Yeah a lot of this is starting to go way over my head. After realizing the Retinas are up on the apple store, I've made my FINAL decision and decided to go with this 13":
http://store.apple.com/ca/product/F...z-dual-core-intel-core-i5-with-retina-display
I was really getting a Mac Mini to hold me over with my current computer until a possible retina air came out. However, the waiting game is getting old and this meets most of my needs above and beyond. That and I can't justify dropping $800 on a mini and most likely $1500 on a laptop within the next 6 months. At that point I might as well get a maxed out 15" retina which is out of my budget. The encode times might not be super fast compared to Quad-Core as mentioned by some of you, but at 3-4 hours, as some of you have posted, I can live with that.
Thanks for the help guys!
do us a favor when you get it and test it. You said your encodes were 8-11 hours let us know if they drop to 3-5 hours. Or whatever they do. thanks.
also remember you have a 2 week return period if you do not like it.