Well, I actually did it last night. In 7 to 10 days, my new MBP should ship, and 2 days after that, it should be in my gooey little hands. For those curious:

2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM-2x1GB
100GB Serial ATA Drive@7200rpm
SuperDrive 8X
17” Widescreen Display
No Modem

I opted for the smaller hard drive because you get 7200rpm’s out of it (rather than 5400 @ 160GB or 4200 @ 200GB). I also opted for the regular display, rather than the glossy. My Inspiron has a glossy screen, and while it does look quite crisp and clear in darker areas, as soon as there’s any light around you, it all goes to hell.

If you were wondering, with my lousy $200 educational discount, I got the whole thing, including tax and shipping (I opted for 2-day, regular ground was free), the price came to $2,650.20.

I didn’t get the extended AppleCare plan. At my current rate, I’m using laptops for about 8 months, so the 1-year warranty that comes with it should be enough for me. If I’m still heavily using the MBP by the time a year is up, I’ll throw out the couple hundred extra to extend the warranty.