Hi. A friend of mine is looking to sell his MacBook Pro 17" 2.16 Core Duo for $1000. It also comes with AppleCare. Is this a reasonable deal for a MacBook Pro? Also, what would be the performance gains (if any) over a 15" 2.16 Core Duo MacBook Pro?
Decent deal if it has 1 - 2 years of Applecare left and there are no defects. Same speed as the 15" MBP.
The speed gains are minimal over a MacBook - the dedicated video card is the main thing, which helps minimally overall, but more when you are using programs (primarily games) that can exploit 3-d acceleration.
Both CoreDuo models are limited to 2 Gb total RAM. Downside is whether the machine has any of the rev 1 bugs still.