When to buy a new Macbook Pro and a performance question

I originally bought my Macbook in August 2007, right when I was headed to college. Now that I'm about to graduate in May I want to buy a new one while I can still take advantage of couple hundred bucks I can save as a full time student. The issue is that I don't want to buy one right before the new models come out, which at least when I bought this one was in the middle of the summer. Is that still the case, or do new models come out at some other point?

My second question is based on the current models out now. I'm trying to decide between a 13 inch model with a 2.66 Ghz Core 2 Duo processor and a 128GB SSD or a 15 inch model with a 2.4 Ghz Core i5 processor. Both models would be exactly the same price, but I'm not tech savvy enough to know which one would boost performance more. I recognize the limitations of only having 128 GB of storage but with a 1TB external HDD I think it won't be that big of a deal.

Thanks in advance for answering either one of these questions.

No one knows when the new models will come out until Apple announces it.

schweb said:

No one knows when the new models will come out until Apple announces it.

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I suppose that answers that question. In lieu of any future projections can anyone tell me when the most recent models came out?

When to buy your Mac. LINK (Mac Buyers Guide)

It's always a good time to buy a Mac.

chscag said:

When to buy your Mac. LINK (Mac Buyers Guide)

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Wonderful, thanks.

Anyone have advice on the Core i5 vs. the SSD?

HoboJoe said:

Anyone have advice on the Core i5 vs. the SSD?

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Yes...get both!

- Nick

i5's have been discussed many times on here before.

Basically the i5 is 3x faster than a standard C2D processor. Plan on doing anything CPU intensive? Need results fast? Get the i5.

A SSD allows for much faster read/write times. So basically your OS boots faster, any time you need to read a large file or save a large file it goes a lot faster. SSD's can show up to a 1000% improvement over standard HDD's. Look at the OCZ Agility 2, Intel X-25 (although 3rd gen of these is being release in Q1 2011), Crucial C300.