Alright, heres my advice as I was in the same position as the OP a couple of months ago. With that price range (assuming $1000 is *slightly* flexible, but not much), you can pretty much go either route you want, and still get great performance.
Heres my personal advice:
Don't use a Hackintosh. OSX will run, sure, but unless you have experience handling terminal command line, kext files, and general BSD experience, you will be pulling your hair out with all the stuff which may not work. It's a tinkering platform which has some functionality and great future potential, but ask yourself this: is it worth gambling the foundations you do your music work on just to save a little money? (yes, a little, cause I will cover costs in a minute).
Assuming you don't have experience handling OSX on an in-depth level, or experience with BSD, then you are reliant on the Hackintosh community to resolve any bugs, malfunctions, or issues you have. Also, you can bet updating your OS will not be easy, and
Apple has shown they are cracking down on this stuff (link here).
If you plan to buy a PC laptop - buy from RjTech (Click Here):
RjTech deals with ODM (Original Design Manufacturer) sales, to give you an idea of what that means to you and your wallet: you get the laptop before places like Dell slap their logo on it, bloatware, and warranty on it, and therefore hike the price up. Yes, believe it or not, places like Dell don't make their own hardware, they are an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer), meaning they send specifications to the ODM, the ODM makes it, the OEM buys it, and resells at a higher price.
In general, you can get solid deals from RjTech, with plenty of options for customization to really suit your needs.
If you plan on buy a MacBook Pro 13" - buy refurbished! (Click Here):
There are so many reasons to buy refurbished from Apple. It's hard to go wrong with almost a $300 discount, and any potential issues with a new buy already addressed. They come with a 1 year Apple warranty for hardware, and 3 months phone support (same as a new MacBook Pro purchase), and are eligible for an extended 2 year AppleCare warranty within that first year for about $250. Out the door, the refurbished MacBook Pro 13" I linked to comes out to $1096.
If you plan to score one on Craigslist for cheap, I recommend the following:
Bear in mind, this is how I scored my MacBook Pro 15" Unibody (2.66ghz, 4GB, 320GB HD, 512MB dedicated VRAM) for $1000 on Craigslist - a guy who was desperate to get his car repaired (replacement transmission, ouch!). In this economy, there are alot of people who are unloading luxuries at fairly low prices, and occasionally, at absurd prices, and as the saying goes: "their loss, your gain". It sucks to capitalize on other peoples misfortunes, but if you don't take advantage of the opportunity, someone else gladly will.
- Setup an RSS feed on craigslist for a search quary on "MacBook Pro": This will allow you to see new postings on the fly as they are published, and snag deals before anyone else does. To create an RSS feed on a search quary, run a search on Craigslist, then scroll to the bottom of the screen and click the yellow "RSS" icon, and bookmark that page. Timing is key when getting the perfect deal, and I waited patiently for 3 months before I found mine. In the end, it was worth it, and the RSS feed made it possible for me to jump on it before anyone else.
- Insure that the MacBook is within one year of its original purchase date: This will allow you to buy extended coverage on it and further insure that your purchase was a sound decision. If the buyer cannot provide a receipt, request a serial number from them and run it through this warranty check on Apple's website (Click Here) to verify warranty validity, and eligibility for purchasing the extended AppleCare coverage.
If the seller doesn't know how to find the serial number:
1.) Click on the Apple icon in the upper left corner of the screen.
2.) Click on "About This Mac"
3.) Click on "More Info"
4.) In the right pane of the window that pops up, is a "Serial Number (system)" field, highlight and copy that.
5.) Paste that into the link I provided above to verify warranty coverage information and options.
- Check the physical condition: No warranty from Apple, factory or extended, covers accidental damage of any sort. Be careful buying a MacBook which has dents on it, as this is an indication of excessive physical trauma (according to Apple), and could cause problems down the road when Apple renders any service to your MacBook. Scuffing and scratches are purely about what you are willing to live with. Mine has some, but I slapped a hard case on it and I couldn't care less.
- If you feel the purchase is shady, ask for proof of ownership: It happens occasionally in San Francisco, but I have almost bought a stolen MacBook Pro before (wouldn't even have guessed or seen it coming), and the results could have been disastrous. Apple can and will bar serial numbers reported stolen, preventing you from getting support or any services for your purchase. Ask why the seller is getting rid of it, and if they reply with something like "Oh, because I forgot the password to the user account", you can bet it's a fishy deal.
The above considerations will help you make a sound buying decision, and allow you to afford what you want at your price range. My recommendation would be to buy the refurbished MacBook Pro 13" I posted, unless you can live a while and wait for the right deal to come along.
As far as Mac vs. PC - it's about as pointless as the old Technics vs. Vestax debate when it comes to turntables. Use what you like, both have perks and advantages, but at the end of the day, it's just a tool which allows your creativity to flourish. I'm an MCSE and work with Windows servers, workstations, and also hold a degree in related fields of networking and security. I work with Windows OS in all flavors day in and day out, and love it for the compatibility, support for different technologies, and cost ratio for new hardware. I also love my Mac cause the user experience is rich, intuitive, and stable.
Also, as far as a 13" being suitable for Traktor, I personally believe it is, especially when you run in full screen mode. If you plan on doing production of any type on it, I recommend buying a low cost, high resolution external monitor to give more screen real estate. This will run you in the ballpark of $140 or so.
Hope that helps :)
Yeah i think Lance is the one that touched on the really important question here.