I've also been on the verge of purchasing Monitor Calibration equipment since buying my new monitor last year.
Today I received my Spyder 2 Suite. setting up was quite simple, well almost.
Although it says on the box and in ColorVisions advertising blurbs that it's Vista compatible, no mention is made in the instructions that there are no vista drivers Drivers included on the software disk.
After half an hour trying to get the thing to work I checked the control panel and found incorrect drivers, however a trip to the ColorVision web site + an 130Mb download sorted things (Good job I'm on broadband)
The setting up was then child's play, but when switching back and forth between my old configuration and the new I found only a very minor diference and that was only on the brightness.
So the question is are these monitor calibration gadgets worth the money. Previously I used "Monitor Calibration Wizard".
http://www.hex2bit.com/products/product_mcw.asp
and Gamma control software.
http://www.normankoren.com/makingfineprints1A.html
Both freeware.
The main reason for buying the Spyder 2 Suite to make sure my Printer is calibrated correctly. So hopefully I've not wasted £109.
Harry