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Speculation on the next MacBook Pro

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Re: Speculation on the next MacBook Pro

#41

Post by masklinn »

yread wrote: post #27
Synaesthesia wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SSD's really help compilation times! All those little files.

I have a new intel core 2630QM quad core and it is the biggest difference in compile times I have ever gotten from an upgrade. At least 3x times as fast as on Core2Duo T7600 that I was using before. Then again I'm compiling Silverlight assemblies which might be more CPU-bound than what you're doing. Also don't take just my word for it: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/867741/ssd-drives-and-vis...

Synaesthesia is probably talking about compiling C (lots of pretty small files) or worse C++ (files are reopened a lot, so random IO becomes very important).

Re: Speculation on the next MacBook Pro

#42

Post by Zev »

masklinn wrote: post #38
Samuel_Michon wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"1920x1080 would be nice. But I doubt that'll happen..." Actually, I think that is a real possibility. With the last MacBook Air refresh, screen resolution went up from 1280x800 to 1440x900. The current MacBook Pro 15" has a resolution of 1440x900, based on past refreshes I think it's safe to assume that the new MBP 15" will have a higher resolution than the current MBA. Most likely 1680x1050 but 1920x1080 isn't impo…

As a rule, Apple usually doesn't sell two different laptop sizes with the same resolution. Next gen, the 15" will get 1680x1050 standard (instead of option) and the 13" MB/MBP should default to 1440x900, or at least get it as an option. But the 15" won't see 1920x1200 before the 17" is bumped. Furthermore, OSX is hardly resolution-independent, a 1920x1200 15" would make for some small targets.

As a rule, or what Apple has historically done? Because those are two different things. And are there any laptops with a resolution higher than 1920x1200?

Re: Speculation on the next MacBook Pro

#43

Post by statictype »

m104 wrote: post #28
statictype wrote: post #21

Mac OS X doesn't support TRIM does it? I know a lot of people are gushing over the SSD drives but aren't they going to be bummed out in 12 months when it starts degrading?

You really think that Apple would let their SSD-buying customers twist in the wind? The people paying a premium, or buying an MacBook Air? You're saying that Apple hasn't had or won't have a way to make OS X love the SSD? Apple, the company that will probably be the first major computer manufacturer to eliminate the spinning disks, the company that is doing whatever it can to snatch up flash memory production capacit…

Are you trying to make some point?

If you have an answer, I'd be genuinely interested in hearing it, because as far as I know, that little thing is needed for SSDs to work properly over long term, since overwriting pages in a flash disk is significantly more costly than writing data to fresh pages.

If you don't have an answer, well, your comment seems to be fairly content-free.

Re: Speculation on the next MacBook Pro

#45

Post by pclark »

statictype wrote: post #43
m104 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You really think that Apple would let their SSD-buying customers twist in the wind? The people paying a premium, or buying an MacBook Air? You're saying that Apple hasn't had or won't have a way to make OS X love the SSD? Apple, the company that will probably be the first major computer manufacturer to eliminate the spinning disks, the company that is doing whatever it can to snatch up flash memory production capacit…

Are you trying to make some point? If you have an answer, I'd be genuinely interested in hearing it, because as far as I know, that little thing is needed for SSDs to work properly over long term, since overwriting pages in a flash disk is significantly more costly than writing data to fresh pages. If you don't have an answer, well, your comment seems to be fairly content-free.

His point was that you think Apple hasn't carefully considered if all their SSDs are going to degrade over the next year or two?

Re: Speculation on the next MacBook Pro

#47

Post by yungchin »

statictype wrote: post #21

Mac OS X doesn't support TRIM does it? I know a lot of people are gushing over the SSD drives but aren't they going to be bummed out in 12 months when it starts degrading?

From AnandTech's MacBook Air review:

"The part number on the Toshiba controller may look familiar to some of you. It’s the same controller that’s in Kingston’s SSDNow V+ Series and the SSDNow V Series Boot Drive. I reviewed the latter not too long ago and found that it was a good drive for the money, and here’s the kicker: the SSDNow V Series Boot Drive was amazingly resilient when written to without TRIM support. Its performance hardly dropped as a result of normal desktop use. This is very important because although OS X 10.6.4 has a field for reporting TRIM support on an SSD, the instruction isn’t actually supported by the OS."

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3991/apples-2010-macbook-air-1...

Re: Speculation on the next MacBook Pro

#48

Post by Tichy »

statictype wrote: post #21

Mac OS X doesn't support TRIM does it? I know a lot of people are gushing over the SSD drives but aren't they going to be bummed out in 12 months when it starts degrading?

Some SSDs come with internal garbage collection, working around the TRIM issue. No idea how well it works out, though.

Re: Speculation on the next MacBook Pro

#49

Post by trezor »

The only thing which put me off getting a MacBook Pro last time I was shopping for laptops was the lack of built in 3G. So instead I got a Dell Studio XPS laptop, with a Core i5 CPU, 256GB SSD, builtin 3G, full-HD display. For $1000 less than a "similarly" speced MBP (Core2, 128GB SSD, sub HD-res unless you want a 17" beast) no less.

I really don't regret my decision, but if Apple would just consider adding a 3G module to their MBP-lines, I honestly think they would attract more power-users. Lack of 3G is such an incredibly lame thing in Europe where 3G is everywhere and wifi is a hastle.

Re: Speculation on the next MacBook Pro

#50

Post by statictype »

pclark wrote: post #45
statictype wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you trying to make some point? If you have an answer, I'd be genuinely interested in hearing it, because as far as I know, that little thing is needed for SSDs to work properly over long term, since overwriting pages in a flash disk is significantly more costly than writing data to fresh pages. If you don't have an answer, well, your comment seems to be fairly content-free.

His point was that you think Apple hasn't carefully considered if all their SSDs are going to degrade over the next year or two?

Given the following data points:

a) TRIM is generally needed to be supported by the OS in order to make SSDs work well over time (and is supported by Windows and Linux kernels, among others)

b) Mac OS X up to Snow Leopard doesn't support TRIM

I would tend to believe SSDs used by Mac OS X will degrade in performance over time. Clearly its possible that either (a) or (b) are wrong. In which case, it would be cool to hear which part I've gotten wrong (probably the first part).

Telling me that 'Apple surely would have taken this into consideration as they love their customers and charge a premium for their products' doesn't really address it.

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