Want to buy a MacBook Pro - looking for tips, got questions

Dear reader,
I bought a 27" iMac in april 2010 (the late 2009 model) with 8gb of memory, an i7 2,7 GHz quad-core and the Ati Radeon HD 4850 512MB. I really like Apple and Mac but the iMac is not my best gamble. I have alot of eye strain because I have a small desk, and I notice I'm still not at the desired speed level.
*Please note:* I talk alot and I have many questions. If you want to answer 1 or 2 questions and save time, please add the question number and answer that specific question. Thanks!
*This is what I will be using the MacBook Pro for:*
- Photoshop, Indesign, Illustrator. I am a webdesigner/graphic designer (for hobby, still studying) - see wwww.openmindedmedia.nl
- Everything for personal use. I am selling my iMac so I will use this machine for music, watching dvds by connecting it to a tv screen, playing games eventually (Diablo 3), surfing the web
- Word, Excel, etc.
- Sitting outside in the sun (photoshop/illustrator/indesign etc)
- I want to hook it to 2 external LED monitors, both 22-24 inch.
I value speed and quick responses alot. My current iMac is still lacking this.
*This is the setup I had in mind:*
- MacBook Pro 15" 2,2 GHz quad-core i7 with the AMD Radeon HD 6750M with 1GB GDDR5, 4GB memory
- 256 GB SSD
That's € 2575 already, with student discount..
*My questions to you:*
Q1. I multitask alot. At most moments I have mail, firefox, skype, photoshop, path finder, itunes activated at the same time. Is it worth considering the upgrade from 4GB to 8GB? (extra € 185)
Q2. Is it possible to hook the laptop to 2 external monitors? There is only 1 thunderbolt connection for 2 monitors.
Q3. Will this actually be better than my iMac in overall performance? It has a slower processor (from 2,7 GHz to 2,2 GHz), less RAM (from 8GB to 4GB). And I really don't understand how a video card as small as a post card can be as effective as the sandwich-sized videocard in my iMac right now.
Q4 I don't understand this aboult ThunderBolt. If I have an external HDD with ThunderBolt connectivity attached to my MacBook Pro, will that mean I can put alot of programs, music and files on the external hdd and access them even FASTER then when they are on my SSD? Because SSD's have a read speed of something like 200 or 300 mb/s right? But with ThunderBolt I can read with 900 mb/s from a HDD, so would that mean that a HDD with ThunderBolt is 3 times faster than an internal SSD? As in: I could buy a 128GB SSD and put my bigger files on the External HDD to access them even faster. Searched my *** off for an answer.
Q5. Right now I am thinking about NOT taking the apple care protection plan. It's another € 290 and I personally never had any problems with desktop computers. How is your personal advice for this matter? I am only afraid of it getting stolen but that's not covered anyways.
Q6. Do you have any other advices/tips?
I really hope someone (or more than one!) could help me with this. Especially Question 3 (and 4) have my interest.
Thanks alot for your time. Have a good day,
Julius van der Kwast

Hi Julius,
As you can see in my profile section, my MBP is older by 5 years, 2GB RAM and with regards to question 1 (Q1), has no problems with having all those programs open at the same time with the possible exception of Photoshop since I use Gimp instead. With twice the RAM and much overall much better specs, Photoshop shouldn't be an issue. But you listed some other activities that might need that additional RAM. But the advise most give is to not get it from Apple but from a third party.
Q5 - I always get Apple Care. Only had to use it once but it paid for itself that one time.
Sorry, can't help you much with the questions you really want answered since I won't have a new MBP until (hopefully) next week but for Q4, I believe it depends on the peripheral. My current monitors are too old to allow them to be hooked up in a chain. Supposedly, if the monitors do have the ports, you could via the MBP Thunderbolt port. The speeds are also dependent upon the peripheral. If the external hard drive is using a USB 2 port, you are limited by that speed (480 Mb/s). If it has a Thunderbolt port, then from what I understand, we, my friend, are in for some great times because I believe your RAM will have the ability to access data as fast as it can take it at 10Gb/s (and if will need those kinds of speeds, the 8GB of RAM may be the way to go). The Thunderbolt demos on YouTube where they are accessing four video files from a Raid drive, then sending them back out via Final Cut Pro to a monitor are amazing. I'll probably never push this machine to anywhere near it's limits but I can't wait to see what others do.
Peace,
Jeremiah

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