Worth Replacing Relatively New PC?

[blink56k]

Hi all...this seemed like a friendly enough forum so I decided to join.

Anyway, I started college the fall of last year and as an incentive to room in a triple, we (my roommates and I) received free IBM ThinkPad laptops.

Although I have been a fan of Macs since the first iMacs in 1998, it wasn't until I got a new mac mini around last Febuary (through one of those "get a free mac mini" sites, which by the way I would never do again) that I really became sort of obsessed on the goal of getting a mac for myself (since a desktop machine was impractical for me, I gave the mini to my parents, which they love).

Anyway, to make a long story short, I feel like a very spoiled and greedy kid for wanting a yet-to-come ibook/Macbook when I have a pretty decent laptop that I got for free and fulfills most if not all of my basic needs.

My school only officially supports Win2000/XP, though they will support Mac and Linux systems on a best effort basis so there's not much of a problem in terms of that.

Also, I don't use any specialized PC-only programs since all I do is wordprocessing, spreadsheets, powerpoints, and web surfing.

Is it worth getting a part time job over the summer to save for this MacBook or would I just become spoiled, wanting more and more after I get it? Would it just be a waste of my money since I already have something that does the job?

Also, what should I do with this PC laptop? I would sell it on ebay but I'm afraid of not getting a good price on it (it has stickers all over it, among them an Apple logo ) or it not selling at all.

Sorry for the lengthy and first post, but what are you guys' two cents on this?

 

[7on]

Well, if you plan to work for the money and buy it yourself that's not really being spoiled. Spoiled would be if you expected one for no work. I know people who upgrade every 6 months.

 

[FFTT]

The better equipped MacBooks will probably be running $1499.00 with
a Core Duo.

I would expect them to run on par with a maxed out mini.

You would still need to figure in at least 1 GB additonal 3rd party RAM, so with tax
you'll be coming in somewhere shy of $1700.

Thinkpads are pretty good as far as P/C portables go, so since yours was free, you might consider keeping the Thinkpad for running around campus and basic portable needs, then save up for a much better and more affordable 17" Core Duo iMac to use as your primary workstation in the dorm.

$1199 for the 17" iMac which gets you a 7200 RPM 160 GB HD, better 128 MB VRAM, much nicer display, faster and more powerful processing, and multi-boot capabilities, so any work you do on your Thinkpad
will be transferable to the iMac.
Add RAM and tax and you're in for around $1400.00