New MBP (with education discount) or Refurb MBP?

[knuckleball]

Hello,

I'm about to purchase a unibody MBP to replace my current MBP, which will be going to my father. (Yay for another Mac convert!)

I'm looking for a bit of advice as to what I should purchase.

A little bit of background: I'm a web developer and my computer usually has at least one Adobe application running, along with some light editors (BBEdit and CSSEdit), Firefox and Safari, Apple Mail, iTunes, Adium, and sometimes some sort of download client (UseNeXT or ShakesPeer). When I buy my new Mac, I plan to set aside a small amount of space for either Parallels or VMWare Fusion, so I can test live websites on IE.

These are the two models I've narrowed my choice down to:

Refurbished MacBook Pro 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
15.4-inch LED-backlit glossy widescreen display
4GB memory
320GB hard drive (5400 RPM)
$2,878 (with AppleCare) $2,599 (without AppleCare)

New MacBook Pro 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
15.4-inch LED-backlit glossy widescreen display
4GB memory
320GB hard drive (7200 RPM)
$2,824 (with AppleCare and Education Discount) $2545 (without AppleCare, with Education Discount)

Opinions?

Thanks,
Adam

 

[knuckleball]

Just wanted to note that I realize there are plenty of posts on refurbished products already. This was meant to be more a discussion on the actual features of the machines. What would be more valuable to me - a faster hard drive or a faster processor?

 

[xhambonex]

I think I'd take the 7200RPM HDD over the 5400. That's where you'll see the most performance increase, things will just work faster as apposed to the slight speed bump you may notice with a 2.8 over a 2.66GHz processor. But I doubt that speed is more noticeable then the hard drive speed.

And personally I like new things. So I'd buy the new one, the 2.66GHz will be fine, and an upgrade from what you are running now so, my choice would be a new one.

Edit: I just saw your second post. Yes on hard drive speed.

 

[knuckleball]

Thanks!

I was leaning more toward the newer option anyway - because, really... who among us can resist the allure of brand new Apple packaging? Now that I'm a bit more educated about the benefits of the hard drive speed, I'll definitely take that route.

Thanks again,
Adam

 

[Colin20]

I think that's the best option.