Reaper VS. Protools

[pixeltarian]

so I have pro tools 8mp, but just ended up learning reaper while i was saving for pro tools (as the profire 2626 emptied my bank account). I'd like to know what benefits there are to using pro tools over reaper. If you knew someone who never touched a DAW, why would you recommend PT over reaper?

on a 1 year old mac (2.66 intel core 2 duo, 4GB ram, running snow leopard) pro tools is very slow and has lots of playback issues. I would actually like using pro tools if it was smooth as a top. mostly it is playback issues, and crashing. I would actually be surprised if I closed out of pro tools because I wanted to and it didn't crash. are there some config things to do on macs? why might it be performing so poorly?