For a laptop a Macbook Pro all the freakin way. Not sold on the desktops yet, mainly because I can build a fast one recycling my dvd drives, sound card, monitor, power supply, case, fans etc for under $600.

$150 directx 10 video card for running stuff on a pretty good level

$200 for an Athlon 64 bit processor 6000+ dual core processor and motherboard.

$90 for 2 gigs of DDR 800 ram and another $80 for a good sized SATA hard drive.

Like I said everything else gets re-used so for people like me who already have a nice monitor, a good keyboard/mouse setup and nice speakers it is easily the best option IMO.

What I listed is nothing to write home about compared to some of the top end quad core setups out there but it SMOKES anything else you'll find at a comparable price and you can't get a nice mac for even half that price. Just don't run Vista until they work some more of the bugs out. I run XP on service pack 3 with all updates and its nice and fast.

I also loaded XP onto my sister's Macbook Pro with bootcamp so she isn't limited to just the MAC OS. She says she gets really funny looks when people see XP booting up on a Mac lol.