Looking at purchasing a macbook pro

[the big kx]

Looking to upgrade my inspiron 1520 (circa late 2007) for a shiny new mbp. Few questions:

1) Among other things obviously, I hope to use my mbp for HD video editing. Would I be better to save some money and go with the 2.0 GHz i7, get the 128 SSD and put the rest towards a Pegasus R4 or R6? Or would I be better off getting a 2.2 i7 and a 500 @ 7200 HDD? Will I see more performance boost with a faster processor or hard drive?

2) This will be my second mac purchase (the first being the 24" iMac I bought nearly 2 years ago) - should I get one refurbished? Don't get too chose the specs but the savings are attractive.

3) Does anyone have any speculation as to how much the Pegasus R4 or R6 are going to be? Or any other peripherals similar to it? I know there hasn't been any official announcement of pricing, but how much should I expect to pay at least?

Much appreciated for the help.

 

[Dark Void]

i don't know much about video editing specifically but i just wanted to mention something about upgrading. unless money really isn't an issue, you shouldn't upgrade ram or hdd directly from apple (assuming you are buying from the online apple store because you mentioned refurbs). you will spend far less by simply buying a base model and upgrading the user-serviceable parts yourself. there are exceptions, however. i have heard that apple stock ssds have support that others don't and if that bothers you then an ssd that comes with your laptop is something to think about.

in any case if you feel the specs of a refurb can handle your video editing then it would be ideal with this sentiment. you can buy various base models at a refurbished price and upgrade them yourself to handle it with even more ease. i hope this helps in some way and sorry that i couldn't be of much specific help.

 

[viscanti]

The videocard is the big thing here. You can't upgrade that later. You can always upgrade the hd later if you'd like. If you're doing serious video editing, you'll probably end up (eventually) using external harddrives through thunderbolt. Go with the better videocard and don't look back.

 

[acedickson]

Processing power is what affects rendering and encoding speeds the most. I would suggest the 2.2GHz MBP and upgrade to an SSD when you can afford it.