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.