Apple Macbook or Is it really not necessary?

[Gio~Logist]

Went today with a friend so she can buy it, and i fell in love with it. I always loved mac's interface, i had my xp configured to something similar. They're having a special there for students (discount + free printer + free nano).

I'm thinking about buying a new computer or laptop and then transferring over my documents. Anyone know the easiest way to do this? (My documents folder is about 6-9 gb i believe). And all documents should work on mac, right?

Anyways, what do you guys think about it? Or what do you guys suggest? Obviously I'd have to save up a lot more if a Mac is really necessary (meaning other than the fact that i just like it's interface, i find that it can be very useful to me considering what I do on my computer).

I need something that'll be a lot better on handling multiple applications at once. My typical taskbar consists of the following: Photoshop, Outlook, Firefox (with about 10 tabs), CoreFTP, NotePadd ++ (sometimes with very very very large file), A couple of folders opened, Aim, Msn, RealPlayer. Based on that, what specs in particular should I be looking for? I'm even open to just buying a new cpu and keeping my monitor and stuff if that'll be most affordable/beneficial.

Any advice/comments are welcomed.