Just whipped up some hashbrowns with mexican cheese from the leftover roasted red potatoes from the roast chicken and potatoes I made a couple days ago. I love hash browns.
I'd go with either a mac mini or imac, personally. You've already made the mac jump with the MBP, may as well go all the way. As to mac not being as "fine tunable" as windows, I'll just say I think mac's at least as tuneable, it just doesn't require as much work to keep stable.