I have the standard uni-body MBP and VSL runs nicely. It's around $1750 including the rebate or you can buy the previous gen MBP for a lot cheaper. But, beware of the Nvidia GPU flaw in the previous models.

Oh great, thanks mle. If it's not too much to ask, can you give me the specs of your MBP? So I can shop around for it.

Thanks.

What do you think about this??

Refurbished MacBook Pro 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo for $2,399.00

Enclosure Precision aluminum unibody
Processor 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
L2 Cache 6MB shared
System bus 1066MHz
Memory 4GB (two 2GB SO-DIMMs) of 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM; supports up to 4GB
Hard drive1 320GB Serial ATA; 5400 rpm
Slot-loading optical drive 8x SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT graphics processor; and NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics processor with 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with main memory2
Graphics Memory 512MB GDDR3
Video Built-in iSight camera; Mini DisplayPort output port with support for DVI, VGA, and dual-link DVI (requires adapters, sold separately)
Display 15.4-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen display, 1440-by-900 resolution
USB Two USB 2.0 ports (up to 480 Mbps)
Audio Built-in stereo speakers, built-in omnidirectional microphone, combined optical digital input/analog line in, combined optical digital output/analog line out
Networking Built-in 10/100/1000BASE-T (Gigabit) Ethernet
Wireless Built-in AirPort Extreme Wi-Fi (based on IEEE 802.11n draft specification)3 ; built-in Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) module
Hardware accessories 85W MagSafe Power Adapter, AC wall plug, power cord, lithium-polymer battery
Height 0.95 inch (2.41 cm)
Width 14.35 inches (36.4 cm)
Depth 9.82 inches (24.9 cm)
Weight 5.5 pounds (2.49 kg)4

Price out the door with Tax and 3 year Apple care: $$2,990.71

But I was thinking of geting this one.

MacBook Pro, 15-inch, Aluminium for $$2,849.00
Part Number: Z0GR
2.93Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB
320GB Serial ATA @ 7200
SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Backlit Keyboard (English) / User's Guide

After tax and Apple care $$3,477.83

$628.83 difference between the two.

I bought my MBP here:

www.macconnection.com

If you have a lot of videos, I suggest buying a new 500GB WD drive from Newegg for $99 and install it yourself. You'll need to buy a small torx screwdriver (size T6 I think) from home depot (under $5) to get the HDD screws out.

RayRay,

Thanks for the info. I'll keep these two models in mind. Do you know if these models are the ones that you can only use one chipset at a time? Maybe I'm confused, I thought I read in a thread that on these newer models you could only use one chipset of the video card.

Thanks again.

Don't know too much about that. Need to look into that before purchase.

Cool, thanks for your help. In the end, it doesn't matter anyway because Video-SL will run smoothly.

I bought a refurb 2.4ghz model from last year. It runs vids encoded at 3000kbs smooth and haven't had any problems yet. cost me 1480 out the door

Nemix,

Thanks for the info. Can you let me know where you got your refurb laptop?

Im runnin a 2.5 mbp 2 gigs of ram nvdia 512 flawlessly since I opened the box oh yeah and all my vidz are on an external hd via firewire

mle, thanks for your help. I'll shop around in this website.

store.apple.com

If they don't have any take a look back every few hours if you can, they are last years model so they don't always have them in stock, comes with a year warranty from aooke which can be extended to three years

Thanks much Nemix!

It's worth a mention that last year's MacBook Pro's are the ones with the (supposedly) more failure-prone-than-average NVidia 8600 GPU's. Also supposedly, the manufacturing problems with the 8600's that caused failures has been corrected in the newer 9600 GPU's.

I'll also throw in that, for me anyway, I felt the extra money (when buying a new MacBook Pro, and considering the CPU upgrades over the default speed) was more worth spending on getting the regular 17-inch version. Both the quality and the resolution of the screen are a lot higher. Also the 17-inch (which has slightly larger fans that are of better quality than the 15-inch) seems to run quite a bit cooler under high CPU load. And also consider that the CPU upgrades are very minor in terms of real-world speedup, and have no effect on the GPU (where a lot of the heavy lifting in VSL is happening).

In other words, I don't think 2.93gHz will make any noticeable difference in how well VSL runs, compared to 2.66gHz, since all the other subsystems are unchanged. But the 1920x1200 screen will be something you appreciate every day...whatever you're doing on the computer at any given moment.

I had the unibody 15-inch for a month (before exchanging it for the 17-inch when they finally arrived). The difference in real-world portability seemed surprisingly small to me.

Of course, if money is no object, there'd be nothing wrong with the 2.93gHz 17-inch either...

i've read there seems to be a lot of users with 17" unibody mbp's with graphics issues too.

www.engadget.com

www.slashgear.com

Guys,

Thanks a lot for your help.

I also been hearing lot's of little defects here and their on their new Mac's. I'm scared now to make this purchase. Going to do some more research and hold off until I find one that is going to suit all my needs.