Don't get me wrong, I like Macs....   ;-)

When I had my last "real" job I was sort of the Mac specialiist too (I kept about 100 of 'em going), but that is somewhat ancent history, as I faded away back in the G4 days.

Let me say this though- no Mac, absolutely no Mac, has been as fas as a PC that cost the same in a long, long time. 

Apple's profit margin is far higher than anybody who makes PCs.  These days they are running about the same hardware too - back in the old, old days MACs had things like SCSI drives as standard, which no PC ever did.

Don't buy a MAC for speed.