> Regardless of salary, I was arguing that you get less for more money ... and I won't throw money on a product just because it has the cool factor.

I guess this is where we are at a disagreement, although I can understand where you are coming from (6 years ago I lived on $500 a month - today I'll probably have to pinch some pennies to live on less than $2000 a month).

My most recent mac purchase (a mac mini) probably cost about $300 more than a pc with a similar configuration (cpu, ram, hdd).

In return I get a computer that is much smaller, totally quiet, looks nicer and runs an os I like. For me that's worth the extra money.

After suffering from a lot of hardware problems with my last 2 pc laptops (acer & dell) I've decided buying the cheapest thing out there isn't worth my time & frustration.

It's too early to tell how relaible the mac mini will be, but if it would be as reliable as the previous 3 macs I've owned (all lived >=8 years) it'd definitively be worth the higher cost.