i agree with the wacom. ive said somewhere else too about the program painter, you should have a look at that, its much more for creating art than photoshop in my opinion - photoshops for editing, but you will definitely need it as well. illustrator is good too. as for mac/pc, personally i have both, and love the mac like a geek, but when it comes to painter/photoshop/illustrator, there's really no difference. macs are brilliant, but if youre putting out a lot of money, youd be better getting a pc and the best tablet you can afford rather than spending the extra on a mac. unless youre rich that is...