I started on a Mac in the early 80s when there really was only really a Mac. Commodores don't count.
I founded a cross-platform software company in the early 90's (Windows and Mac), and was asked to be a software advisor to Apple's software subsidiary.
Today, I am Windows all the way, and won't ever look back. Too many limitations on Mac, too much proprietary crap, and know too much about Apple's business philosophy of gouging consumers. Only one recent case in point is the first iPhone, which came out with no cut and paste. Please! What a load of crap. Cut and paste is what put Apple on the map, and to screw early iPhone adopters by holding back that staple function of the OS, is downright dirty, and just one example of unscrupulous business practice, because just a few short months later, those early adopters were punished by having no choice but to upgrade to the iPhone II just to get cut and paste. You can't tell me Apple wasn't able to include cut and paste in their first iPhone! Let's get real, what good is a graphical user interface without cut and paste? You know darned well they purposely held back that feature to force people to upgrade, because they already had the iPhone II made when they released the first iPhone!
Not to mention that Apple projected its Apple's holier-than-thou attitude down through it's cult base, who are largely people that snub their noses at anything that's NOT a Mac (which is pure ignorance). Just look at some of the comments on this thread. You never see Windows people poo-pooing Mac people just because they use a Mac.
On the Windows side, there is more available competing software and hardware, which helps breed more competitive pricing, which is why Windows machines are at least 30% cheaper than a comparable Mac.
If that's not enough, you can add and change hardware MUCH easier on a Windows machine than you can on a Mac, laptops notwithstanding. Regarding tech issues, musicians by nature are more analytical and technically capable than the average person, so even if you currently don't think you can figure out what technically needs to be done with a computer, software or hardware -wise, you'll eventually learn.
With that said, you would at least you have the option of fixing/upgrading/configuring hardware or software on a Windows machine. You can find a repair tech on any street corner, if need be. But, it's a whole other animal with a Mac. Even if you do manage to open up some their computer cases, you'll likely have a hard time finding replacement hardware, should you need any. Remember it's all going to pricey, too. You're also much more limited on the software side, with no open source code for anything.
As for you not doing anything serious now, that will be short-lived, once you start recording. Mark my words, you will indeed find yourself delving deeper than you originally thought, and at a faster space than you originally expected. Thus, my advice would be to get the best you can buy now on your budget, because hardware these days will last MUCH longer than it did 10 years ago. Back then software became more and more powerful at a faster rate than hardware, but that has changed to the point where instead of a compuer becoming obsolete in a matter of a few months (if not weeks) like it did back them, today's computers are so powerful they have useful lives for years.
On a laptop, spend on the processor chip and graphics cards, because you're not going to be able to upgrade those very easily. You can always ad Ram, and upgrade hard drive down the road. You can always buy an external monitor should you later prefer larger viewing. You can add peripehrals like Blu-Ray, DVD, external mouse, keyboard, external drives, modems, and more, all via USB.
You might also want to consider a good brand, just so that you at least have access to people at the company, should you need it. One other reason to do so is that the larger companies typically match chipsets (supporting internal hardware) to the processor, thereby maximizing the potential of the computer chip. Smaller companies are generally more apt to skimp in that area. Think of your computer processor chip as a 6 lane freeway. The chipset insures the traffice flow properly to different streets. Get a mismatched chipset and it's akin to that 6 lane freeway merging into two lanes. Imagine your data screaming down the autobahn, only to encounter a bottleneck to two lanes during rush hour!
Also, some manufacturers are geared more toward one purpose than another. For example, Sony VAIOs are geared toward multi-media, while Dell Precisions, Dimensions and Latittudes have always been more business productivity based. HP Pavilions have been at the consumer end of entertainment machines, but because of large advance in hardware technology lately, many folks are able to get by them for multi-media creation. Personally, for the money, Sony VAIOs are hard to beat for what you want to do.
As a rule of thumb, machines that are good for gaming typically have innards suitable for multi-media.
Hope this helps.