To buy or not to buy 17" Mac Book Pro

Question

I'm in the market for a new latpop, probably a 17" to have as a offline editor for FCP. I've seen in the website that they have a new model, but, aside from being able to put 4 gigs of ram and have a better display, are the Intel processors much better than the 2.33? Intel Core 2 Duo, means you have two processors instead of one? and finally, has anyone heard if they are coming out with a Dual-Core Intel Xeon processors like the ones on the G5 on the laptops?
My apologies for so many questions, any info will help.
Thank you,
Rogelio
Quad 2.5(4ram, 7800GT) Powerbook G4 1.25, G5 dual 2.0(5ram), G4dual533MHZ   Mac OS X (10.4.4)   G-Raids, BSP decks, DV decks, AJA I/O, FCP Studio
Quad 2.5(4ram, 7800GT) Powerbook G4 1.25, G5 dual 2.0(5ram), G4dual533MHZ   Mac OS X (10.4.4)   G-Raids, BSP decks, DV decks, AJA I/O, FCP Studio

Answer 1

Carry on... it has 1.4" more length and its about an inch of depth/longer more than a 15" laptop, so it's not much bigger than the 15" laptop. I guess its about priorities, don't know exactly how much gear overall you are taking with you, but, if you buy the 17" laptop with its enhanced monitor ($100 bucks more) you get the same 1920 x 1080 of a 20" monitor, and you have less gear. Anyways, I try not to use to much the computer on a plane, I can't really work in a plane, unless I'm in first class, which hardly ever happens. Oh, and you have no problem carry on the laptop in a plane, it's easy. As you probably know people take things much bigger than a laptop on a back pack.
Good luck,
RC
Quad 2.5(4ram, 7800GT) Powerbook G4 1.25, G5 dual 2.0(5ram), G4dual533MHZ   Mac OS X (10.4.4)   G-Raids, BSP decks, DV decks, AJA I/O, FCP Studio