“At the low end… PC desktops are marginally less expensive than the Macs — if you can do without their connectivity and multimedia capabilities — and considerably more expensive if you can’t. At the very high end, however, all of the design focus is on multimedia processing and the PCs simply aren’t competitive from either hardware or cost perspectives,” Paul Murphy writes for LinuxInsider.
“So, bottom line, are PCs cheaper than Macs? No, despite what you read in the PC press, it’s the other way around. Compare Apples to apples, and Macs are cheaper than PCs,” Murphy writes.
Read Mr. Murphy’s reasoning here.
At the lab here (edu prices) Powerbooks are no less than $100 cheaper than the 3 branded laptop models available at the store that – on top of that – do offer less than the Powerbooks.
This FUD shattering fact made easy to debunk other myths Wintel users had and convinced many to switch.
The thought that if one FUD (overpriced, way more expensive) is so blatantly false, maybe the others as well were pure bullshit becomes very easy to… sell
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My late grandfather used to always tell me “buy cheap… get cheap”. I realize how true that is whenever I have the misfortune of using some cheap PC.
The Dude abides.
Oh, and my grandmother uses an iMac with OS 10.3. She is 84 and surfs the web, e-mails and takes comfort in the fact that she does not have to worry about viruses.
I doubt that if she had a 400.00 PC that she would be e-mail or surfing the web…. because she is not a techno geek who knows how to go and get the latest drivers definitions and such.
My brother who is fairly computer literate switched from PC to Mac then back to the PC (because Macs are so expensive). He has only had to reinstall Windows 3 times, has spyware, adware, and has caught almost every virus. He regrets the day he switched back to the PC and is waiting for some $$$ to free up to get a Mac.
He thought he was going to do some gaming on it…. the only game he gets to play regularly is “kill the adware”, “dodge the virus” and “detect the spyware”. He got smart and got an xBox to play games with.
The Dude still abides.
The author’s analysis regarding the Dell 20″ monitor versus the Apple Cinema displays is in err:
.
“Apple’s cinema displays are more than that. They’re intended to function at the core of digital production environments. Thus all three models, from the 20 inch to the 30 inch, have things like DVI and dual FireWire ports to enable plug-and-go video recording or media sharing.
In consequence, the price ranges from $1,299 to $3,299, or $600 more than Dell wants for the 20-inch unit, but the additional things they do can’t be done with the Dell at any price.”
.
First, the Dell comes with a 4 port USB 2 hub. It may not have a firewire hub, but you can buy that for $30bux, and USB2 is just fine for most people. You’ve got to be kidding me by saying that a 2 port firewire hub is something you cannot get an any price. Tape a hub onto the dell for 30 bux and consider that the price. This is pandering argument set up by the author at best.
.
What the Dell monitor does offer over the Apple’s is as follows:
.
.
(1) Better price–The Dell can frequently be bought for about $700bux like here:
.
http://www.bensbargains.net/ktalk/1093425064,207,.shtml
.
Even the lowely 20″ Apple display can rarely be had for even $1000.
.
(2) The Dell monitor swivels tilts, moves up and down on its pedistal, and pivots. The apple monitor does not really swivel, you must move its entire base for that, which is not great. The iMac does this better, and the Dell swivels much like the iMac. The Apple monitors certainly do not move up/down and cannot pivot. The Dell pedestal is very flexible–and both dell and apple allow you to detach the screen from the base and use a VESA mount bracket to wall mount the screen if you like.
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(3) The Dell monitor also has FOUR video inputs while the Apple only has one. The Dell has a DVI, VGA, Svideo and composit video support and even does picture-in-picture between the multiple video in ports. You can move between the 4 video sources with a built in video source switcher right on the face of the Dell. Thus, the Author’s mention of DVI as if to imply it were somehow missing from the Dell is bizarre at best and seems disingenuous. Also, for $50 bux you can even add integrated speakers on the Dell.
(4) The dell monitor has superior display specs. Oh, and the Dell 20″ is a higher resolution display–i.e. 1600×1200 (1.92 megapixels) versus the 20″ Apple’s 1680 x 1050 (1.76 megapixels). Contrast 600:1 Dell, 400:1 apple.
.
http://www1.us.dell.com/content/learnmore/learnmore.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&~f=lg&~id=monitors&~line=desktops&~lt=popup&~series=dimen&~tab=details
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http://www.apple.com/displays/specs.html
.
.
What the apple screen offers over the Dell? The following things:
(1) The 23″ and 30″ have a slightly brighter display 270cd/m2 vs 250 on the dell. The 20″ apple display is also 250 just like the dell.
.
(2) Kick ass industrial design. The apple monitors are just beautiful. By the way, the dell is a nice looking monitor. IT is in two tone aluminum and black, and actually sits well with a G5. The base and side of the monitor match it well. But it’s not as slick as the apple monitors.
.
Regardless, for the price of one apple 23″ display I bought 3 Dell 20″ displays. The dell blows the apple 20″ display out of the water in every way except design. That’s the reality. The analysis is tortured to find otherwise. This kind of gross blindness on a supposedly objective analysis makes me not entertain the other arguements which may well be on point.
I meant to type “VIRUS definitions and such”
Lies!! It’s all lies!!!! PC forever! Microsoft forever!! I writ craps for living forever!!!!
Lies!! It’s all lies!!!! PC forever! Microsoft forever!! I writ craps for living forever!!!!
PC folks are really funny. First they decide on a Yugo, then they go looking for price.
In the PC world, cheap means all the good stuff left out.
HA!
Yes – equivalent Macs are cheaper. But the problem is (at least in the US) that we live in a Walmart/MacDonalds society. Value never wins over cheap.
I heard this in a restaurant:
– Customer to Waitress: I got a complaint I wanna tell you.
– Waitress: Yes, ma’am. What’s the problem?
– Customer: The food here’s no good. And there’s not ’nuff of it neither.
Moofer1 said:
“You can move between the 4 video sources with a built in video source switcher right on the face of the Dell. Thus, the Author’s mention of DVI as if to imply it were somehow missing from the Dell is bizarre at best and seems disingenuous. “
This is exactly the sort of disingenuous crap that I’ve had to read from mainstream publications about the Mac for years. I understand your points, but I have no sympathy. Nice to see the shoe on the other foot the time. Sucks, eh.
I u
Moofer1 said:
“You can move between the 4 video sources with a built in video source switcher right on the face of the Dell. Thus, the Author’s mention of DVI as if to imply it were somehow missing from the Dell is bizarre at best and seems disingenuous. “
This is exactly the sort of disingenuous crap that I’ve had to read from mainstream publications about the Mac for years. I understand your points, but I have no sympathy. Nice to see the shoe on the other foot this time. Sucks, eh.
moofer1 said:
“First, the Dell comes with a 4 port USB 2 hub.” In looking up the dull monitor, there are lots of claims of usb ports on the monitor, but there are NO claims of usb 2. There’s a big difference between usb 2 and its predecessor. If you’re talking about hooking up a hub to the computer (“Tape a hub onto the dell”-moofer1), you can do that with the Mac too, though anyone with enough taste to get a Mac wouldn’t strap a hub to the monitor with tape. I guess there’s nothing like a redneck monitor to go with a dull, eh?
“There’s a big difference between usb 2 and its predecessor. If you’re talking about hooking up a hub to the computer (“Tape a hub onto the dell”-moofer1), you can do that with the Mac too, though anyone with enough taste to get a Mac wouldn’t strap a hub to the monitor with tape. I guess there’s nothing like a redneck monitor to go with a dull, eh?”
For the record, I have 3 of the monitors. It does have a usb 2.0 hub. Also, I’m a mac user. These DULL monitors kick booty and look pretty nice. The screens look as good or better than the apple 20″ lcd monitor. Aesthetically the industrial design is nice, but not as nice as the apple. Functionally they blow the apple 20″ lcd out of the water, particularly for the price.
As for the other poster that talks about the “show on the other foot” sucking. Again, I’m a mac user. It annoyes me when stuff is inaccurate regardless of what platform things fall on.
What the article completely fails to mention is that not everyone wants what apple includes. And the reality is there is a huge gaping hole in the mac platform. 500bux to 1500 bux tower machines, particularly gaming rigs. The reality is that PCs ARE cheaper. The reality is you often get what you pay for. Another reality is that sometimes all you pay for is a brand logo.
Reality is full of all kinds of experiences and judgement calls. The bottom line is it doesn’t help when you have people spinning the crap out of reality making it more difficult for people to make accurate assessments for themselves.
For example, I think in many cases apple’s are worth the extra cost. In the case of a 20″ lcd, right now, I think the dells are a way better deal. But that’s me. If I were getting a 23″ or 30″ lcd, nothing comes close to the apple displays (although for my money, 2 20″ dells for less money make more sense than a single 20″ lcd). Then again, if you need HD video, you need at least a 23″ lcd to see a full 1080p image on a single screen, and then the 23″ apple is actually a good deal compared to other offerings at that resolution.
Apple products are great. They do fine without people making up bs reasons that don’t bear on reality.
But I do agree with cluster8. Apple has gotten the bad end of the bs analysis stick on way too many occassions too!
And all of this comparing back and forth will be totally pointless in about 1 week when Apple introduces the FIRST 64-bit computer for home, school and office; all running on a 64-bit optimized OS (Tiger) and at current competitive prices.
The kicker will be that CURRENT 32-bit aps run FASTER because they do NOT run through an emulator as they are able to take full advantage of G5’s other architectural advantages.
http://www.apple.com/powermac/architecture.html
http://www.apple.com/g5processor/
There is absolutely NOTHING in the Windows/Intel world in the foreseeable future that even comes close!!
So – $799 eMac, brand new, comes with decent video card, nice monitor, ethernet built in, FireWire and USB 2.0, and external monitor support. Don’t forget the 1 year warranty.
It is not possible to match that in the PC world. You could kludge together something with no warranty and no monitor for a similar price, and you would also have to suffer Windows, viruses, spyware, and so on.
ok, so I just went to Dell and I build a box (set of boxes with separate ship dates, really) with about the same specs as a top of the line eMac. The Dell was a Dimension 2400 with multiple drives, an external monitor, all sorts of crazy stuff. All of which have separate ship dates. The speakers ship separate from the monitor which ships separate from the machine itself. The price difference? About $41. $1,770 for the eMac, and only $1,729 for the Dell. It’s all out there to see, I don’t think the links will work for what I have, so you’ll have to build them yourselves, but I think we know what’s the easier path, now don’t we…
ok, so notebook-wise, an Inspireon 8600 is over $3,000 for the same options avaliable on the $2,199 pBook that I bought. Talk about Dells being cheaper! wowzers…
my roomie (linux, unix network administrator) said this about that article (excerpts):
I agree with much of this. I have been saying this for years: ” Don’t buy a Ferrari if all you need to do is drive to the neighbourhood grocery store”. Most people could stand to take a look at what they buy and see if thats what they really need, both H/W-wise and S/W-wise.
Although the tone of this article attempts to manifest itself as being unbiased, the leanings are certainly toward the Mac side, and probably for good reason. Using Dell as an example underscores corporate greed these days, since Dell has never been a market leader or innovator when it comes to multimedia hardware. They only snatch market share from other reputable & innovative companies like IBM and HP. Michael Dell…all he does is copy other well designed brands and makes crappy crap to cash in on the trend.
Thought it was interesting…
Why this article leans towards Mac side is because everything this article says is true. Apple is cheaper in every way than PC.
When you buy Apple you get more with less money.
TCO cost is also much less than with PC.
Anybody can do this comparison at any time and the conclusion will be the same.
I just went to the dutch dell store and the dutch Apple store. Compared the three levels in the article myself. And tried to make the dell matches the Apple and the Apple matches the dell. ‘Cause sometimes the dell’s got a larger drive or something so I’ll add some drivesoae too the mac. so here are the prices of a dutch jury. Prices includes taxes and don’t take actions in account:
Low end:
eMac : 898.99 eur
Dell Dimension 2400 : 881.20 eur
Midrange :
iMac 17″ : 1999.00 eur
Dell Optiplex GX 270 : 2188.03 eur
High end: (without monitors)
G5 Dual 2.5 : 3319.01 eur
Dell Precision 670 (Dual 2.8) : 3167,12 eur
Funny how the dell site works: You’ll see a computer at a given price, click on it to order it and suddenly the price has changed! Could not see why they do that to me!
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