I've flirted with Apple before but always resisted and ended up with my trusted PC, but now I'm about to come to that bridge again and I have to make a decision.

Resisted is probably not the right word either, it is more a case of sticking with what I know and when I rely on my PC so much for so many things, change is frightening.

The thing that is making the decision tougher this time round is that we bought a new PC last year for the house to act as a mini-server and family machine and I also got on board the netbook thing with my Dell Mini 9 that I ordered with Ubuntu, so it appears my bases are covered and my excuses for not going iMac this time are a bit thin.

But I still need convincing, mostly because of the price. The price thing is an issue when buying a new machine although it isn't usually top of the list, probably third or fourth, but right now, with most of my other issues seemingly void in this decision, it has become the main one.

For what I can get with Dell (in essence what we purchased for the mini-server/family PC last year with a little extra RAM) I would pay 11,000 Kr but then for that on the iMac front, I'd have to pay 24,000 Kr and that would be without the extra RAM, which would be another 11,000 Kr. Add it all up and it starts to get a bit silly, for something that will do the same thing but looks different.

What is worse, is when you transfer that money into the great British pound, or as is the case for me, look at it on the UK Apple store. If I buy this in England, I'd pay £2,599.00, which is 31,000 Kr but in Sweden, all in, it's 5,000 Kr more expensive, which just doesn't seem fair, seeing as the machines all come from Asia.

What is worse, is if you want to buy the same machine in the US. The cost for it there is $3,199, which when put into the great British pound is £1,881, over £700 cheaper and when you transfer to Swedish Kronor is 22,809 Kr, a massive 13,000 Kr difference or £1,072 or $1,800. It just doesn't seem right to be paying so much more for it in Sweden.

On the other hand, I've been told by everyone that I don't need the same processing power with an iMac, so I could maybe reduce that and well maybe I don't need 8GB of RAM and could maybe settle for 4GB, which is the same as the mini-server/family machine and still twice as much as I have on my Dell XPS laptop (which I've got to say has served me perfectly and I'm going to be sad the day it does finally die on me).

So, if I take away the extra RAM and the increased processor the actual cost for the iMac is 16,500 Kr, which is still 5,000 Kr more than I'd be paying for the PC, which in the current state of work coming in and reduced pricing for getting that work, it makes that decision quite tough.

Another thing I keep getting told about the iMac is I'll never have any problems with a virus and the machine will run and run, but my current Dell XPS laptop has been running and running now for nearly four years and the only issues I've had with it have very much my fault, where I've learnt a lesson.

So, the point of all this is, I need help. What do I do?

I'm popping into town tomorrow and we have an Apple store, so I'll see if I can have a play with the three different machines and I'll see how many applications I can load up and how quickly, but is the extra money I'll be spending on an Apple going to be worth it just for a machine that looks a bit different?

I know some will say it is so much more than that but it is just a machine to get work done on so if you can shed any light on why I should be going iMac over PC and two monitors (forgot to mention that in that price for a new Dell up top, I get two monitors with it also), please email me and tell me or leave a comment below, as I'm not sure how much longer this machine is going to last.

Update after visiting the Apple store

I went to the Apple store today in town; a reseller, but still only Apple, nothing else and I came very very close to buying, but it just didn't feel right, not after when you've looked about and you see the prices in the UK or the US. So, instead, I've come home, done a little research and fired this off to Apple via the contact form on their website. I'll update if I get a response and I've fixed a couple of spelling mistakes, but you get the jist.