duo 2.0 or 2.2 GHz, with an updated 800 Mhz front side bus and the new integrated graphics use the updated GMA X3100 (the successor to the GMA 950 that has been used for far, far too long) with 144 MB of shared memory. Stock RAM, hard drive and SuperDrive options remain the same - though the new MacBooks have the capacity to be upgraded to 4 GB of RAM. Prices remain unchanged from the previous revision, so $1499 gets you a 2.2 // 1 GB // 160 // 8x SuperDrive instead of a 2.16 // 1 GB // 160 // 8x SuperDrive.


While it's great that Apple finally matched the rest of the competition with the updated integrated graphics, MacBook owners who have the May '07 revision should not be too dismayed. The updated graphics is nice, but let's not kid ourselves, it's still not good enough for playing games that require a non-integrated card. Likewise, the update in FSB is going to be largely unnoticeable in anything but acute benchmark tests, because the RAM is still running at the same speed. I do like that Apple has finally set the EFI to accept 4 GB of RAM, I just hope that they include an update to existing MacBook (and MacBook Pro) owners so that we can do the same, seeing as the previous motherboard had this capability. Then, in a perfect world, Apple would let me change the amount of dedicated graphics memory in OS X to what it can be in Windows XP or Vista.

What will be interesting will be if these new MacBooks will be upgradable once the Penryn mobile chips are released. To me, the most beneficial aspect of having Santa Rosa branding is that the socket-type on the motherboard is Socket P, which is what Penryn will use.

Make no mistake, this is a great update and anyone who was putting off getting a MacBook before should definitely go for it - this just isn't as major as some of the rumors were predicting.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!