It's just that if I'm spending so much money I want to get a very powerful Macbook with all the latest tech in it so I don't need another one for ages
In that case my advice is to wait for the Sandy Bridge update because you will also get a graphics update too which will help with your games. My current MB Pro works very well, but I got it in June, if your getting one for Christmas then it's very close to the rumoured release date of Sandy Bridge systems.
Forget about SSD because you can install that yourself, you cannot change the CPU and GPU though, or the screen.