Notfred, here is your proof.
Pentium 4 2.4 GHZ - $193
Epox 4G4A- $90
PC 3200 256 MB DDR ram- $67
80 GB HD - $80- $100
Audigy Soundcard - $65 OEM
GF4 Ti 4200- $140
Case-$70
32X CDRW- $41
Toshiba 16X DVDROM- $40
Keyboard- $20
Intellimouse- $25
NIC- $5
FANS, HSF- $30
$866 TOTAL
now just add a monitor and you'll probably be just a bit over $1000. You could even upgrade to 512mb ram as well. Now with this system, you'll be able to beat even the highest end DUAL G4 1.25 ghz machines in nearly all video/photo editing apps. Not to mention the fact that you can actually play games too. Sheesh i could even add in a DVDRW and still keep it under $1300. So basically your argument is what, lets spend hundreds and thousands of dollars more for a good OS and a system with decent performance? Apple doesn't have much going for it these days with the PC hardware industry propelling at such astonishing rates. Once hammer and Prescott roll around, Apple will fall even further behind. But hey, PC's aren't for everyone, you can go get a Mac and save Christmas.
I don't have the benchies offhand, but the athlon XP 1800 was beatin the DUAL 1GHZ g4's by around 30-40 % in most After Effects/Photoshop benchmarks. Now considering that the Dual 1.25 G4's aren't that much faster, reports have shown that benches are lower in some cases, than the 1 GHZ dual's and that a P4 2.4 ghz processor is considerably faster than an XP 1800 the gap is widened even more. Now how much was that dual G4 system, $5000??? For what, a nice paintjob and a flatpanel monitor?