LOL...love the mac vs PC argument....it'll go on for ever!!!
IMO....
Mac = Better user experience than windows for general day to day tasks. Amazingly well designed object to own! Have you ever seen inside one?
Games consoles = Better user experience than PC for gaming....no upgrading/compatability/performance issues...and I can sit on my sofa and play it on a massive telly!
PC = Jack of all trades, Master of none...ugly, but cheap! Which is why we all have them
Looking at those 2 machines specced above...
The PC spec is a good gaming machine spec...probably lovely for games, but not so good for music/animation/graphics/design work....standard desktop quality processor, 2 big gaming graphics cards. How much more upgrading will that platform take though? And a PC has to cope with many developers, 3rd party suppliers, so the platform is pushed when it comes to stability and reliability because of the vast array of possible hardware/software configurations.
That Mac spec is a PRO machine so good base spec for music/animation/graphics/design work...workstation quality XEON processor and ECC ram. And that machine is capable of being upgraded MASSIVELY from that spec....perfect for professional design use, and stable because it's a platform with only a few trusted developers who can design and test extensively to ensure reliability with only a few possible hardware configurations. Not primarily aimed at home use.
imacs, macbooks, mac mini are more day to day general use machines and are much cheaper...but also don't do games...but then not everyone does.
Anyway, for me, they are different beasts! If gaming is how you measure your speed then that PC wins, but that MAC will be better in most other uses....hence the price!
You always get what you pay for
I have a PC incidentally, you can't do 3D engineering design on a MAC currently...grrrrr...it's the perfect platform for it as well, which makes it all the more annoying! Nowt's perfect is it!
WOW..long post...sorry!