Official: Apple's MacBook and MacBook Pro quietly updated

[opus_az]

Now if anyone can point me to a good source to upgrade the memory to 4gb for my macbook I ordered this morning I would appreciate it.

I like going with Crucial http://www.crucial.com/ but I'd be just a bit more cautious to make sure the new ram is right for the new MacBooks.

As far as inserting the RAM: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303721
Those tiny screws can be a bother, they're so tiny it's easy to strip them. I've done it twice, once was a bother, the other time was very easy. Your mileage may vary.

 

[kaidomac]

Now if anyone can point me to a good source to upgrade the memory to 4gb for my macbook I ordered this morning I would appreciate it.

$159.99 from OWC, high quality stuff:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/53IM2DDR4GBK/

$850 from Apple, $160 from OWC and a few minutes of your time. You do the math ;D

 

[amrk47]

can someone explain more about this restocking fee or whatever that means is there a way for me to upgrade?

whats to explain?
apple charges you a restocking fee of I think $150 or something close to that if you return it

 

[anmoldagreat]

yeh not a whole lot of upgrade to the macbook pros
im holding out for 3ghz
should be possible with the penryn processors in less than a year...

 

[Mac_OS]

oh, is it worth it to get the upgrade? how long is this valid for?

 

[Mac_OS]

do u own a macbook already?

 

[Mac_OS]

i just dont think its THAT worth it but then again i dont need my macbook to do really high end stuff, when i actually do need it to do stuff like that it will be a few years and ill be upgrading

 

[cwa107]

i just dont think its THAT worth it but then again i dont need my macbook to do really high end stuff, when i actually do need it to do stuff like that it will be a few years and ill be upgrading

It is a minor update. Most users will not notice the difference, which is probably why Apple "quietly" updated them. God knows Apple is no stranger to overly hyping a product - when they don't, there's probably a reason for it.

 

[amrk47]

yea this new update isnt worth getting rid of your current MB at all unless you do something that would need 4gb of ram

 

[Geeky1]

It's not a rebate or anything, Mac_OS; basically, if you buy a computer from Apple and you change your mind, you can attempt to return it (if you buy it from an apple store) for something like 2 weeks after you buy it. It's up to the manager of the store whether they'll let you or not. IF they let you, they will charge you a fee because the machine is now used, cannot be sold as new, and thus the value of the machine has been diminished.

 

[Mac_OS]

i understand that, but if i do that and pay the fee and the i buy the new macs that are out, Is it worth it? I dont think i need 4gb, well i know i dont

 

[MacHeadCase]

*Merged same topic threads*

 

[Geeky1]

Oh, I misunderstood.

I tend to doubt it's worth it. The best use of the money you'd pay in a restocking fee would be to buy 3GB of RAM for your current MacBook (which will make it noticeably faster, even if you don't do anything with it besides surfing and stuff)

 

[Mac_OS]

yh thats what i thought and everyone seems to be saying, i seriously doubt 0.04ghz is going to make any noticable difference

 

[MacHeadCase]

*Merged same topic thread... Again*

 

[lonerider]

x3100

The x3100 is probably the biggest factor in this bump on the macbook side. The X3100 looks to be around 2x faster than the GMA 950 in the reviews and benchmarks I've seen on newer game titles. In the older 3dMark03 it gets a score of 1700 - fully 10x the score of the GMA950 - so games more than a couple years old should be completely playable on a macbook now.

Even if you're not gaming much, the speedup in graphics should show up when tinkering with large images and using Aqua.

This is all assuming apple's x3100 drivers are decent, of course.

 

[Geeky1]

I'm not sure 1700 in 03 is going to render much of anything made after 2004 or so playable at all... Maybe on the lowest possible detail settings. It's been a long time since I last looked at 3dmark 03 scores, but iirc a score of 4-5k is about minimum for a card to be capable of running most of the newer games kinda-sorta ok at low resolutions (in dx9 at least).

I could be totally wrong about that though... like I said, it's been a while.

 

[sk8erb0imikey]

with the new x3100 will it be capable of playing ww3?

 

[Geeky1]

What game now?

 

[lonerider]

I'm not sure 1700 in 03 is going to render much of anything made after 2004 or so playable at all... Maybe on the lowest possible detail settings. It's been a long time since I last looked at 3dmark 03 scores, but iirc a score of 4-5k is about minimum for a card to be capable of running most of the newer games kinda-sorta ok at low resolutions (in dx9 at least).

I could be totally wrong about that though... like I said, it's been a while.

It really depends on the game, but bottom line is the new macbook is about 2x faster than the old macbook in gaming, much more in some cases. It should be quite a bit snappier when doing run of the mill graphical stuff as well.

There's a site that ranks various mobile GPU chipsets below. The x3100 is top in 'class 5' which is pretty much top of the integrated chipsets. It's faster than the GForce 6100/6150, ATI x1200 series, and only slightly slower than the older FX Go5600 discrete chips. Almost dead on equivalent to the X1600 mobility discrete GPU (X1600 gets 1800 in 3dmark03 vs 1700 for the x3100).

http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-9600-Pro.2171.0.html