Mills said:
with all the complaints and returns of hot and whinning MBP's is buying a refurbished one just asking for trouble?
Maybe, but maybe they worked out some of the issues...fixed the grease, new logic board, etc. But I'm willing to bet you'll still have the CPU whine. I had a recent model and mine had it quite plainly.
I'm returning mine today. Already ordered a Macbook 2.0GHz with a gig of RAM, apple care, DVI adapter, 80GB hard drive, and it's still a lot cheaper than the MBP. I know you lose some bells and whistles, the only real big thing is the video, but apparantly it still performs well, especially with extra RAM. Macbook is rated for an extra hour and a half of battery too.
But in a nutshell it's up to you I guess you can always return it if it comes and it's not working like you want. I wish mine didn't have any hickups because otherwise it was a beautiful machine.