get a mac. Trust me...
most who say otherwise only say it b/c they honestly can't afford one or wish they could own one but are afraid to change or worse, the learning curve it too HIGH for them. Yes, you know who I'm talkin' about. Whatcha gonna do about that?!
Anywho, yes...they're slightly more than a grand but you'll do less damage to it externally than you would with a Winblows machine. That's speaking from experience: I actually took an old HP pavillion and did the whole "Office Space" thing to it b/c it frustrated me so much. I will NEVER shell out another dime to anything that is synonomous with HP, Compaq, Fujitsu or anything that requires a microsoft OS.