Santa Rosa refresh for MacBook

Stephen Withers
Friday, 02 November 2007 01:10

Your IT - Home IT

Apple's latest MacBooks deliver modest enhancements.

Internally, the main change is a switch to the Intel i965 Santa Rosa chipset, including the replacement of Intel GMA 950 integrated chip with the GMA X3100 and an associated increase in shared memory available for graphics from 64M to 144M.

Unfortunately, this change is accompanied by compatibility issues. Apple warns that "The use of intensive 3D graphics in some advanced gaming applications may have difficulty running correctly on this MacBook's Intel i965 chipset, exhibiting issues with shading, textures, and performance."

A "wide variety of consumer-oriented games" are said to run successfully.

Other internal changes include the option of a 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo in place of the previous model's 2.16GHz part, and an 800MHz frontside bus. Apple is also offering a 250G drive as a build-to-order option, up from 200G.

External changes include the addition of Exposé, Dashboard and media control (rewind, play, fast forward, volume up/down/mute) legends to the function keys, plus larger cooling vents on the back panel below the display hinge.

The entry level 2.0GHz model ($US1099) still features a combo drive (CD burner/DVD reader) rather than the double-layer DVD burners fitted to the 2.2GHz versions, and the black model still attracts a premium price: $US1499 compared with $US1374 for a similarly configured white MacBook.

The Australian Apple Store had not been updated with the new specs and prices at the time of writing.