Upgrading 2010 MBP. Need advise from experienced Mac owners

[NutFlush920]

I have a 2010 MBP with a 2.4 GHZ Intel Core 2 Dou CPU running 4 GB of 1067 DDR3 RAM.

I mostly use my MBPs for every day things like surfing the web, working in Microsoft Office, and iTunes Home Sharing. I do however, convert a lot of BR movies to MP4 though Handbrake.

I determined I want to upgrade to a 2012 MBP. Although I would love the new 15" Retina one, in reality I can't afford it. I was thinking about both 13" and the 15" base models.

I plan to get get a SSD and know that Apple charges a small fortune for this upgrade but, I can buy a 256 Crucial M4 for $214 or a 512 Crucial M4 for $400 on Amazon. I was also thinking when the timing was right, I could upgrade the RAM to 8GB on my own for much cheaper though Amazon.

What I need help with is determining what MBP to upgrade to. What is going to get me the most bang for my buck so to speak? Obviously SSD is hands down the best way to increase read performance but, what CPU should I go with? Is dual core vs quad core a significant difference to pay nearly $500 more (base models)? Should I buy the Crucial M4 on Amazon or buy the SSD upgrade though Apple directly? From what I read upgrading the HDD is a breeze to do yourself.

Thanks in advance and sorry for such a long post.

 

[Stetrain]

Is your current MBP a 13" or a 15"?

 

[NutFlush920]

I currently have the 13" MBP. I'm fine with that size but would do the 15" if the CPU was worth the price difference.

 

[w00t951]

I currently have the 13" MBP. I'm fine with that size but would do the 15" if the CPU was worth the price difference.

Quad core presents a huge performance increase.

 

[Stetrain]

For most of the day to day stuff like web surfing and Microsoft Office, I think that a 13" Air might be a better machine.

You can get it with a 128GB SSD and 8GB RAM for $1299. There's also a higher end model with a 256GB SSD.

It will be faster at many tasks, and probably about as fast as your current machine at the video encoding.

It has a higher resolution screen than the 13" MBP as well.

 

[NutFlush920]

I was considering the MBA but figured the faster CPU in the MBP would be better/faster for encoding. Plus, I like having built in 10/100/1000.

All I'd be giving up is the optical drive and built in LAN basically though with the MBA though right?