If you (like me) had decided in past few months an iPad would be nice then its been worth the wait, if your always waiting for the next version you'll never get one!
As for a 7yr old laptop ... well I have a hp laptop which I have had for 6.5 years now and thats running Windows 7 with 2GB RAM and works perfectly, in fact it runs it pretty damn well and I work with brand new laptops/desktops every day. Someone recently mentioned to me it was an old model, I told him I didnt see the point in shelling out hundreds of pounds on a new one when this works perfectly, he had to agree.