I do some client-side development so having some experience with Vista would be good. And I like to tinker around with new technologies. Even if I don't think highly of them.
Our daughter asked me if I could get our old Dell laptop up to speed (Celeron 1.8). I told her that the cost to refurb it to decent specs could be better put to use in a new machine. Adding old memory, a new disk and video card and replacing the fans would cost a few bucks and she would probably find it incredibly slow as she's been using the X2 and Conroe desktops.
If Dell would only drop the price of that 5600 X2 desktop by about $200....