[dosequis09]

I need some help. My girlfriend is looking to trade in her old Sony Viao for a real computer and get a MacBook Pro. She is an interior designer so she uses Adobe CS3 regularly as well as Auto CAD and Sketch Up. She is thinking about keeping her old computer to run CAD instead of using parallels or boot camp however. Through our university she can get the base model of the new 15" MBP Unibody which is 2.4Ghz, 250GB 5400 RPM, 2GB Ram, and the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics, plus 3 years of Apple Care for about $1900.

However, she is not the biggest fan of the glossy screen or the new keyboard, yet she does like the LED display and the aluminum body (probably because she is a green designer).

So we thought about getting her a refurbished 15" older version, but apple does not have any so instead we are looking at B&H photo and Mac Mall for some older version alternatives.

She can get a 15" older version for 1599 with 2.5GHz, 2GB RAM, 250GB 5400rpm Hard Drive, and nVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT 512MB Graphics. Then it would be an additional $239 for apple care with student discount. She she just go this route?

What should be most important to her given her needs? Does she get the best graphics card? Faster HD (7200)? More RAM? or a faster processor (above the 2.2 that came in the earlier version)?

Sorry this is kind of confusing and long but I appreciate any help you can give.

[Simon]

You should go back and check the refurb section again. It gets updated constantly so it's usually a good idea to check several times before giving up.

Right now they have the previous generation high-end 15" with a matte display for $1499. It's an excellent price for a very nice MBP. That's what you should get. And then get an upgrade to 4GB RAM for as little as $37 from a third-party.

[shrugs*]

Are you in Canada? Pricing sounds en par with the US/CDN store differences.

I picked up the refurb 2.5ghz MBP last month and swapped out the hard drive and ram from my Macbook.

I'm not the biggest fan of the new MBP design and love my "budget" MBP performance in CS3 and Lightroom 2.

Both are very capable machines and the performance is close.. if she prefers the older MBP, I'd say go for it. Does she have an external display already? The extra cash could go towards a decent 20" panel.

[dosequis09]

no external display. I think she will go with the older generation MBP and just some upgrades to the RAM.