College, computers, and why to spend $300 more for aluminum?

I noticed not many folks around here are asking about what computer to buy, likely because most animation programs have pickier requirements than mine does. What with a *very* available and *very* convenient resource center for most of my purposes, I can pass by with only the most basic $300 laptop for word processing and notetaking, but I'm the overachiever type and I was looking forward to spending a whole load on my college laptop, so now I'm in the market.

Of course as is often the case high school came and went and with it took my naive fantasy of being handed $5 grand to spend on bells and whistles and wacom touch screens. I now have to budget on Waffle House wages and save some besides for tuition and other collegiate expenses. Which isn't bad, I can likely budget a good $2k for the computer, accessories, and at todays prices even a high definition monitor besides (which has the added benefit of saving me the trouble of buying a TV). But I would like some opinions on the matter.

I had done a little bit of searching so far and have found some somewhat promising options but I'd like some opinions from you guys. One in particular I want to ask about is the HP SmartTouch tx2z, a consumer tablet PC. As I figured it it seemed this would be particularly nice for graphical work, what with the touch-screen interface and all, but I'm concerned about the graphical capability, which is relatively low-end and not upgradable. I'm worried that this will cause me trouble as I get deeper into animating, although perhaps I could later compensate for this with a more powerful desktop complement. Of course I've never used a touch screen computer for graphical work either, so perhaps they're actually entirely unsuitable, so I'd like to know your experience in this area.

There's also these Macbooks everyone loves so much (except for my best friend the Theater major, who regrets purchasing his own). If they're really worth it, I can see myself shelling out a few extra dollars premium for the brand, as they are such a pleasure to use, but I'm not sure if this is what I'll really want. As animators, I'm sure most of you are pretty keen on these things so I'd like some opinions on this. As you can check for yourself the lowest-end macbook is $100 more than the tx2z, and there seems to be a $300 premium for getting them in aluminum cases (which I admit are extremely atrractive and pleasing to use). Like I said I'm willing to pay a premium, but only if there's good incentive.

This isn't everything I've found in my search and there's still a couple months before I make any purchases but I'd like some opinions based on your own experiences. Thanks all for the help!