$1100 Notebook Shootout - Apple vs. PC Free Republic— May 2006—comparing Apple Macbook with Dell Inspiron.
Total price as configured:The Ultimate Xeon CAD Workstation is a Mac Pro - Apple Clobbers Dell on Price and Flexibility Arcatosh—August 2006—Comparing a Mac Pro to Dell's equivalent Workstation computer.
Apple Mac Book $1099
Dell Inspiron $1095.
"Both at the low end of the Xeon 5160 workstation market and especially at the higher end, Apple is beating Dell -- the industry price leader -- on the price of cutting edge workstation technology. That is the conclusion today."Apple's Mac Pro - A True PowerMac Successor Anandtech—August 2006—Review of Mac Pro... and finding that they could not even BUY the components at Internet Prices to equal the RETAIL PRICE of the Mac Pro.
With our plan of attack laid out, it's time to dive into the Mac Pro and we'll start where very few Mac users like to: at its price. In the past we've generally shied away from getting too caught up in the price debate, because honestly if you're buying a Mac, you're doing so because of the OS and assigning value to that is difficult. Some users are content with other OSes and see no value in OS X, and to them the value in a Mac is simply the total cost of the components that make up the machine. At the same time there are other users who prefer OS X and thus find additional value in a system that is able to run that OS. Regardless of which camp you fall into, the Mac Pro is competitively priced. We'll let the table below do the talking:The Dell is clearly more expensive, although you can knock off $100 - $200 thanks to the bundled LCD (unfortunately Dell gives you $0 credit if you remove the monitor from your order). We're able to come close with our own configuration by shopping at Newegg and other vendors through our shopping partner, but note that the $2390 total does not include an OS, case or power supply.
Apple Mac Pro
Dell Precision Workstation 490
Home Built Config
CPU
2 x Xeon 5150 (2.66GHz)
2 x Xeon 5150 (2.66GHz)
Memory
2x 512MB DDR2-667 FB-DIMMs
2x 512MB DDR2-667 FB-DIMMs
Graphics
GeForce 7300 GT
Quadro NVS 285
Hard Drive
250GB SATA 3Gbps
250GB SATA 3Gbps
Optical
SuperDrive (DVD+R DL/DVD+-RW/CD-RW)
16X DVD+-RW
Notes
Free 17" LCD, had to add sound card, mouse and 1394a card
Includes Supermicro X7DAE motherboard priced at $474; does not include price of OS, case or power supply
Price
$2499 ($2299 with educational discount)
$3110
$2390
Comparing prices: Mac Pro versus PCs MacWorld—August 2006—Comparing Mac Pro against Dell Precision 690 1Kw
"My reaction: Wow. I mean, seriously: Wow . The Mac Pro is more than $1,000 less expensive? That’s not pocket change. In fact, the difference in price here is nearly a reverse of late-90’s Dell vs. Mac pricing. (If you’re skeptical of this comparison, even The Inquirer —far from a Mac-sympathetic publication— came to a similar conclusion: “Apple thrashes Dell on Mac Pro pricing.” And that was using a Precision 490, a less expensive Dell machine that isn’t really comparable to the Mac Pro in terms of expandability. Another comparison, with a similar result, can be found at systemshootouts.org.)
Apple thrashes Dell on Mac Pro pricing The Inquirer—August 2006—Comparing Mac Pro with Dell Precision 490.
"This is quite incredible. Any major OEM has trouble matching pricing with Dell, considering the massive volume discount Dell gets from Intel. But Apple aren't only matching them on the lower specs, they're thrashing them on the higher specced systems - relatively huge margins of pricing difference."
Mac vs. PC cost analysis: How does it all add up? Everybody knows PCs are cheaper than Macs, right? Wrong! (At least sometimes.) Computerworld—June 2007—Comparing Macbook Pro to name brand equivalent equipment computers.
"Bottom line: Assuming that you want a high-end notebook PC designed to work, play and be your everyday machine with style, the MacBook Pro is a surprisingly good value. The models that I compared it with, the Sony and the Dell, had some extras here and there, but they were also more expensive. The key to the perception that Macs are more expensive is that Apple offers very few in-between models."Are Macs More Expensive? Let’s Do the Math Once and For All Technologizer—August 2008—Comparing four equivalent notebook computers including the Macbook.
"So for consumer notebooks, the official Technologizer answer to the question “Are Macs more expensive?” is as follows:
“Actually, a MacBook is in the same ballpark as a roughly similar Dell or HP, and less than a Sony. If you’re tempted by a MacBook and can afford its pricetag, go ahead and buy one–it’s a decent deal.”. . .
- MacBook: $1299 (white case)
- Dell XPS M1330: $1287 (including an “instant rebate” of $100)
- HP dv4t: $1218.99 (including an “instant rebate” of $100)
- Sony VGN-SR190: $1608.99
We Build a PC to Match a Baseline Mac Pro Tom's Hardware—August 2008—Buying just the parts to equal a Mac Pro.
"The above is essentially a baseline Mac Pro replicated using the cheapest minimum required components to build. The difference? A negligible $5.67. Those who claim that they can build "the same" PC for half the price are at this point baseless."Oppenheimer: New iMac a better deal than Dell, HP Fortune Magazine—March 2009—Comparing a 24" iMac with Dell XPS-ONE 24 and HP Touchsmart IQ800t.
"“A side-by-side comparison suggests the new iMacs match up favorably against Dell and HP’s All-in-One’s on a price-to-performance basis. For example, the (iMac) $1,499 model has a faster CPU and RAM with better or comparable graphics, and is still $100-$250 cheaper (though it lacks a TV Tuner, ~$60-$100 upgrade).”
In the markets which Apple chooses to compete, they are often either completely competitive or actually less expensive that the PC competitors.
Quite an impressive list, Swordmaker. It’s nice that someone collects and organizes the data — which is basically what we all know anyway (the Mac users) but don’t always have the data at our fingertips...
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And to RachelFaith, you were saying in post #40 — “And then you get the BONUS of adding in resale value, ease of use and total cost of ownership.”
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I would say that the ease of use (while also being a very powerful and useful computer, at the same time) is very valuable. It saves a lot of time, which should be valuable to almost everyone. We just don’t have the time to do what the computer should do for itself, which is, to make “it” easy to use for the user of that machine.
This is the one factor that dramatically lowers the cost of ownership, because you don’t have to pay for all the time you waste, pay for additional programs for managing those nasty worms and viruses, pay for the maintenance of it (either software, or other people to do something for you, or “pay yourself” for all the time that you take out to “manage” the thing yourself).
And you’re right, in regards to selling your older machine at a higher price — if — one would ever want to sell it anyway... LOL... I’ve got a couple of older iMacs, that I can’t quite get rid of and I can still use for odds and ends, and they will probably end up being some “hand-me-downs” to someone else, once I get around to getting rid of them... :-)
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And for LifeComesFirst, since you’re into UNIX/Linux, it would seem that you would be happy and satisfied to work with a Mac and its Mac OS X, with its UNIX architecture, and have “several computers in one” with a Mac. I can’t see why (since “Life-Comes-First”) why one wouldn’t want the ease of use for mundane tasks, while opening up time for things you’re more interested in...
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And to antiRepublicrat, you were saying in post #36 (to E Rocc) — “However, you really have to call Microsoft a former monopolist because Microsoft has been prohibited from doing either of those things for years.”
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They may be prohibited from doing some of those things, however, they’re still “riding high” on the benefits that they gained from those things they did in the past. Things haven’t been “balanced up” yet...