a Macintosh or a PC...
I've heard that Macs are more user friendly. Personally I prefer PC's because their fast, dependable, and easily fixable/upgradable.
When I recorded the CD for my band to my older computer's hard drive there was no problems at all. When I transfered and edited the recording (a 35 minute WAV) through my peer to peer network to my powerful computer it ran very fast and flawlessly.
Old comp = P 75mhz(about 4 years old)
New comp = AMD k6/2 350 (about 1 1/2 years)
PS: It only cost me $300 to get brand new, top of the line proccesor+motherboard using my old 486's parts.