Getting new macbook (2.2 vs 2.4) help!?

[michaelshu]

Yo guys, I am planing on getting a white MB and I am thinking between the "old"
2.2Ghz (4mb L2) macbook with 1gb, 120gb HD or the new white MB with 2.4Ghz (3mb L2) 2gb, 160gb HD.
I know if the price is the same then i will go for the new one for sure, but right now because of the new 2.4 macbook. I can get the 2.2ghz macbook for $999 (student discount) and the 2.4 ghz will still be $1199 (student discount)
Is $200 worth the difference?

Thanks

 

[Pacer69]

Aha, I'm in same boat!

For 2.4 Penryn MB:
1. Battery life supposed to be a bit better ~30-45 minutes is what I've read though I haven't seen it confirmed by actual owners. Can 2.4 MB owners here confirm any battery life difference? Keep in mind this is a brand new battery so a "broken-in" 2.2 obviously isn't going to be as strong as a new 2.2 or 2.4, but there may be a real difference nonetheless. It helps to know what you're running while on battery: browser/s, iTunes, streaming, Office, etc.

2. Larger HD. Performance ~10% better than 2.2. Again, this may be noticeable -- or not.

3. Some people say the case on the black 2.4 is black plastic vs. being painted, but my understanding was the 2.2 SR was also black plastic (no flaking issues). Again, can anyone confirm?


For 2.2 SR Merom MB:
1. EDIT: SHOULD HAVE SAID: Stability/less hassle of Tiger on the 2.2; not sure if the 2.4 can run Tiger, have seen conflicting reports
2. Less $$$ than the 2.4.

Don't think there's a big difference outside of those above, but please correct me if I missed something.

2.2 and 2.4 owners...let's hear from you, please. This is a tough choice between two great machines.

 

[Techguy172]

As the Owner of a 2.2 I still say get the new one it's just a little better of everything.

 

[bluedoggiant]

Aha, I'm in same boat!

For 2.4 Penryn MB:
1. Battery life supposed to be a bit better ~30-45 minutes is what I've read though I haven't seen it confirmed by actual owners. Can 2.4 MB owners here confirm any battery life difference? Keep in mind this is a brand new battery so a "broken-in" 2.2 obviously isn't going to be as strong as a new 2.2 or 2.4, but there may be a real difference nonetheless. It helps to know what you're running while on battery: browser/s, iTunes, streaming, Office, etc.

2. Larger HD. Performance ~10% better than 2.2. Again, this may be noticeable -- or not.

3. Some people say the case on the black 2.4 is black plastic vs. being painted, but my understanding was the 2.2 SR was also black plastic (no flaking issues). Again, can anyone confirm?


For 2.2 SR Merom MB:
1. Stability/less hassle of Tiger (not sure if these can run Tiger, have seen conflicting reports) and you can still run Leopard

2. Less $$$ than the 2.4.

Don't think there's a big difference outside of those above, but please correct me if I missed something.

2.2 and 2.4 owners...let's hear from you, please. This is a tough choice between two great machines.

I'm not getting that.

 

[youradhere4222]

I could get a 2.2GHz right now, but I'm holding out for the white 2.4GHz.

If the only difference was the RAM, I might have done it, but the thing is the 2.4GHz comes with an extra .2GHz, and a bigger hard drive. Not that I need that much space, but an extra $200 is worth it in my opinion. So is the extra battery life, if that's true.

I mean, you're spending $1100 minimum, why not just hold out for $200 more?

 

[Pacer69]

I'm not getting that.

Sorry I got my OS's transposed; I edited my post above to say what it should have.
Anyway, two potential issues:

1. If you read the Apple MB support boards and some independent Mac boards like this one, you'll see that SOME (but certainly NOT ALL) users of 10.4.10 - 10.5.2 are having wireless dropout issues; some every few minutes, some every few days. This apparently is on any Apple Intel C2D [wireless] machine. BUT it only seems to be in combination with certain routers. (I don't know which ones.) The only guaranteed fix that I've seen reported is going to 10.4.9. Which leads to #2:

2. A given along with Leopard (or any new OS) is waiting for your respective 3rd-party drivers to be updated. Penryn Macs won't run Tiger from what I've read. And some people have SAID that 2.2 SR Macs won't run Tiger...I don't know if this is accurate or not. I'm thinking it is not.

 

[Macintosh Sauce]

Since my wife has the 2.0 GHz black MacBook and I have the new 2.4 GHz black MacBook, I can give an honest assessment of the differences. I recommend going to buy the newer 2.4 GHz model for these reasons:

• The black plastic is no longer painted over white plastic - it is black throughout
• The trackpad seems better than older versions
• It can handle 4 GB RAM - what a difference it makes too!
• There is less heat produced by the processor since it is 45 nm instead of 65 nm. This makes it more reliable in the long run.
• The newer keyboard matches that of the Apple Wireless Keyboard, so if you buy keyboard skins from zCover you can interchange them without worry.

 

[John.B]

Since my wife has the 2.0 GHz black MacBook and I have the new 2.4 GHz black MacBook, I can give an honest assessment of the differences. I recommend going to buy the newer 2.4 GHz model for these reasons:

• The black plastic is no longer painted over white plastic - it is black throughout
• The trackpad seems better than older versions
• It can handle 4 GB RAM - what a difference it makes too!
• There is less heat produced by the processor since it is 45 nm instead of 65 nm. This makes it more reliable in the long run.
• The newer keyboard matches that of the Apple Wireless Keyboard, so if you buy keyboard skins from zCover you can interchange them without worry.

Except for the processor, the 2.2GHz blackbooks (Late 2007) have the same case, trackpad, max 4GB RAM, and new style keyboard as the Penryn blackbooks.

 

[heatmiser]

And some people have SAID that 2.2 SR Macs won't run Tiger...I don't know if this is accurate or not. I'm thinking it is not.

Unless your MB ships with Tiger, as a rule of thumb, you won't be able to install Tiger on it. SR MBs ship with Leopard. There is no independent Intel Tiger disk (unlike Leopard), which means the only clear way to install Tiger on an Intel laptop is to use Tiger restore disks that shipped with that laptop's model. If that model never shipped with Tiger to begin with...

 

[Ra226]

Im running 2.2 SR (BLK) with 4 gigs of RAM.
No problems so far, but I havnt tried running tiger on it.

Whatever you buy.... is going to get outdated within a matter of months anyways. So just get the newest one, give it a name, and understand that for the next few years - that will be your baby mac.

just my 2 cents

 

[vansouza]

I kind of in your same boat. Would have been very happy with the new white Macbook entry level, then I read reviews on some of the boards. Like Macworld and such and it seemed that 2.4 was a better choice, not much of a leap from there to the new black Macbook. And that is where I happily landed today. As you can see from my sig I have a few Apples in my bushel basket and I absolutely love the BlkMB even with the stock 2 megs. Loving it.