Description
The Apple MacBook Pro “Core 2 Duo” 2.5 17-Inch (Early 2008/Penryn) features a 45 nm “Penryn” 2.5 GHz “Core 2 Duo” processor (T9300), with two independent processor “cores”, a 6 MB shared “on chip” level 2 cache, an 800 MHz frontside bus, 2 GB of 667 MHz PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM (4 GB starting October 14, 2008) , a 250 GB (5400 RPM) hard drive with “Sudden Motion Sensor” technology (320 GB starting October 14, 2008), and an 8X dual-layer DVD±RW/CD-RW SuperDrive. It also includes a NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics processor with 512 MB of GDDR3 SDRAM and dual-link DVI functionality, and an antiglare CCFL-backlit 17″ widescreen 1680×1050 active-matrix display (a glossy display was offered via build-to-order at no extra cost, and a higher resolution LED-backlit 1920×1200 display also was offered for an extra US100).
With the exception of the keyboard — which retains the “ambient lighting” capability but eliminates the “embedded numeric keypad”, replaces the “enter” key next to the right-hand “command” key with a second option key, and has a different function key mapping — and the trackpad — which adds support for “multi-touch gesturing” (two finger scroll, pinch, rotate, swipe, tap, double-tap, and drag) — the 17-Inch “Early 2008/Penryn” MacBook Pro effectively is externally identical compared to the previously released “MacBook Pro “Core 2 Duo” 2.4 17-Inch (Mid-2007/Santa Rosa) that it replaced. The “MagSafe” power connector and integrated iSight video camera also remain (the previously bundled Apple Remote is a US19 extra).
Connectivity likewise includes the same ExpressCard/34 slot, AirPort Extreme (802.11a/b/g/n), Gigabit Ethernet, FireWire “400” port, Firewire “800” port, three USB 2.0 ports, optical digital audio in/out, and DVI out (Bluetooth has been upgraded to the 2.1+EDR standard).
Internally, however, the “Early 2008/Penryn” models use modestly faster and more energy-efficient 45 nm “Penryn” processors — compared to 65 nm “Merom” processors in the “Mid-2007 Santa Rosa” series — larger 6 MB level 2 caches (on the 2.5 GHz and faster models, compared to 4 MB caches on their predecessors, albeit the 2.4 GHz model has a 3 MB cache), more video memory (256 MB or 512 MB, compared to 128 MB or 256 MB), and larger stock hard drives.
Apple also offered this model with a 2.6 GHz “Core 2 Duo” (T9500) processor via custom configuration for an additional US250.
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