Merom MacBooks sooner? Some Chinese site has info about intel releasing Merom on July 23rd (link goes to TheRegister). If the information comes true, the MacBook Pro could soon use the T7200, T7400 and T7600 parts (2, 2.16 and 2.33 GHz Core 2 Duo) and the MacBook could move to the T5500 and T5600 (1.6 and 1.8 GHz Core 2 Duo). The highend parts use 4 MB of L2 cache, the lower-end parts 2 MB. They still would increase the performance while keeping the same energy levels, whereas the highend parts would certainly increase performance even more. Theoretically, *all* these processors could be bought separately and used as a processor upgrade for the intel Mac mini. But if you dream about putting a 2.33 GHz T7600 into your 1.6 GHz Core Solo Mac mini, keep in mind that in badges of 1'000 pieces, the processor costs over 600 USD already. I'd say the 2 GHz part, costing roughly 45% of that, might become a better deal.
But back to the MBs: With both the MacBook Pro and the MacBook models having earned the "too hot to handle" badges by early adopters, some people might want Apple to use lower voltage parts in their notebooks even *if* it'd mean waiting a little longer and being a little slower. I certainly wish Apple would take a closer look at intel's ULV parts for some sort of subnotebook. But Apple's not been known in the past years to be fans of the subs. (Or simply considered the 12" PB already a subnotebook.)
Previously, our sources claimed that the MacBook Pro would be updated to use the Merom processor line this Autumn, probably at AppleExpo Paris - together with the iMac, which would also use the Merom processor. - posted by Patrick Armbruster @ 13:41 [article link]