I read your blog and I went through the same issue of looking for the best software I could get. I bought a macbook and used Scrivener for about 8 months and I did all my college papers on it. I scored very well and I loved the simplicity of the text editor. Then I started helping a non profit organization set up their network and I got the Windows 7 bug after using it heavily. It's not a bad OS really and if you get the windows updates and Norton 360 you should be covered.
And here is the kicker, I just found a few days ago that Scrivener beta is out for Windows 7 and it's free to try. Yesterday I typed the initial draft of a short story I had been tinkering with on paper. Don't get too hung up on software though but like I said Scrivener is free to try right now.
http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivenerforwindows/
During the holiday deals I bought a natural keyboard for my desktop which is such a relief to my wrists. I also bought a used top of the line sony vaio, but that was more of an indulgence on my part. It is really light though so it's super portable.
Good luck, if all else fails there's always pen and paper.
P.S. If your first name is Ryan, then I remember you from nano of last year.
