Hot on the heels of my story yesterday about undervolting your Core Duo CPU to save on battery and heat comes a nifty piece of shareware. CoolBook is a GUI to control CPU clock speed and voltage. It’s like the author was reading my mind!
CoolBook is a $10 shareware application for the MacBook and MBP that allows you to adjust the frequency (clock speed) and voltage of Intel Core Duo and Core 2 Duo CPUs.
Read the rest of the story on my ZDNet Blog: The Apple Core.
Tag: core2duo
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The Apple Core: CoolBook adjusts Core Duo voltage and clock speed
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Overclocking the ATI X1600 GPU in the MacBook Pro
Mac speed freaks are already aware that it’s possible to overclock the ATI X1600 GPU in the MacBook Pro using ATITool in Windows XP.XLR8YourMac has posted clocked and overclocked 3DMark05 benchmark results/comparisons with a new Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro. They’ve updated the previous page on ATI X1600 overclocking using ATI Tool in XP.
xlr8yourmac.com :: Mac owner reports on ATI X1600 Overclocking
technorati tags:MacBookPro, GPU, Overclock, ATI, x1600
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The Apple Core: The MacBook Chasm Shrinks
A very short two weeks ago I wrote about the MacBook chasm, the difference in features and benefits between Apple’s consumer MacBook and the professional MacBook Pro. I wrote that Apple’s revving the MacBook Pro to the faster and cooler Core 2 Duo processor essentially widened the gap between the two lines and that it would make potential MacBook buyers think long and hard about the MBP before buying.
Well no more.
Read the rest of the story on my ZDNet Blog: The Apple Core. -
Apple Releases Updated Core 2 Duo-Powered MacBooks
Following last week’s insistence on Apple’s part that UK online retailer play.com remove their pre-order page for Apple’s upcoming Core 2 Duo-based MacBook line, Apple has unveiled the anticpated new laptops. The Apple Store web site is currently being updated as of this writing, typically a sign of a major product introduction to market.
The new MacBooks, still available in white and black colors, will be priced at $1,099, $1,299 and $1,499 respectively depending on features. The units, which run at 1.83 GHz and 2.0 GHz configurations, feature 13″ glossy widescreen displays capable of a 1280 x 800 resolution, a 667 MHz front side bus, an Intel GMA 950 graphics unit, built-in iSight video camera, built-in AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, two USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 400 port, one audio line in port, one audio line-out port, Apple Remote and MagSafe power adapter.
The low-end 1.83 GHz configuration will feature 512 MB of RAM, a 60 GB hard drive and Combo drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW). The 2.0 GHz models will feature 1 GB of RAM, a 6x SuperDrive with dual-layer burn support and 120 GB hard drive. All MacBook models can be expanded up to 2 GB of RAM provided the user installs matched pairs.
Apple executives have claimed the new units are up to 25% faster and will help with key holiday-focused tasks such as photo work (iPhoto rated 25% faster), digital editing (iMovie rates 20% faster) and web publishing (iWeb rated 27% faster).
The new MacBooks are scheduled for release on Monday, November 13th and will be available for pre-order through Apple’s online store, typically within a few hours based on past product releases.
Contributed by: By Chris Barylick -
Benchmarks: MBP Core Duo vs. Core 2 Duo
Bare Feat’s resident mad scientist Rob-ART Morgan has conducted benchmarks of the new Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro (2.33) versus the Core Duo MBP (2.16) it replaces. Some of the results may surprise you. Add to this the fact that the MeBook (MeromBook) runs about 40 °F cooler than the Core Duo model and you’ve got a really compelling product.
Conclusions
The MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo’s advantage over the Core Duo version ranged from 9% to 75% depending on what app we ran. The faster core clock speed should provide an 8% advantage, so everything beyond that is “gravy.” Most surprising were the significant gains with Aperture 1.5 and Photoshop CS2…
We were hoping that the 15″ model would be the equal of the 17″ MacBook Pro in every way except the screen size. However, this is still not the case. The 17″ version has a faster SuperDrive (8X versus 6X). The faster 7200rpm 100GB drive is an option on the 17″ but not on the 15″