@Techmaster 20, I wouldn't consider virtualization, for one thing it's too much hassle, for another I still like my big speakers and 40 inch monitor and dvd drive, all of which i'd have to give up on a mac, aside from the fact that god knows how virtual windows handles external drives and media and such. 
I looked at the mac book, but decided against it on the basis both of the fact that desktops tend to be more reliable, and because I don't know what I'll be doing in the future that I might need the mac monitor for sinse goodness knows what will be available online at a later period as regards films etc..

As to the trackpad, thanks that information might be helpful particularly when I'm trying vo out. I hadn't particularly thought of using the trackpad for vo gestures but that could be useful at speeding things up, although I suspect that there will still be lots of things I'll want to do with the keyboard (as I said I'm not keen on safari with a trackpad).

@Jonnyboy1991, that is odd, sinse the number of posts and other information is all available in ie8. I actually noticed when trying out safari on my phone some stuff was missing, like for example the "login/logout" link, plus it wouldn't interact with buttons but I assume this was due to the screen size.
The vo tutorial on mac will be useful and again that is handy to know. I did have a chat to the apple fellow about folder structure and he said that you can get the mac to display information in streight out lists with sublists like xp (which is one of my main beefs with windows 7, sinse frankly i don't like all these sprawling columns and ribbons and modern interface design, give me streight up locations I can enter and open), but I don't imagine I'll be able to play with the view settings on the mac I try out tomorrow, so knowing those commands will help, indeed I suspect that whatever display mac I try out in the shop will not have had vo run on it before so I'll wind up in the vo tutorial, still it'll give me an idea of the mac's interface and capabilities which is mainly what I am interested in finding out.
From what I've discovered thus far I'm already %60 sure I'll end up getting one but it'd be foolish not to try one out first, plus deciding what size of monitor I want will only be possible when I see the thing.

Well all of that is a pretty good arguement for keeping my xp machine, sinse all this vmware and boot camp and installations and sighted assistance mallarchy is far harder than, ---- well just pushing an on button .
I'm really not interested in "running other systems" I just like Xp sinse other than browsing the internet it's still my preferd system for everything from dvds to media to games, (mostly audiogames and text but some graphical ones in there too which is why I want to keep the big screen), indeed if stupid microsoft just did with xp what they did with 98 and made the upgrade fully compatible with everything previously I would have upgraded Windows long ago.

As to my tv, it's actually a 40 inch plasma flat screen tv not a standard monitor, which is why I want to keep it, and I like my speakers as they are, indeed in general I'm very happy with xp and what I do with it, I'm only getting the mac really for use on the internet sinse that is the one area where xp is having problems, or rather where stupid microsoft have made xp have problems with their dropping of support in an attempt to sell their newer, less compatible and harder to use rubbish.
Then again this topic was about mac questions not an arguement about virtualization, so I'd probably better not steer things off track.

One thing that did occur to me that I'd like to know the answer to, is how do you click on textual hot spots on a mac?
What I mean is, in games like Drakor or puppet nightmares there are lots of game controls that aren't buttons or links or edit areas, they're just bits of text you need to click on. I know how to do this in windows with supernova, but in voiceover? I don't recall seeing anything similar.

Ah, thanks Sebby, very handy information.
There is nothing "diseased" about xp, indeed the only "diseased os" I can see is later windows that drops 30 years of software support in favour of a crappy interface, but that is a conversation I've had elsewhere.
the mac interface I can have run as lists and at least it putsfolders in sensible places, for all I hate the way it handles media which is why I'll still be doing all my media stuff on xp through my good speakers.

I don't plan to have xp completely off line, particularly for things like muds and updating beatstar etc, although I won't do any net browsing with it and will likely move my e-mail over as well, indeed I'll probably just plug the ethernet cable in when I want to and leave it out most of the time.
The hole virtualization thing seems more trouble than it is worth, not compared to you know, just turning on a computer, besides as I said, I really don't see much point to windows post xp anyway, indeed if I did! see any good in post xp windows I'd probably just be getting windows rather than going with a mac.

The reason that I wouldn't consider a macbook can be  somed up in one word "screen!" While I don't plan to watch dvds on the mac, there is stuff to stream that I will need the larger screen for sinse 15 inch really is too small for me to see, and I don't know what internet based stuff will come up in the future.

Glad to know the click on text is possible though, as I said, the interactions with webpages were something I had to get used to particularly with how tab didn't work, and there are far too many web games that work entirely by clicking on hotspots, indeed if anyone has played drakor with a mac I'd be interested to know.

Actually I've already decided on the one I want. I want a solid state hd, sinse it seems like a good idea, but I don't see the point in banging up the processor to hell sinse I'm not going to be doing any hyper complex video editing on the thing.

The 27 inch with a 256 hz  quad core, and solid state hd comes to about 1600, (or slightly less with a discount from Apple), which is certainly not cheap, but not insane, or rather I have enough by way of savings.
Howeer, if I'm going to spend that sort of moola, I want to be dam sure the thing will do what I wish it to do, hence the intensive questioning.

I don't know about a refirb one, if I'm going to spend on the thing I might as well get  one that will last, which is also why I'm interested in the ssd primarily.

Processor 256 seemed reasonable given that I don't think  I'll be doing anything that processor intensive, after all I'm unlikely to be playing stupidly 3D graphical games.
With  storage devices being easy to come by, I don't really see the issue there, but all my books and music and what not will stay on my xp machine or on the hd's connected to it, sinse I don't like how the mac handles media, plus the speakers on my xp box are far better quality anyway.

As I said the mac is intended primarily as an internet machine.