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Tech Specs

17″ MacBook Pro (Late 2006)

LEM Staff - 2006.10.24

On 2006.10.24, Apple moved the MacBook Pro line to Intel’s newer Core 2 Duo CPU, claiming “up to 39% faster” performance than the model it replaced. Part of that comes from the more efficient CPU, and part from an 8% faster CPU.

17" MacBook Pro

The new 17″ Core 2 model has a 2.33 GHz CPU and ships with 2 GB of RAM. It now supports a maximum 3 GB of RAM, up from 2 GB on the earlier model. Where the earlier model has a 120 GB hard drive, 160 GB is now standard, and there are two other options: a 100 GB 7200 rpm drive and a 200 GB 4200 rpm one.

The other hardware improvement is use of an 8x SuperDrive with dual-layer burning instead of the 4x single-layer burner of the earlier 17″ MacBook Pro.

This model includes built-in dual-DVI support for Apple’s 30″ Cinema Display, ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 graphics, and an ExpressCard/34 slot (replacing the older PC Card). It has 3 USB 2.0 ports, one more than the 15″ MBP offers.

This model shipped with Mac OS X 10.4.8 Tiger and supports OS X 10.7 Lion. OS X 10.8 and later are not supported.

Note that the built-in display is only capable of 18-bit color, not the full 24-bit color you might expect.

Closed Lid Mode: All Intel ‘Books support “lid closed” (or clamshell) mode, which leaves the built-in display off and dedicates all video RAM to an external display. To used closed lid mode, your ‘Book must be plugged into the AC adapter and connected to an external display and a USB or Bluetooth mouse and keyboard (you might also want to consider external speakers). Power up your ‘Book until the desktop appears on the external display and then close the lid. Your ‘Book will go to sleep, but you can wake it by moving the mouse or using the keyboard. The built-in display will remain off, and the external monitor will become your only display. Since all video RAM is now dedicated to the external monitor, you may have more colors available at higher resolutions.

To resume use of the internal display, you need to disconnect the external display, put the computer to sleep, and then open the lid. This will wake up your ‘Book and restore use of the built-in display.

Intel-based Macs use a partitioning scheme known as GPT. Only Macintel models can boot from GPT hard drives. Both PowerPC and Intel Macs can boot from APM (Apple’s old partitioning scheme) hard drives, which is the format you must use to create a universal boot drive in Leopard. Power PC Macs running any version of the Mac OS prior to 10.4.2 cannot mount GPT volumes. PowerPC Macs won’t let you install OS X to a USB drive or choose it as your startup volume, although there is a work around for that.

Battery life is comparable to the 17″ PowerBook G4.

Details

  • introduced 2006.10.24 at US$2,799; replaced 2007.06.05 by 2.4 GHz model
  • Part no.: MA611
  • ID: MacBookPro2,1

Mac OS

  • Requires Mac OS X 10.4.8 to 10.7 Lion, not compatible with 10.8 Mountain Lion
  • Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard compatibility
    • Grand Central Dispatch is supported.
    • 64-bit operation is supported.
    • OpenCL is not supported with the Mobility Radeon X1600 GPU.

Core System

  • CPU: 2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (Merom), soldered in place, no upgrade options
  • Level 2 cache: 4 MB shared cache on CPU
  • Bus: 667 MHz
  • RAM: 2 GB, expandable to 3 GB using PC2-5300 DDR2 RAM
  • Performance:
    • Geekbench 2 (Leopard): 2914 (2.33 GHz), 2689 (2.16 GHz)
    • Geekbench 2 (Tiger): 3000 (2.33 GHz), 2821 (2.16 GHz)

Video

  • GPU: ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 on PCI Express with dual-link DVI support, faster GPU speed than Core Duo model
  • VRAM: 256 MB
  • Video out: DVI connector (VGA supported with included adapter; S-video and composite video supported with optional adapters)
  • display: 17″ (38 cm) 18-bit 1680 x 1050 color active matrix
  • supports 1280 x 800, 1152 x 720, 1024 x 768, 1024 x 640, 800 x 600, 720 x 480, and 640 x 480 pixels at 5:4 aspect ratio; 1024 x 768, 800 x 600, and 640 x 480 pixels at 4:3 aspect ratio; 720 x 480 at 3:2 aspect ratio
  • allows mirroring to external display or extended desktop mode

Drives

  • Hard drive: 160 GB 5400 rpm SATA; optional 100 GB 7200 rpm and 200 GB 4200 rpm drives
  • optical drive: 8x dual-layer SuperDrive writes DVD±R at up to 8x, DVD±RW at up to 4x; reads DVDs at 8x (double-layer at 6x), writes CD-R at 24x, writes CD-RW at 10x, reads CDs at 24x
  • floppy drive: external USB only

Expansion

  • USB: 3 USB 2.0 ports
  • FireWire 400: 1 port
  • FireWire 800: 1 port
  • Ethernet: 10/100/gigabit
  • WiFi: 802.11g AirPort Extreme built in
  • Modem: optional v.92 56k external USB modem
  • Bluetooth: BT 2.0 built in
  • IR receiver: supports Apple Remote
  • ExpressCard/34: 1 slot
  • expansions bays: none

Physical

  • size: 10.4 x 15.4 x 1.0″ (265 x 392 x 25.9 mm)
  • Weight: 6.8 pounds (3.1 kg)
  • battery: 68 watt-hour lithium-polymer
  • AC adapter: 85W MagSafe

Online Resources

Short link: http://goo.gl/5GPXt4

searchword: mbp17late2006