MBP and Maya render times

I am currently in the market for a New Laptop I am impressed by the noticeable difference between my very old MacBook and the New Macbook pros.

Has anyone who bought the new 2011 MBP noticed any speed differences between older MBP and the newer ones seeing how Maya and a few other applications do not take advantage of all 4 cores? I have yet to find a Benchmark test for render speeds in both Maya and After effects? I also noticed there are concerns about overheating has anyone who runs render programs who have rendered for 8 or so hours at a time notices heat problems as well?

I was looking at picking up the 15" MBP 2.2 with 128 ssd

any help from other professionals would be great thanks.

 

thanks

I am still in college with a student version of maya was under the impression that it did not use more than 2 cores at a time guess I am wrong. I graduate in the spring and was wondering if it was worth investing in a new mbp starting out. thanks sounds like it is.