Photoshop or elements?

Hi all

Looking for some advice on how to approach upgrading my software for photo editing.

I currently use viewnx2 and have found it a breeze to make quick adjustments and convert to jpeg with good enough quality.

Recently though, I have wanted a bit more processing power for some high ISO noisy pictures, and have had a brief introduction to photoshop cs5 - I followed some online guides to sharpening and noise reduction and have been very impressed with its finished articles.

What I am wondering is how good elements9 might be for a relative beginner such as myself, cs5 is both expensive and possibly overkill?

The one thing with cs5 which scared the hell out of me was colour profiling, as my edited images displayed strange colour compared to those edited and saved in viewnx2, is colour easy enough to set up with my d90 and elements/cs5?

Would welcome some thoughts about the pros and cons of both options, elements seems such good value, but I am not sure exactly how much functionality it has.

regards

David