advice on macbook Pro purchase
 

I just went to pickup a an old 2009 repaired Macbook pro from Apple and it turns out they dropped it and dented the case so they are giving me a new one. I am looking for some advice as to what model to get.

They are offering me a base model 15" 2.3GHzwith a additional 750 Gig 7200 RPM internal drive , Intel HD graphics 4000 , 512 MB of GDDR5 memory an antiglare screen and I can upgrade it to 8GB RAM for only $100. The base price is $2049.
However I could upgrade to another model and just pay the difference.
My question is, is it worth it and what upgrades are really valuable. If it cost me a bit more for a creamingly powerful machine its probably worth it.

i.e. I could go up to a Retina which would cost me money but is it worth it to get the new screen and the solid state hard drive? also has a more graphics memory I think.
What about going up to the 2.6GHz w/ 1 GB GRam

What matters these days? - I would love to be able to run DaVinici Resolve and be able to do 3D editing.

running FCP 7 btw w a Dell 24" 2nd screen and a MAtrox MXO

Re: advice on macbook Pro purchase
 

8 GB of RAM cost $52 from Other World Computing.
A 512 GB Samsung SSD costs ~$525
If you can get a 2.8 GHz processor I would recommend it.
Also get the 1 GB of video RAM.
Retina display... how much more are they going to charge you?
If you are going to use FCP7, downgrade the Mac OS to 10.7.

Re: advice on macbook Pro purchase
 

OK I've decided on the standard non retina MBP 2.6GHz 1 w/ 1GB Nvidia video RAM , 6MB L3 cacheand now see I can upgrade to 16G RAM for peanuts.
So the 2 questions left are :

upgrade to the 2.7Gz w 8MB L3 cache ?
(Some people say it won't make much difference , but others say that the L3 cache can help a lot when compressing and rendering - and I want to be able to do 3D editing and color correction with Resolve. One guy said that it made the difference between being able to playback RED footage real time or not.

and/or upgrade to an SSD?

What difference will an internal SSD make to video editing?

I don't edit for a living so marginal speed differences in the basic functioning of the machine don't matter to me that much, whereas rendering and playback limits are very important. Will SSD affect that stuff.
Also can't I always switch to an SSD later as prices come down?

Re: advice on macbook Pro purchase
 

How do you connect the Matrox? I don't think new macs have the express port (I think I bought one of the last 17" models with it on a few months ago) so, if so, a thunderbolt converter would be needed.