I've always understood Macs to be more expensive because they have less of the market than PCs do, and they are generally designer in nature.

If you don't consider bulding your own, you will not realy have a system that corresponds to your needs. There are companies that sell PCs in kit form and believe me a child could put them together; they are so easy. I've done the very same thing every time i've upgraded. It's great fun, and you get exactly what you need, plus you you are not restricted by some purpose build machines. You should reconsider, you could save about a third of the cost.

Performance advantage? none really, if you compare benchmark* speeds.

• http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-computer-benchmarks.htm