To answer this question you will have to assign dollar values to some difficult things.

How much is reliability worth to you? My old ibook went over 800 days between restarts and I use it daily. That kind of stability is worth literally hundreds of dollars to me when it comes to a computer that I depend on for school and work.

How much is your time worth dealing with anti-virus software and purchasing it to begin with? I don't know how long the average PC user spends worrying about, removing, or preventing viruses, but as a Mac user I spend 0 minutes. Again, to me that is worth say $100 a year in my time, effort, and frustration.

How much is quality support worth to you? The last time I needed my iphone replaced (the screen died) they gave me a new one on the spot. Knowing that I won't spend years on the phone with tech support is worth maybe $50 to me over the life of a computer.

How much is hardware and software integration worth to you? Having one company that makes both the hardware and software is a blessing and a curse, but it is a much bigger blessing. The entire user experience benefits from easy to find features and and intuitive software.

After all of the questions above, and the ones like it then you can add up how much a webcam is worth, how much a backlit keyboard is worth, how much the magsafe power connection is worth if you tend to trip on laptop cables a lot, and how much not having a latch or other protrusions is worth.

This has always added up to well over $1000. I recommend that you make a real list with real dollar values and see for yourself whether the decision is right for you because only you know the answers to these questions.

I just bought the 13" Aluminum Macbook and grappled with the same decision. I based my choice to pay more because I felt the hardware asthetically was superior to plastic Dell or HP computers. Also the Apple Genius bar and Apple Care is the best warranty and support. I had an issue with my 3G iPhone. It was minor but I asked them to look at it. Before I finished my sentence the genius whipped out a replacement iPhone. Just said is shouldn't do that, his didn't, so he was replacing it. I like that the Apple store is near my mall and very easy for me to get help. Usually very quality help...

The other comparison that is harder is hardware to hardware. When you look at Intel Core 2 Duo computers (PCs) vs. Apple. the price comparison isn't that far off. Don't compare a Celeron, Pentium or Centrino Dual core. The processors are not as capable as the Intel Core 2's in the Macbooks and Macbook Pros plus they talk to the memory and logic board at faster speeds (called front side bus).

Finally, I look at a computer as a 3 year+ investment. It needs to survive and be valuable in 2.5 years. The harder decision is whether or not to buy apple care (3 year warranty) or not. Some credit cards (visa signature) will double the MFG warranty. May be worth looking into. If you work for a school, state for federal government look to the employee pricing. visit store.apple.com and at the very bottom right choose an alternate apple online store.

Hope this helps...Trifster

It depends on what you need it for. The macbook is much better for movies, music, and pictures. Apple is much more secure when it comes to viruses and spyware. Windows is easier if you have been brought up on it and as you said it is $1000 cheaper. Also, Windows has more programs that run on it than Apple.

You can still get more performance for less with a PC, and you can pretty much just plug any laptop in and start working with it these days. I'd stay away from the bargain basement brands like Acer, but beyond that, you're probably OK. I'd just stick with whatever OS you're used to.

One factor to consider is just how technically minded are you? Mac is very user friendly. You can do much more with a Mac and no tech support than you can with Windows, which I still find very confusing. This alone could be worth the extra $1,000.

MrGunn gives good advice: stick with what you're used to. I would suggest that you have a play with a Mac (at an Apple store if that's your only option) and see whether you like the look and feel of Mac OSX. I made the switch to Mac four years ago and haven't looked back.

This really depends on what you want to do with the machine. If you are looking for something to use for word processing and web browsing I would suggest going with the Windows machine since they are cheaper. However, if you plan on using the laptop for video, music, or design the Mac is really worth the premium.

In general, with just about anything, you really do get what you pay for... there is a reason you can buy a $400 windows laptop but there is also a reason that so many people have problems with these machines.

The Macbook Pro is a much fancier piece of hardware than what you'd get in a pc notebook for $1k less, so what you're paying extra for is faster hardware, not the operating system. It also comes with a lot of nice software that you don't get for free with Windows. If this software is stuff you need, that'll make a real difference.

I find Vista perfectly usable, but I like MacOS X a lot better. Still, $1000 is a lot of money. If it was up to me, and I was price sensitive, I'd bend on the display size before I'd bend on the operating system, but it's hard to say whether it would make as much difference to you as it would to me - it really depends on what you need it for.