For one, that's a really good price; and if it only has 100 or so lamp hours and works fine when you get it, it was a steal.
One thing you have to know about buying old projectors, is that the replacement lamps can cost you. In this case, a replacement lamp would probably cost you the same price you got your projector for: like I said if your lamp and projector is as new (or relatively unused) you got a great deal.
That particular projector is not old, in fact it was originally manufactured in late 2004, which means at absolute worst case you have a 3 1/2 yr old projector; best case it's 2 years old since companies tend to upgrade projectors fast and it look like the last time your product was shipped could have been mid 2006. Chances are with about 100 lamp hours yours is closer to 2 yrs old.
http://www.dealtime.co.uk/xPF-InFocus-ScreenPlay-5000
Ok, so now the fun stuff. First, it probably msrp'd at $2500 in 2004. (you got a good deal again, assuming the lamp is as good as advertised) Second, unless you're trying to play this thing outdoors in the daylight (I'm joking here a bit but the lumens and contrast are a big part of higher priced ones), this will be a great little projector for home based stuff.
You can do a heck of a lot more than just hook your pc up to it; but let's consider that 1st.
PC = anything you can do on a pc you can now do on a wall but with 16:9 widescreen image it looks like you can confidently throw a 3-4ft x 6-7ft screen on a wall screen.
That means you can play movies from your pc, play computer games, simply run your pc like you would off your normal screen, etc. you name it. If you can do it on your pc, you can watch it on your wall now.
Now if you have a cable or satellite box (which almost all of us do now) you can run it to your projector also; and you can also run gaming systems (wii, xbox, ps etc) through it easily. (You've never played Tiger Woods golf until you've played it on a 4x7 foot screen).
One trick with most projectors, is that if you sit too close to the screen, you'll get a sort of "screen door" feel. The further back you sit from the screen (within reason), the better the experience (i.e. you can't see well if you're in a bean bag 2 feet from the wall).
I have a pearl sxrd that I got through work and while it's higher quality than what you got, I think for a 1st projector, you got an excellent deal for very little money.
The convenience of a projector right now blows away what you get from a plasma screen, unless you have money to burn and don't need something that is much more flexible.
Have fun playing around with it, I cant' imagine you'd be unhappy in the least considering the price you got it for (unless the lamp isn't as new as they say). There are some really great deals on ebay if you're smart and patient; sounds to me like you got one.
http://www.ultimateavmag.com/videoprojectors/1106sonypearl/
btw- how are you a "sophomore" on cougarblue with nearly a thousand posts?
