Well, many thanks to all for the interesting and if not somtimes opinionated responses. At least it has remained a friendly thread. :-) For the last 17 or so years I have built my own computers and have 5 or so years programming in 'C' so my teeth have been cut in the x86 world. I will be moving to the Mac world for a number of reasons, some having been mentiond already in this thread, but I will also be moving into the Mac world because I have not yet used one and the experience will be educational and certainly enjoyable. Of course I will still continue to use my 2 Windows systems for some time to come, not quite ready to give them up yet. :) I am not a gamer, money is not a problem and the bulk of the software that I currently have is cross platform so the initial investment will be limited primarily to hardware. Once again thanks for replying ... BabaLouie