I agree with your post Heather, particularly loved this bit:
>As your X60 (or whatever you are currently using) becomes older, you will also grow >and learn how to use less resource-intensive software that may take a bit more practice and skill...
One more thing, the OP mentions "powerful machines." The real question is what you want to do with the computer. Beyond the marketing hype and as far as my use case is concerned, there are only two types of computers: fast and slow*. A computer is slow when I have to wait for it and fast when I don't. This will depend on what you wish to compute.
Based on the above, I've used old computers which were mostly fast and new computers which were mostly slow.
* Not sure where I read this argument online, it was a well written post too.
