Well, I'm talking beyond my knowledge here, but I haven't seen a computer upsample to 24/96. If you've had really good results with oversampling compared with 16/44, maybe that's worth considering. Also, if you're ripping a CD at 48x, your bit order might not be as pristine as you'd wish. But if you get a good initial rip, you should have good playback every time. Just with there was an EAC equivalent for the Mac.
Hitchhike, my iBook's fan kicks in when the going gets rough, heavy work in Photoshop or other really processor-intensive tasks. The fan is certainly audible, though not bothersome if I'm also listening to music at the same time. I've heard similar reports about the mini. Silent during normal tasks; when it's working hard enough to kick in the fan it's definitely audible. For normal iTunes playback, I wouldn't expect it to be an issue. If you're playing back a full-quality divx file from the hard drive, it might be a different story. In short, your mileage will surely vary with the task.
Hitchhike, my iBook's fan kicks in when the going gets rough, heavy work in Photoshop or other really processor-intensive tasks. The fan is certainly audible, though not bothersome if I'm also listening to music at the same time. I've heard similar reports about the mini. Silent during normal tasks; when it's working hard enough to kick in the fan it's definitely audible. For normal iTunes playback, I wouldn't expect it to be an issue. If you're playing back a full-quality divx file from the hard drive, it might be a different story. In short, your mileage will surely vary with the task.