Macbook Decision

Alright, I'm in the market for a notebook. I've set my sights and decided that I'm going to get the Black Macbook. Now just the time when I should buy it remains. Here are the details:

1) I don't need it until May of 2007.

2) My budget is around $1400. I'm a university student and can get the educational discount that brings the black macbook down to 1400.

3) I'm certainly in the mood for trying out OS X. This will be my first mac.

Now for the questions:

1) Like I said I can wait till my summer holidays begin in mid May of 2007. I know Leopard is scheduled for release sometime spring. I'm hoping I can get a macbook bundled with Leopard. Will that be possible?

2) I'd be happy to wait until may to buy the macbook if it means that the Santa Rosa refresh of macbooks will be out by then. Possible?

3) Are there any plans to bring the GMA X3000 to the macbook as a successor to the 950?

4) If there is at all a spring refresh of the macbook, will it bring about a change in design?

As a last question, I would like to know how competent the macbook's current GMA950 capabilities are. I don't do any video editing, photo editing at all, this laptop is going to be used for word, keynote and web browsing primarily. No gaming either.

OS X, from what I see, has an emphasis on the GUI and cool looking graphics. I'm hoping I can enjoy the mac experience on the integrated graphics card. Are all of the effects smooth on the GMA950? Will Leopard bring any visual improvements that will be laggy on the GMA950?

I have used a macbook pro running OS X and it seemed smooth as butter with graphics and transitions. Is that because of the 128MB X1600 in it or does the dedicated graphics not matter in the general OS X graphics?

Thank you and hope to learn more about my future purchase.
Cheers.

Many of your questions may be answered after Steve Jobs' keynote address at Macworld next week.

Addressing your questions specifically:

1) Everyone is expecting Leopard to be announced next week. Once Leopard is announced, it takes a few weeks for the computers in the manufacturing stream to leave the factory with the new OS. The best suggestion is to specifically ask which OS will be on the MacBook you order/purchase.

2) Nobody knows. That's one of the questions that may be answered next week.

3) Same as #2. Apple doesn't talk about "futures."

4) Doubtful. The MacBook was a redesign from the iBook, and it's highly unlikely that there will be any major changes to the design after less than a year on the market.

5) I have a MacBook Core Duo 2.0 GHz with 2 GB of memory and I notice absolutely no lag with the graphics work that I do. I primarily use Photoshop Elements 4.0 for my image work, and it's fine. It also runs iMovie and iDVD without a single glitch, and I've done a lot of home videos on this machine. I also do a lot with Parallels and the graphics work nicely under the XP environment as well. I don't do any gaming, so I can't speak to that.

6) As I said, the video is fine. Nobody knows what the capabilities/llimitations of Leopard will be until people get their hands on it.

Hope this helps!

Helps very much, thank you.

I'll keep an eye and an ear out for Macworld.

first time macbook owner as well here, a week old, black 1g, you will get the full GUI experience, and you can use the video editing and photo editing and it all works gine, sure PS CS2 is a little slower then windows, but that should change soon, personally i dont really notice it much, but i dont do alot of fancy CS work.