Apple's 15-inch Core i5 MacBook Pro: The One to Get?
by Anand Lal Shimpi on April 14, 2010 10:38 PM EST- Posted in
- Mac
- MacBook Pro
- Arrandale
- Core i5
- Laptops
Bigger Power Bricks, Warmer Laps
Naturally the increase in potential power consumption means we have larger 85W power bricks instead of the 60W brick that shipped with the previous entry-level MacBook Pro:
The new power brick also uses a different mag safe power connector. The connector is still the same, the plug has simply changed:
The Old Mag Safe Connector
The New One
The new MacBook Pro also gets much warmer than the old one. I'd say it's more comparable to the first gen unibody MacBook Pro. If you're going to have this thing on your lap for a while you may want to wait for the next rev of Arrandale due out later this year. It should be a bit cooler.
Cooling the Core i5 and the GT 330M requires two fans, compared to just one in the previous 2-chip solution. The new MacBook Pro is no louder than the old one in practice.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
114 Comments
View All Comments
yodasz - Thursday, April 15, 2010 - link
I wonder if the SSD performance and compatibility issues have been addressed in this revision? Does anybody have an update on that?Anand Lal Shimpi - Thursday, April 15, 2010 - link
3Gbps works out of the box (confirmed on Corsair's Force 100GB drive). The system seems to work fine with the SandForce controller, but the same is true for the previous gen. I haven't tried Indilinx yet. Intel also appears to work fine.Take care,
Anand
solipsism - Thursday, April 15, 2010 - link
That is the most important information from this release. Sadly, you are likely the only one to report on it.How does the use of SATA II over SATA III affect the performance of SSDs?
Anand Lal Shimpi - Friday, April 16, 2010 - link
The only SSD that can benefit from 6Gbps SATA is the Crucial/Micron RealSSD C300, which I've briefly talked about here:http://anandtech.com/show/2944
The problem today is some 6Gbps SATA controllers are actually slower than Intel's 3Gbps SATA controller:
http://anandtech.com/show/2973/6gbps-sata-performa...
Realistically I don't expect 6Gbps SATA to be that important to SSD performance until next year.
Take care,
Anand
Pat69 - Friday, April 16, 2010 - link
Do you know which kind of SSD Apple is providing through the 3 options (128, 256, 512)? Are these SSD good ones?Anand Lal Shimpi - Friday, April 16, 2010 - link
Apple doesn't like confirming this kind of stuff, but I'm guessing they are supplied by Toshiba and/or Samsung. If so, the drives are ok but not particularly great. I'd save the upgrade cost and do it yourself aftermarket.Take care,
Anand
kirkrw - Friday, April 16, 2010 - link
I take it then that your recommendation would be to that same $500 that Apple wants for their 256G SSD and put it toward a 160G x25-M gen 2?bradpowers - Monday, April 19, 2010 - link
Could we get benchmarks on the MBP with the Corsair F100? I'm very interested in that combination.stimudent - Thursday, April 15, 2010 - link
Still measuring in inches and feet...Squuiid - Thursday, April 15, 2010 - link
Aynbody know what model the 256GB SSD is?