Getting the Shaft the Hard Way

So last night I was typing away at my computer, writing up a great little tidbit about my experiences with Volleyball that day, when I did the dreaded deed. I knocked my water over onto my keyboard (I have a laptop) and now, my monitor does not work. The words that came out of my mouth were a sort of motherf*ckgodd*mmedsonofaf*ckingbitchwhoreshit! That of course came out as all one word.

So after taking two Valium, I start thinking what is my best option here? I have a laptop, but I really don't need the portability anymore, and I use a laptop at work if really necessary. The computer was top of the line in 98 (which means it's basically obsolete now). Additionally the floppy drive is broken, it does not have CD write capability, and the hard drive has only about 500 mb left on it, as most of my work from the past few years is on it.

So the question is do I buy a new computer, or get this one repaired?

I went to the Dell site to price out computers and realize that of course Desktops are going to be cheaper. This is where I get shafted though. You can get a bare bones computer from Dell for $479, but the minute you upgrade a processor, or the RAM, or anything else, you suddenly have a computer that is costing $1500. So why not just say "This computer is $1500".

Additionally they are now selling their computers the way a car salesman tries to sell a car. This feature will only cost you an extra $2 a month. Of course if you multiply that over 60 months, you realize you just paid 120 for a 56k modem. So now I need to figure out what is my best option here. The consumerist in me says BUY NEW, but the realist says fix the damn thing. What would you do?