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    MB Santa Rosa Vs. MB Penryn

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by t3rom, Jun 9, 2008.

  1. t3rom

    t3rom Notebook Consultant

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    I heard someone say once (don't remember where) the case material is slightly changed on Penryn based Macbooks, is it true?

    Thanks!
     
  2. Sam

    Sam Notebook Virtuoso

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    I think the case was changed with Santa Rosa in November, where they changed the way the vents on the back looked and the function keys. No biggie.
     
  3. Chris27

    Chris27 Notebook Deity

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    do you mean merom vs penryn? They both use the Santa Rosa chipset (Santa Rosa refers to the chip on the logic board, not the cpu)
     
  4. Redline

    Redline Notebook Prophet NBR Reviewer

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    However, people generally call the Merom chips on the Santa Rosa chipset "Santa Rosa" in order to distinguish it from the Merom chips on the older Yonah chipset.
     
  5. ValkyrieLenneth

    ValkyrieLenneth Notebook Evangelist

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    Santa Rosa = Merom bus 800MHz (T7100/7300) + 965M + 4965 wifi. Penryn is for Montevina if i remember it right.
     
  6. r0k

    r0k Notebook Evangelist

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    I swapped a Santa Rosa for a Penryn Macbook and the only physical difference I noticed was the Penryn didn't include a remote.
     
  7. ValkyrieLenneth

    ValkyrieLenneth Notebook Evangelist

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    Yes, it's also the reason why i'll have to go find a remote in local retail store >.< .. i expected it to be bundled with my penryn macbook.
     
  8. kgeier82

    kgeier82 Notebook Deity

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    i had a 2.2 SR MB, and an original 1.83 CD MB. the case was different feeling on the new SR, now old of course.

    the trackpad area felt more plasticky on the SR. The old 1.83 had a smooth feel to it, much nicer IMO.
     
  9. Redline

    Redline Notebook Prophet NBR Reviewer

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    Welllll, not really. Penryn is the chip that will ship with the Montevina platform (similar to how Merom was on Santa Rosa) but there is a "Santa Rosa-refresh" that is pretty much identical to Santa Rosa, save for having a Penryn 45nm processor. Note that there was a Merom processor on the Napa-refresh platform, and hence a corresponding MacBook referred to as the Merom MacBook, which is different from the Santa Rosa MacBook, even though both feature the Merom processor.
     
  10. DougMorgan

    DougMorgan Notebook Consultant

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    Folks:

    In summary I believe the following is true but see the below links for full info.

    Penryn and Merom refer to the processor family only. Basically Penryn is 45nm and Merom is 65nm. Merom breaks down to an early and late model with 677/800 mhz bus speed respectively. In the near future Penryn will also break down in to an early and late model at 800/1066 mhz bus speeds. The current chip is penryn at 800 mhz.

    Napa, Santa Rosa, and Montevina refer to the motherboard chipset or the Centrino moniker.
    Basically Napa has a 677mhz bus, Santa Rosa is current with 800mhz, and Montevina will be the new kid at 1066mhz.

    Napa is for the older merom (677 bus) or even older Yohan processor families.

    Santa Rosa supports newer merom (800mhz bus) and current penryn

    Montevina will support a newer penryn with a 1066mhz bus.

    So using current part numbers and a bit of deduction based on bus speed:
    T8xxx and T9xxx is penryn & santa rosa
    T7800, T7700, T7500, T7300, T7200, and T7250 are merom & santa rosa

    The part number table (link below) gives the cache and processor speed details.

    Forgot to add my main point ---> All the current MB and MBP models are penryn AND santa rosa.

    I don't know if this helps or not, and I know nothing about which case apple used for which model, but all the intel code names thrown around was giving me a headache.
    Doug

    Centrino
    Core2
    Processor_numbers
     
  11. ATC

    ATC Notebook Deity

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    I think DougMorgan summed it up pretty good there. :)
     
  12. SPEEDwithJJ

    SPEEDwithJJ NBR Super Idiot

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    Totally agreed.