When will we see Merom?

I doubt that they'll wait all the way until the Leopard release... For those really following the events, it seems there's a lot of indicators Apple was going to announce them at the press event this week. The event was unnecessarily long and highly redundant as they showed off a point release for aperture. Most likely, this points to technical issues with the Merom in the current Macbook [Pro] systems. Since Merom runs a good 20% hotter under full load, and Macbook[Pro]s are known for running on the hot side, there's a good bet that Apple is struggling with this issue. A lot of this is speculation...

Some sources are indicating that Merom support for the macbook is specificially indicated in the OS X 10.4.8 point release, which has been seeded to approved ADC Select members now.

FWIW, a I've had two "little birdies" quote dates of 10/17 and 10/31 for the next potential announcement dates. While I can't claim any validity to these sources or dates, a part of me wants to say "well, duh! Makes sense to me." Anyway, an Apple rep who is remaining anonymous slipped up in comments regarding the 10.4.8 Tiger update and mentioned Merom shipping in Macbook Pro systems in time for the Holiday shopping season and this is quoted over at Macworld's site as of today.

So, without doing much more to beat a dead horse, the Core 2 Duo Merom CPU is just around the corner for Macbook Pro systems, and one would assume that the Macbook will be upgraded at the same time or shortly after. But this upgrade has been "just around the corner" for the last month or so and the reality of it is that it will get here when it gets here... And more than likely, it will be before the end of the year.

There, now did that clear it up? I didn't think so...

I'm going to hold out until the Santa Rosa chipset ships and full support for 4GB is enabled in the MBP. I needed a notebook and got tired of waiting, so I opted for a refurb'd 15" glossy MBP for $1699. I upped the RAM to 2GB and swapped the HD for a 120GB. So far I'm really pleased with the system and I have less than $1900 in it. I didn't buy the extra AppleCare since I have a year to do so and I plan to upgrade the system next spring/early summer with the following MBP update, which should see the Merom successor and Santa Rosa.

My guess is they will be released before Thanksgiving in time for the holiday season. Apple cannot expect to hold on much longer with a plain Core Duo when all their competitors are hyping the fact that they have the Core 2 Duo. Plus, now that Apple is using only the Core Duo, their price premium is even more extreme. To pay $3000 for a 17" system with older technology is going to catch up with them as did using the G4 for so long in the laptops.
I really hope it is sooner than Thanksgiving. In fact, I am secretly hoping it will be updated in the next week or so. I have been waiting for the C2D update so I can get one! Let's hope they upgrade the video card a tad too.
-- Along the lines of video card upgrades. I do believe this will happen too. ATI refers to the Mobility 1700 as being "Vista ready" and does not make that claim on those 1xxx lines below it like the 1600. If heat doesn't do them in, I would expect to see the X1700, at least, in the updated Macbook Pro, but that is totally my own feeling. No basis other than it will work with Vista and we all know how much we want to boot Vista with Bootcamp and/or Parallels...

While it's possible that Apple will stick with ATI for their laptops, I have a feeling—especially after seeing the video in the new iMacs—that Apple is going to jump ship to nVidia because of AMD's buyout of ATI.

If so, one wonders if it was forced by Intel or not.

True! I forgot about that. Maybe we will see a mobile Nvidia product. I hope they go with "the best performance for the heat created" solution.

I don't know if Apple will move to nVidia with a new MBP revision... I hope they do. But it would be illegal for Intel to push them or force them away from an ATI product and I don't see any real changes thus far. Apple still offers the ATI X1900XT as the only reasonable option for the Mac pro and the only iMac that has an nVidia graphics option is the 24", but it's using the desktop GPU 7300 or 7600 nVidia options rather than the X1600 ATI Mobility chipset that's in use in the smaller iMacs and the MBP.

I thought the iMac was using the mobile versions as it uses MXM?

All sources I've looked at claim it's the desktop versions of the GPUs used in the 24" iMac. Additionally, the mobile versions of nVidia GPUs are specifically branded with the "Go" naming scheme and must be advertised as such. The current options available are the 7300 GT and the 7600 GT - the "GT" designation is only available in their desktop GPU lines. ...Now we should ask the question of why the 24" iMac is using the Merom CPU instead of Conroe??? Hmmmm....

enh


meh

Not sure what Andy is trying to say...

Apple's tech whitepaper as well as the reviews at engadget, anandtech and the like all confirm that Apple is indeed using an MXM form factor for the graphics board in the 24" iMac. Although, MXM is nothing more than an industry "standard" repackaging of the PCI-E x16 interface. It's designed for mobile and compact systems, but doesn't have any bearing on which GPUs will be used. it provides all the functionality of a full 16-lane PCI-E connector. According to nVidia's product matrix, there are 'GT' designated GPUs in their mobile lines, so I stand corrected. However, there is no such thing as a "Go 7300 GT" and as I stated before, all mobile GPUs have the "Go" designation before the number and it is part of their trademarked naming convention that must be adhered to by vendors and OEMs. Apple is offering a 7300 GT and a 7600 GT option in the 24" iMac and nowhere do they say that these are a "Go 7x00...". I've read a few things stating that these are not nVidia's mobile GPUs, if I find a link, I'll post it. But I think one of the first good indicators is Apple's own spec page that claims the 7300 GT is 60% faster than the ATI Mobility X1600 in the 20" iMac.

...Still scratching my head over the choice of Merom over Conroe... Only 15W more and a different socket. Other than that, wouldn't have been a big deal, it's still supported by the 945 and 965 chipsets and they had to make a proprietary mainboard just for this system anyway. ...They probably didn't want to infringe on Mac Pro territory. Conroe in most situations performs equally well as a Woodcrest Xeon.

Hell, the Merom iMacs are doing pretty damn good against the MacPros.

I'd still like to think that Apple is going to release a Conroe based mini tower to bridge the gap between iMac and MacPro, but with the base config of the MacPro being so cheap...

I am anxiously awaiting the introduction of Merom into the MacBook Pro line...

Much as I love my MacBook, it's going to my daughter as soon as Apple updates the MBP line...

yea, id also like to see a "middle of the road" desktop. the mini is simply too small, and well the MP is simply, too much.

i like the idea behind a IMac, but then again, id like the box to be seperate for upgrades down the road. dont like the fact that its all one unit. so i guess it has its pros and cons.

I'd also like to see a Conroe based system in the form of a mini-tower or a "cube" style that's larger than the current Mini with some upgradeability in mind. But as Kakaze already said, the base Mac Pro configuration is pretty inexpensive. In terms of what you get for the money, it's quite a bargain compared to other PC manufacturers, even generic shops. Of course, it's best to buy your RAM and HDDs somewhere other than Apple as they gouge the customer for those items, but that's relatively minor. I wish they had some better video card offerings, but the X1900XT is more than adequate for most people. But I don't really don't understand all the nVidia 7300 junk -- Apple must have got a great deal since PC buyers have largely ignored the 7300 GPU in favor of others. Too bad we're not seeing 7800 and 7900 series offerings and it would be nice if there were some form of Crossfire or SLI type support in the Mac Pro. After all, this is a *GRAPHICS WORKSTATION* and there's plenty of apps on the Mac platform that could benefit from such a configuration. Oh, well... Apple -- it's a love/hate relationship.

im sure the MP will get the video support one day. but for the money it is, its still to much from a custom build standpoint.

i for one have NO use for a dual chip system. adn i think a lot of people dont. id buy a bigger-mini. i love the concept of the mini's, i would just feel a little doomed down the line as its upgrade path is so short.

ive come to the conclusion that ill just buy a laptop for the portability, loose out on the upgrade path more or less, and get one huge FUkin ws monitor for my house

AV; right now there's some debate about MacPro RAM and whether or not it's safe to use 3rd party FB RAM in it.

The RAM is directly behind the air path of the processors so it's being "cooled" with already hot/warm air. Apple has special heatsinks on the RAM that're much larger than those that are available for other FB RAM. People have reported buffer correction errors appearing on third party ram with skimpier heat sinks.

Yep, I'm aware of all that... Buyers need to be aware of what RAM they're getting. Good quality FB-DIMMs aren't all that hard to come by for decent prices (newegg has some from Kingston), but without the proper heatsinks, they will indeed run too hot. Right now, Crucial is the only major memory brand I'm aware of that has Apple spec heatsinks on their FB-DIMM Mac Pro kits. Additionally, OTW, Memorytogo and Memory Express are all selling FB-DIMMs with "Apple compliant heat sinks". I don't have any experience personally, but all the complaints i have seen have been with Kingston, and Patriot RAM that is the proper FB memory, but with generic heat spreaders. Crucial originally offered Mac Pro memory kits and then they pulled them and actually recalled their FB-DIMMs if people bought them for the Mac Pro. They have now been shipping Mac Pro approved heatsinks on their FB-DIMM kits for about 2 weeks.

I personally don't plan on buying a Mac Pro until my G5 quads start to feel outdated. So I'm guessing I'll buy one sometime next year after the quad-core CPUs have arrived and the bugs worked out. If I had to buy now, I would probably buy the Crucial DIMMs. I wouldn't order from them direct - higher prices than from a mail-order vendor and I have to pay tax since they have facilities local to me. If I couldn't find a decent price, I may try the Memorytogo.com RAM. OTW's RAM is getting good reviews and has those kool red heatsinks, but I may as well order the RAM from Apple... OTW's price is only about 5% cheaper, if that.

From what I understand 512 sticks of FB RAM will run fine with unmodded heatsinks as they don't produce as much heat as 1 and 2 gig sticks do.

Intel Apples must follow the Intel line, and Core 2 Duo is very close. Many people are speculating, but no leaks?

either comes out before xmas, or not at all. other stuff is too close after the holidays. i personally hope apple just skips core2.

if they adopt it in their macbooks/pros, well have to wait even longer for something that is actually worthy of an upgrade, which is bad marketing to me.