Hello fellow deviants.  I need your advice!

At the moment I have a crappy cheap tablet made by a company called HanWang, who no longer seem to exist.  It's very basic, no tilt or rotation sensitivity, and not very ergonomic.  In fact it hurts my hand after a while...  So I've had a look at these Wacom tablets which everyone seems to use and I reckon I've got 3 options.

1) Put up with the HanWang thing.  After all, it does its job and this is only a hobby.

2) Spend £300 on a Wacom Intuos3 A4 tablet.

3) Be really naughty and spend £1500 on a 21" Wacom Cintiq tablet/monitor which is very very cool indeed but I definitely don't need it.

So what do you think?  Are the Wacom tablets really good?  Worth the money?  If I buy one will I suddenly become a great artist and have money and fame and women beyond my wildest dreams?  How can I possibly justify £1500 for the Cintiq?  Please help.   Cheers, 'peas