[Bob Marley]

Hi all,

gettin a macbook for my brother as a b-day gift,

Is there a big difference between the 1.83 Core 2 Duo MacBook(949) and the core duo macbook 1.83(799)?

Im not gonna waste my $150 so that they can show off their "64 bit processing" which is something im never gona use.

Thanks.

[secretdonkey]

I have a Core 2 duo MacBook that happens to have the same processor speed and RAM as the iMac my assistant uses at my office. Only difference is that the iMac is the original Core duo. My "seat of the pants" experience is that the Core 2 duo MacBook is quite noticeably quicker. For me, yes, $150 worth of quicker, for sure. Just my opinion, but that's all I can offer.

[Chaoticjoe]

What's he gonna do on it? That's the thing that matters.

[mduell]

No, there's no big difference, 64-bit does nothing, spend the $150 on 2GB RAM.

[buymeaniphone]

I totally agree with the RAM upgrade over the Core 2 Duo purchase. And Chaoticjoe has a point, what exactly is he going to do on it. If he's just going to surf the web and create a few word docs then maybe the RAM upgrade isn't even necessary. In fact if thats all hes going to be using it for you could just get him a refurbished 12" iBook. I wish I had a brother like you

[SLiMeX]

Originally Posted by mduell 

No, there's no big difference, 64-bit does nothing, spend the $150 on 2GB RAM.

[jough]

Of course, the differences between the first and second generation Macbooks go much much deeper than just 64 vs. 32-bit.

The new chips are about 25% faster (in 32-bit performance - you should see an even greater spread in performance in Leopard), run about 10C cooler (which will extend their life and make your day-to-day use more pleasant), have 802.11n in addition to b&g in the first generation, and of course are 64 bit which make the newer rev a better buy if you plan on keeping the machine more than six months.

I believe there was also a memory and hard-drive bump in specs as well. Is the Superdrive in the second revision also faster? It may be. I have a 6x drive in my white C2D Macbook.

So for a paltry $150 you get a LOT of extra bang for your buck.

You can always add on more RAM later. For most tasks the 1Gb that comes with the C2D is plenty.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by jough 

The new chips are about 25% faster (in 32-bit performance - you should see an even greater spread in performance in Leopard), run about 10C cooler (which will extend their life and make your day-to-day use more pleasant), have 802.11n in addition to b&g in the first generation, and of course are 64 bit which make the newer rev a better buy if you plan on keeping the machine more than six months.

Oh would you please enlighten us as to what difference 64-bit is going to make in 6 months.

[brettcamp]

Also, some of the first gen MacBooks (pre-week 25 or something, I think) were plagued with persistent problems with overheating, random shutdowns etc. Chances are your wouldn't have these, or they'd have been fixed in the refurb process, but the likelihood of problems may be lower with the Core 2s.