It's true that mac OS stability has come at a price. Now that I'm running OS X, I definitely feel much less in control of my operating system, much as I do on my Win 2000 machine at work. Locked folders of mysterious files... permissions issues, etc.. yeah, OS X is a mixed blessing. On the brighter side, it's rock solid. I bought my G4 in April and have yet to experience a system software crash. the closest I came was playing Wolfenstein. Wolf crashed and it didn't kill the OS, but I was stuck in full-screen gaming mode with no choice but to reboot :-( In 4 months though, I think one crash while running a ported-from-windows video game is pretty good!! I don't like having to be the one-man IT staff for my home unix computer, but I like how it doesn't crash. As for getting a PC to run 3DS Max... why? With Lightwave, Maya and Cinema 4D on the mac platform, I really don't see the need. I've worked in 3DS max at work, and I don't think it's so hot. I much prefer C4D and Lightwave on the Mac (on either platform, for that matter). If you find yourself longing just to try it, go ahead, but try it on someone else's machine--don't run out and buy the PC first... -Adam