Both the 15 and 17 inch wi

Both the 15 and 17 inch will serve you well. I’ve read the 17 inch is a bit too big to travel often with though, so that’s something to think about.

Maxing out the RAM isn’t a bad idea either. Apple’s RAM has come down in price a lot.

Definitely get an external Firewire800 drive. The only thing you want loaded onto your main drive is the operating system and software. Put all your media on an external drive. Not only should your computer operate faster, but if you’re main drive crashes, then you still have all your media on your external. I’d get the largest internal drive too