Thank you! I've been dealing with the exact same issue. I'm interested in going with a Mac, but my driving motivation is a desire to do heavy video editing, which just doesn't seem doable on a Mini. But if I go with a Mac Pro, the build I'm looking at (with only very minor upgrades and RAM purchased elsewhere) is going to start me at around $3000. And there's no reason for me to get an iMac when I have a 30" monitor.

So Apple's got me. I'm currently saving up, selling off some unused electronics, and even cashing in some 20-30 year old savings bonds to get a computer. Apple Wins. Ugh.

...I'm still going to put Windows on it, though

*edit*
Thanks for these updates on your Drobo, Rob. I've been very interested in getting one for quite some time now, but the cost is always so prohibitive. Newegg has a pretty good deal right now though, I believe it's about $380 for the Drobo 2. The fan noise would indeed bother me, though. I have two Western Digital MyBooks, and they are utterly silent. Very impressive. But I also have about 5 random SATA drives floating around unused, and even if they're only 250-350GB, they'd still be usefull in a Drobo.