Is it dumb to buy a Core Duo?

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matt fury

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OK, so barring anything wacky happening at MacWorld, I'm planning on buying a refurb Core Duo Macbook. I was originally going to buy a Mini, but I can sell my Powerbook Onyx for more than the price difference between the Mini & the MB, so I might as well get the lappy. My big question is: is it a mistake to go with the Core Duo when the Core 2 Duo is available? I checked out some reviews online and it seems like the C2D is up to 15% faster. I understand the math of 15%, but what I'm wondering is how much of that translates to real world. TIA.
 
Processing power is about 15% better, yes, but for a lot of people - especially laptop/notebook owners - the longer battery life is the bigger draw for them. The C2D can give you upwards of 30 mins to an hour of additional runtime as long as you're using all the power savings abilities of the hardware and also depending on what you're doing.

That's worth more to most people that just being able to process a JPG 5 seconds faster, etc...

The Core Duo lineup is still a very nice thing to own, from any manufacturer, and still more power than most people ever really need.
 
Huh. I did not know that. Odds are this thing is going to spend most of it's time plugged in to power/k/v/m, but that's defnitely something to keep in mind. Thanks.
 
I'd say go for it. The Core Duo is a good chip. The main difference is the 15% speed increase, 64 bit support and improved battery life.

I'm happy with my Core Duo MacBook Pro I bought about a month before the Core2 Duo based ones came out.
 
I haven't seen any C2D macbooks on Apple's refurb page yet, but $899 for a 2GHz core duo macbook is a sweet deal.

Less than 3 months ago these were still $1099, then they dropped to $999 (that's when my sister bought one), and now they're at $899. Hell, I'm even tempted.
 
it funny thing when the g4 notebooks still hold the same value as the 2.0 ghz macbooks.

Some apple fans are truly die hard :p
 
I just bought a refurb Core Duo Macbook and really have no regrets, honestly though, the closer we get to MacWorld I feel kinda dumb for not waiting to see what's announced.
 
I awefully hope its not dumb to buy a core duo. I just bought a 15" MBP CD. For the same price I could have gotten a brand new MB with gobs of ram. I'm still not convinced I've made the right choice, but we'll see I guess.
 
If you're talking about buying an MBP with a CD vs an MBP with a C2D, obviously go for the C2D, the newer one because that's not the only thing that's better on the newest upgraded MBP's. The original MBP has/had a CD/DVD drive that was a complete piece of shit, which was widely known and discussed at other Mac-centric forums. The newest models, the C2D ones, have a replacement drive that works much better.

Also, the heat issues the 1st generation MBP models had has been alleviated quite a bit by improved cooling and the fact that the C2D runs cooler anyway.

So, if you're just comparing them for a specific model, notably the MBPs, then definitely take the new one.

The MBs are basically still the same, just better performance with the C2D and the longer battery life; the rest is still pretty much the same.
 
I definitely can't afford a MBP, otherwise I wouldn't have any questions. :)

No upgraded Minis, still no refurb C2D MBs at the store. Seems like my choice hasn't been made much easier.
 
matt fury said:
I definitely can't afford a MBP, otherwise I wouldn't have any questions. :)

No upgraded Minis, still no refurb C2D MBs at the store. Seems like my choice hasn't been made much easier.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't be surprised to see an influx of refurbs on the site soon. Post-holiday buyers' remorse and all that.
 
That's a good point. But would they even sell C2D MBs as refurbs while they're still current?
 
matt fury said:
That's a good point. But would they even sell C2D MBs as refurbs while they're still current?
Click to expand...

Yeah, once they get enough in stock to put them up on the refurb site, they'll offer the refurbs alongside their identical new models in the regular store.
 
When I see a thread like this I wish I had spent the extra $300 and picked up a C2D MBP instead of a CD MBP refurb. But the next time I use it, tonight, I will forget about it. The 15% increase in speed is only in some apps, not across the board. The core duo is a great chip and the core 2 duo is even better, but not by much. I have no problem burning disks, which I rarely do. I have no problem running winxp in bootcamp, though windows sucks it works fine. It plays NWN2 pretty damn good and I don't have the speed at home to need the 802n or whatever comes out next. I mean, for me, downloading 50megs in a couple of minutes is just fine. Get what you want, I think any version you pick up will still be a great computer 3-4 or 5 years from now. Unless you are a true power user, and most of them have the jack to get a new MBP every other year anyway. For the rest of us joes I think Apple has done a decent job.
 
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