New MacBooks

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 11:27 am

2.16 is up to 2.2Ghz

Previous Calistoga chip has been changed to Santa Rosa

RAM capacity has been doubled from 2GB to 4GB.

The MacBook Pro now has a 2.6Ghz BTO option, with 2.2 and 2.4Ghz models available. (Does 2/10 Ghz make that much of a difference?)

I've seen no mention yet of the new Penryn chips being used in these models.

If these models are of no interest, Apple has added (and will certainly continue to add) recently retired models to its refurb list. Apple's markdowns are not always the most attractive, but this is only the first day.

MBP 15" 2.33 $2499/1899
MBP 15" 2.4 $2499/2199
MBP 17" 2.16 $2799/1999
MBP 17: 2.4 $2799/2399

Dwetmaster · Post by **Dwetmaster** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 12:39 pm

Sometimes it's frustrating to pay the BIG $$$ to be on top of it and then a few months later you're almost obsolete???

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 1:35 pm

Dwet, that's always the case. They call that "the agony and the extasy", and tech developers have us by the *apricots* big time.

The thing I love about the laptops is that for me they last longer than towers-- meaning that I'm easier on laptops where running critical software is concerned and rarely max them out. I still have my PBG4, and haven't used a third of the HD space. That thing is almost 4 years old now.

But since the power coupling stopped working (not the adapter but the one connected to the mother board) I've been entertaining getting an MBP. The only thing holding me back from doing anything is figuring out how to back up the drive before sending the PBG4 in for repair. I'm down to half a battery right now, and I don't think I can jumpstart the AC just to do that.

The only other thing is to put the drive in another laptop and to send the PB to Apple Care with a new drive.

Ah, but that 2.6 looks sweet. Hard to imagine my laptop being finally more powerful than my G5 2.5 Dual. But maybe a refurb 2.16 17" won't be a bad replacement. Hmm.

I'm still wondering if this isn't more of an interim release. It would really be painful if there were yet another round of MBPs released in January.

buddhabelly · Post by **buddhabelly** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 11:33 pm

You can put 4GB of RAM in the last gen macbook as long as it was one of the superdrive models.

Frodo:

Send apple the computer without the hard drive. I've done that once or twice. All they have to confirm is that the DC-In board has failed and change that, plug it in and make sure it charges the battery.

I've worked on machines that customer will refuse to leave their drives, rarely, but it does happen. One time I had to do a backup to a 'secure' bio-metric drive with the customer and erase the drive zeroing the drive 32 times, way above DOD standards, before starting the repair.

Or if you do have another computer, just pick up an external drive case and back up that way.

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Fri Nov 02, 2007 12:10 am

buddhabelly wrote:You can put 4GB of RAM in the last gen macbook as long as it was one of the superdrive models.

Frodo:

Send apple the computer without the hard drive. I've done that once or twice. All they have to confirm is that the DC-In board has failed and change that, plug it in and make sure it charges the battery.

I've worked on machines that customer will refuse to leave their drives, rarely, but it does happen. One time I had to do a backup to a 'secure' bio-metric drive with the customer and erase the drive zeroing the drive 32 times, way above DOD standards, before starting the repair.

Or if you do have another computer, just pick up an external drive case and back up that way.

Good suggestions, buddahbelly. Thanks! I've done that with full sized SATA drives, but never for a laptop. Must investigate further.

But I think I want to put a bigger (if not faster) drive in my PBG4 if I keep it.

sdemott · Post by **sdemott** » Fri Nov 02, 2007 7:52 am

Companies like WiebeTech and Granite Digital sell hard drive "sleds" that allow you to pop in a bare HDD and then connect it to another computer via FW/USB/eSATA...whichever you want.

They are very good things to have around. When my G4 PB went south I immediately popped the HD out and made sure the data was accessible via one of the WiebeTech sleds - when I got the MBP I was able to connect the sled to the FW port and copy over all my data.

Disassembly of the PB is the only obstacle - but it's not too bad... www.ifixit.com has very nice step by step take-aparts for all manner of Apple portables.

HTH - feel free to PM or email me directly if you need/want more info or a little moral support for the surgery

buddhabelly · Post by **buddhabelly** » Fri Nov 02, 2007 7:21 pm

Frodo wrote: But I think I want to put a bigger (if not faster) drive in my PBG4 if I keep it.

Well if you got an external enclosure, you'd then have an external drive for storing even more data!

monkey man · Post by **monkey man** » Sat Nov 03, 2007 5:04 am

Congrats on your 7000th post Fwogster.
You're a maniac.

jgest · Post by **jgest** » Sat Nov 03, 2007 12:28 pm

monkey man wrote:Congrats on your 7000th post Fwogster.
You're a maniac.

hopefully the wrists are still holding out with no carpall tunnel!

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 1:30 pm

sdemott wrote:Companies like WiebeTech and Granite Digital sell hard drive "sleds" that allow you to pop in a bare HDD and then connect it to another computer via FW/USB/eSATA...whichever you want.

Hey-- I'm having trouble pinning down this "sled". Not everyone calls it as such. I'm still looking, but WiebeTech calls it a Combo Dock. So far I'm only seeing ones for standard 3.5 SATAs and not for laptop HDs. I'm sure connectivity matters in this case.

There are a few places in town I may hit today-- Unitek, Fry's, and other likely geek establishments.

But as mentioned-- I'm still looking. I'm just not seeing a laptop Combo Dock.

I did find some info about Combo Adapters for 1.8 and 2.5" HDs. Here's a link, but it's a big 404.

http://forensics.wiebetech.com/products/adapters.php

What I'm concerned about is that these local stores are not going to know what I'm talking about if the terms Combo Dock and Combo Adapter are specific to WiebeTech or if they have no idea what a "sled" is.

I somehow manage to stump the smartest geeks in the world.

With the holiday weekend rapidly approaching, this is getting a bit mission-critical. Hmm.

I've often wondered why it's possible to power an external hard drive from the firewire port but it's not possible to power the laptop from an external firewire drive that uses it's own power adapter. Gee, wouldn't that be convenient in a pinch?

SixStringGeek · Post by **SixStringGeek** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 2:22 pm

Dwetmaster wrote:Sometimes it's frustrating to pay the BIG $$$ to be on top of it and then a few months later you're almost obsolete???

Welcome to the wonderful world of technology. FWIW, I think the speed bumps are just lame. You'd be hard pressed to notice anything over the previous generation. The higher ram limit is welcome though.