I wouldn't spend $2499 on a Mac, so I'd be buying a used G4 or G5 Mac. Nope I don't need Xeon chips and to be honest I don't even need Dual processors or even core duo. Heck I don't even like Intel, so I'd be opting for AMD Athlon X2 or for laptop Turion X2 if I wanted dual core and had a choice with an Apple. Yeah 1gb is a joke, and I was wondering if the memory is standard DDR2 chips or some proprietary APPLE ONLY chips which are priced at a premium. I bought 2gbs (2-1gb chips) 3 months aqgo for $50, wonder how much it's going to cost for that on an Apple?
Apple charges outrageous prices for memory. I really don't understand why they do that, since they are the exact same chips you can get from any decent memory vendor for a fraction of the price. I upped my iMac from 1 GB to 3 GB myself and saved a few hundred dollars. And it only took about 30 seconds of my time (unscrew the little panel under the front, pop in the chip and screw it back in).
Of course, the last few PCs I bought I also got the minimum memory and upgraded myself (although it took a LOT longer). It's just the sensible thing to do unless the vendor is running a "double the memory for free" special.