The biggest "relevancy" difference between a 2009 MacBook and a 2006 Mac Pro 1,1 is the newest OS each can run.
- The 2009 MacBook is capable of running the newest Mac OS "Yosemite".
- The newest Mac OS a 2006 Mac Pro 1,1 (officially) is 10.7.5 "Lion". There are supposed to be some workarounds to run newer OS versions…but they are not supported.
If the OS aspect is not a problem…yes (in my opinion) a 2006 can still be relevant compared to a 2009 MacBook. There's a benchmark program called Geekbench. The Geekbench 3 CPU score for a:
- 2009 2.26ghz MacBook = 2368
- Stock 2006 quad-core 2.66ghz Mac Pro = 5272
- Upgraded 2006 8-core 2.66ghz Mac Pro = 10,000+
As you can see. An 8-core upgraded 2006 2.66ghz Mac Pro has a CPU benchmark score that's over 4x a 2009 2.26ghz MacBook.
So. If the OS 10.7.5 limitation is not a problem…and…if you have computing tasks that use software that can take advantage of 8-cores…then a 2006 Mac Pro would "kick-butt" vs. a 2009 MacBook!
- 2006 Mac Pro (with the appropriate graphics card) would also "kick-butt" compared to a 2009 MacBook with graphics & video type tasks.
- 2006 Mac Pro can have 4 internal hard drives.
- 2006 Mac Pro can run up to 8 monitors (with 4 graphics cards installed).
But again. The biggest limitation to a 2006 Mac Pro is the OS (10.7.5 being the newest supported OS version).
- Nick