So much disagreement. Here's what I use and why. An older ibook (maybe 800mghz)..I use it because it's virtually silent...you never hear the fan...the mini that I'm typing on now gets plenty loud. I don't use the hard drive on the ibook for much except OS. I use several laptop (2.5") drives in MacAlly cases daisy chained together via firewire. Why? Because I can't hear them. You'll also need a backup which can be a regular sized loud hard drive because you can power it off when not in use.
I use Mac because its what I know. I don't know if windows sounds better. It's also easy for me to integrate ipods, iphones, and an Airport Express that streams to a different stereo in the house. It all works together with not too much fuss.
But honestly, I think the dac you use is much more important. I used to go thru dacs like some people go thru socks, and I never found one (no matter what the reviewers said) that sounded like real music. Now that I have one I like and it uses usb, I'm done for a long time. The rest (speed and cpu usage,etc) doesn't really matter to me.
I use Mac because its what I know. I don't know if windows sounds better. It's also easy for me to integrate ipods, iphones, and an Airport Express that streams to a different stereo in the house. It all works together with not too much fuss.
But honestly, I think the dac you use is much more important. I used to go thru dacs like some people go thru socks, and I never found one (no matter what the reviewers said) that sounded like real music. Now that I have one I like and it uses usb, I'm done for a long time. The rest (speed and cpu usage,etc) doesn't really matter to me.