i've used Macs and PCs extensively for research work and my macs routinely run Matlab for data analysis and my G4 and G5s run Labview through a National Instruments DAq rig. Overall, it is pretty stable but you need to make sure that your machines are spec'd properly for running the software - especially if you plan on integrating with hardware periphs. I also have some PCs running electrophys programs and Matlab as well. Other than my G5 running into some problems with a 3rd party program, all is well.
@Feng Shui: I've used Macs and PCs for science work well over 10 years and I can say that one isn't necessarily better than the other for "all" tasks - you simply need to know what you are doing and you need to make sure the program is suited for the platform that you are using. Protein analysis, sequencing, data number crunching for electrophys..it is all the same and primarily dependent on your software because the computer basically processes what the software tells it to do. How well does the software package mesh with your machine? Is it thoroughly supported? I've built cell recording rigs from the ground up and these concerns are always a starting point for me before investing time and money into designing an effective research project. Moreover, Data analysis using stat software like Sigma Stat or SAS doesn't matter because those suites are available on Mac or PC so, again, as long as you know what you are doing and you are maintaining your machine properly, all should work well.
@OP: is your microarray from ABI/ Invitrogen or from a company like Affymetrics? I've worked with both on Macs and PCs and the results do not matter as much on the type of machine as long as they are spec'd to handle the prog requirements. I had some samples run through an ABI array using an old Dell Latitude and the data was fine.
