Just as we’ve finished dusting off rumors of new MacBook Pros shipping in March with Intel Sandy Bridge architectures, a potential such Apple laptop is being featured in the chip maker’s recent advertisements for Core i5 processors. Intel is known to have leaked previous MacBook hardware refreshes in the past.

Multiple Apple-centric blogs have begun showing an Intel advertisement which clearly shows a dark-colored laptop whose design is akin to that of Apple’s MacBook Pro notebooks.

Most of these reports recall Intel’s January 2010 gaffe of leaking a new MacBook hardware refresh via a similar ad.

While not bearing all the typical design elements to make it a potential new MacBook, the system featured in Intel’s recent Core i5 ad can easily pass as a new member of the Mac maker’s notebook family, from an outer-design standpoint.

Apple is widely believed to plan the introduction of a new set of MacBook Pro computers utilizing Intel’s Sandy Bridge architecture in early March.

Who’s to say the Cupertino giant will not go as far a changing the entire chassis, with rumors of Apple dropping optical drives in favor of a slimmer design?

As previously noted by multiple knowledgeable sources, Apple’s MacBook Pro family is long overdue for a refresh.

The same was the case with the company’s MacBook Air ultra-thin laptops which eventually saw a complete redesign, both inside and out, late last year.

Still, there is also very strong indication that the current design does not need to change.

Simply put, customer love the current unibody aluminum finish. Apple, for its part, would have to adopt different manufacturing technologies to achieve what is shown in Intel’s new ad, whereas aluminum machining is expensive enough.

It wouldn’t be impossible for a company like Apple to achieve this design while significantly boosting the inner workings, but the Mac maker is not hard pressed to do any radical aesthetic changes just yet.

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