I'll try to be quick with this.

As you all likely know I'm saving for this.

It's $1,000 and I have about $250.

At the same though I'd like one of these;

Guitarists should be able to figure out what this is, those who aren't, to put it very simply, it's essentially a footpedal that will let me get the tone I want from my guitar, which, as good as it sounds, isn't quite the sound in my head.

It's $120 though, nearly half what I have saved. At this point this would be a crippling blow to the MacBook fund.

However there is this;

This, according to what I've read, actually keeps the audio signal at the driver level, making it not a victim to being slowed by my laptop's horrid soundcard's latency. With this I could finally get to work(And Sony ACID would be justified), my need for a MacBook would lessen and I wouldn't feel as bad getting the Pedal. At the same time though, I'd dearly love to replace this thing, I doubt my family(My brother in particular) would let me live it down until I got the laptop myself, and I probably wouldn't either.

So, third-party solution and tonething, or laptop then tonething?