Help deciding and a few questions

Ok gonna try to keep i short and sweet. My MacBook is from late 2007, with a dead battery it is now a desktop and on its last leg. It says it will take between 24-48 hours to transcode a 1080p movie and it cries with youtube videos if there are too many tabs (8-10) open. So ive decided i deserve an upgrade to my first macbook pro however i find the price, altho doable, a bit steep. I have my sights set on this one refurbished http://store.apple.com/us_edu_32226/product/FC725LL/A?mco=MTA4MzM3NDA
I trust refurbed is safe but heard they are sent in brown boxes which might kill the resale value. I was going to wait for the rumored 2012 revamp but decided im impatient and what if its not that much of an upgrade. But plan to sell this one when it comes out and pay th difference. Also i thought about getting a 2010 model but from bench marks it seems the newest model is 2 times faster. So i was wondering what your guys thoughts are.
Is refurbed a good idea?
Does it have a brown box? Will that effect resale?
Also i am justifying the purchase because i will be going back to school in the fall for rich media.
Im pretty dead set on the 17, but which do you guys prefer?
Thanks.