Intel Quad chips

I'm used to built-in obsolescence but Intel's announcement of its forthcoming Quad processor chips giving a 50% performance boost to its Core 2 Duos leave me flummoxed.

I've got the new 2.33 MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo on order. None have even hit the stores yet. Methinks that Apple may put out a Quad upgrade at January's MacWorld, meaning Quad laptop upgrades may be in stores by April.

Do I jump in or wait? Thoughts anyone?

ahh, the eternal question...
and the answer depends on what all kinds of work you do and if you have live projects in line to do RIGHT NOW.

if you have current work, get whats currently available and PROVEN to get the work done in your existing workflow - buy the next big thing when it comes out and the kinks get worked out... there is no reason to pay retail to be a guinnea pig

the way i see it is that the video biz is still lucrative enough that a professional independent producer should generally be able to roll the price of a new box into the situation after say 3 or 4 projects - MAX. if thats NOT the case they probably didnt really "NEED" the latest fire-breathing technology anyway...

My business is lucrative enough for myself and I could probably buy another laptop after 4 projects or so but (1) it's such a waste of money and time to go through (2) enormous hassle crossing over to another machine and (3) as you know, in video, there's always something to buy or upgrade.

A four-month window between processor iterations is very close. Besides, waiting also gets the new machine optimized for Leopard.

But I'm awaiting a contract in Europe. If it comes through, I'll cop to the Core 2 duo but I'll do it begrudgingly. My 2-year old 2GHz G5 4G desktop is running at full capacity although the 2 year old iBook G4 is totally obsolete.

i have found that if you buy a new box after about 4 to 6 months you can do one of two things.
1. USE the older machine as a second box while another is busy rendering
2. sell it while it still has market value and get a better price for it.

I have heard rumours that you may be able to just upgrade the chips in the new macs, so you could move to the quad later if you like. This is still uncomfirmed rumour, so don't build your business around it just yet.

Read more here :
[www.macrumors.com]

Is there any indication that these could appear in the MBP? Seems more likely that these could be a Mac Pro only option.

I just got a C2D 2.33GHz MacBook Pro and it's a fantastic system, I wouldn't wait Jamie. It will smoke your G5 anyway :-)

Martin Baker
[www.digital-heaven.co.uk]
Unique plug-ins and tools for Apple Pro Apps

Thanks Martin.

I just sold my iBook last night so I definitely will pick it up whenever it gets into the store. I value your endsorsement, thanks.

WIth the ammount of heat produced by the dual core in the MBP, it seems like a quad core would just cause it to burn a hole in the desk. For a laptop, I barely ever do anything but web surfing with the MBP on my lap.

Can anyone confirm or deny this?

I can neither confirm nor deny that you barely do anything but web surfing with the MBP on oyur lap.

Benjamin Meyer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I can neither confirm nor deny that you barely do
> anything but web surfing with the MBP on oyur lap.


I can confirm that, smartypants.

What about an increase in heat produced by a quad core?

well A, the new cores in the MBP are the newest cores from intel (look up their prior press release from a month or so ago) and B yes the chips are swapable and there have been some prelim tests done by computer testing companies privalged to get one of the new chips who also had a Mac Pro sitting around, so obselecence just got postponed.

P.S. now that macs are intel, expect the chips to come faster than rain

"yes the chips are swapable ... obsolence just got postponed. "

Slamdunk! That's great news.

yea, lets just hope that apple doesn't get wise to it and create some lockout for it...

Last month, I picked up a stop-gap Core 2 Duo iMac so I can do small projects and write articles, as I had a feeling that the Clovertown 8 proc fire breather is coming down the pipe pretty soon. On the native HD, I can playback DVCPro 50 and DVCPro HD, as well as DV and HDV. So I can take on projects while I'm gearing up for Uncompressed HD.

I love this little rig. Supports dual monitors natively with only a small drag on Motion. Runs older apps on Rosetta without a hitch. Today I'm going to attempt to install AE. I'm havin' fun! ;-)

I'll probably keep it even after the new MacPros come out.

Kevin Monahan
Social Support Lead, DV Products
Adobe
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I agree with you Kevin.
I did some pro bono work recently for a PhD student who was delivering a DVD along with her final thesis. The DVD had 75 different bits of video and 10 menus. I was able to do high quality compressor batches and clean up menus in Photoshop and prep in DVDSP all on one of their media lab Intel iMacs. They each had 500MB RAM. If only Qmaster was a useable application I could have hooked all 5 iMacs up as a cluster and really wowed 'em in the cheap seats.
The iMacs really held up well and were a pleasure to use, considering they weren't the tweaked boxes I have grown accustomed to.

Sad thing is, she was the only student really making use of the media functions of the lab. Everyone else was using Word/Email/PowerPoint on the same machines. There were even two late model G4 powerbooks sitting unused in a closet.

ak

ak
Sleeplings, AWAKE!