As Greg said, welcome Dave. I too made the jump from a Brinkman to a smokin-it. As much as you think you will see a big difference, it will be more obvious than you figure. It is night and day. Read the forum posts to get through the first few smokes because your experience with the Brinkman smokes won't help a lot with the way the smokin-it works.
Good luck with your smoker. With a few cooks under your belt you will find you have a lot more friends than you thought you did. Needy friends. BBQ needy friends.