[Mr. Blonde]

I can put together just as good a Windows machine as a given Mac for about 60% of the price.

Here are the specs, please show me where I can get one for 60% of the price

2.66GHz Intel Core i7 4MB shared L3 cache
NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M graphics processor with 512MB of GDDR3 memory
8GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM
15 in. 1440-by-900-pixel LED-backlit glossy display
512GB solid state drive

Subtotal is $3,899. I will let you slide on the unibody aluminum case as I don't think anyone else produces laptops with them.

[moehoward]

I doubt anyone can cobble together a usable laptop. But a desktop unit can be done easily. It’ll look like crap, but perform every bit as good as a top of the line Mac Pro.

[PreciousLiberty]

“15 in. 1440-by-900-pixel LED-backlit glossy display”

Don’t forget the IPS type display, which has considerably better color fidelity than commodity displays. The commodity displays typically reproduce somewhere around 75% of the visible color gamut, whereas the IPS displays are well over 100%, meaning beautiful color with no banding or other artifacts.

That’s one thing that’s very attractive about the 27” iMac, a comparable display alone is over $1000.

[Notary Sojac]

I buy laptops at powernotebooks.com

Here is what you can get for $2600:

17.3” Full HD (1920x1080) 16:9 LED Backlit Super Clear Glossy Widescreen

nVIDIA GeForce GTX 285M 1GB GDDR3

Intel® Core™ i7-740QM (1.73~2.93GHz, 45W) w/6M Cache - 4 Cores, 8 Threads

8GB (2 SODIMMS) DDR3/1333 Dual Channel Memory

320GB SATA II 3Gb/s 7,200 RPM Hard Drive (16MB Cache Buffer)

160GB Intel® X25-M SATA Solid-State Drive

4x Blu-Ray Reader/8x Super Multi Combo Drive

I have to question the 512GB SSD in your price. Can you point me to a source? The cheapest OEM price on that size SSD is up around $1800-$1900.