I must confess my eyes sort of glaze over when I read technical things. I am more or less computer literate as requirement for my profession and for my MSN Degree work. But my philosophy is "It's all FM".
To explain;
I once dated this wonderful woman who was in the Air Force as an electronics person, (married to a nice man as part of her "cover", she was gay and he was straight, they never had sex with each other, and I got to happily fuck both... damn I love my life!!) Anyway, she used to say that all electronics was "FM" - "Fucking Magic" In otherwords, the question is "does it work, not how it works".
I have an Apple, a used one that is set up to run both the Apple system and Windows XP. I can switch back and forth when I want to. I also have a used Dell. I bought used, (Apple has a refurbished sales program I like) to save money. My machines are both upgradable if I want (the Apple more than the Dell), and have never ever broken. All the problems have been other things like my cable modem, or DSL or whatever it is. Both are wonderful computers, and do all that I need. I have heard of others having problems with Dell, but I think all the problems in my machine were sorted out before I bought it, an advantage in purchasing used.
My Dell is hooked up to an old fashioned twenty two inch "TV" type monitor that I bought used for 40$. The same size flat panel is about 1000$, and I have a sharp, clear picture.
"Fastest bestest" is a trap. Buy the machine you need today and will do what you need to do for the next year. Add on and upgrade as you need. I agree with darling Lil that a 599 machine that suddenly costs 2 times that is scary. The Dell people are kind of famous for this, I am told.

Just my thoughts...

Wanda Kitty

__________________
"I wondered, am I a lesbian, am I straight, or bisexual? Then I realized that I am just a slut.
So where's MY parade?"

---Margaret Cho