why not get Macbook Pro 2.4G and save even more money?
to be honest, 2.53G and 2.4G are virtually the same. If something run slow on 2.4G, it will be slow on 2.53G, too.
512MB graphic card memory is just the same as 256MB graphic. because the graphic card is not fast enough that extra 256MB isn't going to make any difference.
You have one year to decide on AppleCare, though. generally speaking, it's cheap insurance.
the new graphic chip actually offload lots of the heavy calcuation from CPU in transcoding a video to H264. That's the huge benifit older Macbook/Pro didn't have.
so my propose is to buy a Macbook Pro 2.4G, BTO to 4G ram and 320G 7200rpm HD. (at $150 USD, it's better to buy from Apple, Hard Drive can upgrade urself)