Help me buy my first macbook pro

[Phixias]

Hi, I recently started college and I am absolutely not happy with my current laptop. It's only 18 months old but its starting to fall apart ( literally ) I use my laptop a lot . I need it for my education ( I'm an engineering student ) . And in my free time I do enjoy the occasional game( call of duty , the witcher 2 , ..) which is pretty reliant on a good computer

Now I recently won 2500 dollars ( lucky bastard, yep thats me ) and want to blow it on a mac. I want to buy the 15-inch model, and thats about as much as I know. What upgrades ( like ssd, double ram) would I need for gaming , movies and some rather heavy visual programs for my education . I dont really know that much about hardware. I also transport this alot between my university and home and dorm , so 17-inch is way too heavy.

Oh , I also heard alot about this upcoming Ivy Bridge processor . Howmuch better will it be then the recently refreshed processors in the current series ? Should I wait ?

Anyone who can help a clueless college kid is greatly appreciated

 

[bridgesldn]

The MacBook pros were currently updated today, all the processors have been bumped up and I think the 15inch MacBook pros have got better graphics cards, the baseline 15 inch would easily be able to handle all of your requirements, I do suggest upgrading the ram to 8gb yourself, check crucial.com it's easy, cheap an doesn't void your apple warranty! I don't know much about the new ivy bridge processors or when theyll be released so I can't say much about them.

 

[Phixias]

Thank you , was considering just getting the base model .

Any other advice is greatly appreciated

 

[GuitarG20]

I would go with the base 15" model and then upgrade the RAM yourself for much cheaper than Apple charges for it...