>>For me price is a factor (not that I technically couldn't afford a Mac, but I hate to feel like I spent more money than I needed to), and so is flexibility.
If price is a factor, there are a couple things to consider.
First, Apple makes a few models that are actually quite competitive, price-wise, with similar PCs.
One is the 11" MacBook Air, which you can often find on sale for $800 and sometimes less. It's difficult-to-impossible to find a PC laptop with similar size, weight, SSD, processor performance, and battery life. (Not to mention aluminum unibody build quality.)
Another is the Mac Mini... you can't really find (or build) a PC that's that small, that quiet, with that much processing power, and that much storage space/flexibility. Last year I built a mini-ITX computer for HTPC use which was as small as possible but still twice the volume of a Mac Mini, and that's before counting the external power brick. It was a struggle to get it as quiet as a Mini, and ultimately it didn't cost much less.
Another thing to consider is the market for used Macs. You can typically buy a new Mac, use it for 3-4 years, and sell it for at least half of what you bought it for. Selling used PCs has always been a struggle in my experience. So if you look at your computer use in terms of cost-per-year, you might find that a Mac is competitive or possibly even cheaper.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
