Yesterday, we covered an article in which Paul Thurrott asserted that he had “little doubt that one could possibly configure a Dell workstation that undercuts a Mac Pro,” to which we responded, “Then do it. We’ll wait.” Well, the wait wasn’t very long. Paul got to work and first erroneously figured out the Dell was $1279 cheaper, then was chided repeatedly by the online community to fix his mistakes (some examples: here and here), eventually got it right, and in the process proved himself wrong.
“There’s been a lot of baloney published online about the pricing of Apple’s Mac Pro lately. I’ve had numerous emails from readers curious why I won’t ‘admit’ that the Mac Pro is not only competitive with a certain Dell workstation, but it’s actually quite a bit cheaper,” Paul Thurrott writes for Paul Thurrott’s Internet Nexus.
Thurrott reports, “Here’s what I did, and I think this is where most Mac Pro/Dell workstations comparisons go wrong. I tried to configure two nearly identical systems as cheaply as possible. That is, I upgraded the video card in each to be the same exact video card. I got the same hard drive. The same memory. The same processors. And I used the Dell workstation model that most closely matched the Mac Pro.”
Here’s how it came out:
Dell Precision Workstation 490 (32-bit) = $5,530
Apple Mac Pro = $4949
Apple price advantage = $581
“I won’t make any excuses here (though adding a display lowers the price difference), as my point orginally wasn’t to ‘prove’ that Dell was cheaper, only to logically compare the two systems in ways I don’t feel were done accurately online previously,” Thurrott writes. “So sure enough, you can configure an Apple workstation that is cheaper than a Dell. There you go.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Fool.
Related MacDailyNews article:
Thurrott: Apple Mac Pro ‘at least competitive and often cheaper’ than similarly configured Dell – August 17, 2006
Dude, you got a Dell? What are you, stupid? Only Apple Macs run both Mac OS X and Windows! – April 05, 2006
what a Turdoh
A sphincter says- “what?”
He’ll never get it. It’s the OS fool!
Well, the one mistake he still makes is that the baseline video card that Apple provides can drive a 30-inch monitor well for most applications (see review from Anandtech). The problem with Dell is that if you downgrade the Quadro, you won’t save much. And the difference between Apple and Dell will result in another 300 bucks or so.
Are we doing a little backpedalling there, Paulie?
“So sure enough, you can configure an Apple workstation that is cheaper than a Dell. There you go.”
That’s pretty good but I’m waiting to hear him admit that you can’t configure an Apple to be more expensive than the dell. This statement makes it sound like it takes work to get the Apple to be cheaper, when in fact its the other way around. From all the figures I’ve seen as long as the computers are in the same league, the Mac Pro is less expensive.
At the dell website right now, the 2.0ghz quad Xeon is more expensive than the 2.66ghz Mac Pros. When you can increase your speed by 33% and save $100 why would you go with Dell?
Paul Turdrrott
Does anyone actually read his bubbling rambles?
What is that sound??? Oh, it’s the sound of Turdott grinding his teeth in seething anger. Get used to it, jackass! You have a long couple of years in front of you!
You save $500 AND get OS X? How could anyone pass that kind of deal up?
Lay off, (lemme ‘splain,)
He has made a HUGE first step – admitting that reality is not like he had imagined. It’s not hard to find plenty examples of people who tenaciously cling to their illusions despite all evidence to the contrary (try the AM dial, for example.)
I expect this truth will re-emerge in his consciousness repeatedly for a while – creeping into his thoughts while he’s driving, brushing his teeth, laying up at night staring at the ceiling.
I further predict that for Paul, using Windows won’t feel so good anymore. He’ll pick up a Mac Pro or MacBook Pro, but eventually will stop using Boot Camp except for the odd review article. And OS X will remind him of the joy he felt with his first computer, when everything was fresh and new.
Someday Paul may become a huge force for lighting the way for the millions to leave behind their paths of self-destruction and switch.
Dell lost a lot of cost advantage when they let AMD into the mix. Poor Dell, boo hoo
What is hilarious is how painful this is for him. He is supposed to be objective, since he’s a reporter, and it’s so terribly OBVIOUS he is emotionally attached to one side. That’s where his credibility goes straight down the toilet.
Of course, Paulie fails to point out that the Dell is a 32-bit workstation, and in the future will be either 32-bit, OR 64-bit.
The Mac on the other hand, will be both a 32-bit AND A 64-bit workstation.
What’s the value of being able to run your legacy 32-bit apps alongside your new 64-bit apps, without performance loss?
Thurrott said he could configure a Dell cheaper than a Mac Pro desktop and he did. He only use a single processor configuration instead of two but he did get a cheaper Dell desk top.
Of course, if he had compared his Dell to a Mac mini it would have been more expensive. Equal configurations mean nothing to him. The mini is cheaper than the Dell he chose and it is a desktop. By Thurrott’s standards of comparison the mini wins.
He did not use a 64-bit Dell platform in his correction. He did not use an equivalent video card either. Still the Dell was more expensive.
See what Darling Fireball had to say about Jackass Thurrott
Hey guys, at least he can admit when he is wrong. We owe him a tiny smidge of respect for that. The ability to correct oneself in the media is the cornerstone of credibility. I would like to see MDN at least acknowledge that Paul has done the right thing for once (if only begrudgingly).
I think calling him a fool, after showing humility, is rather crass. Remember, we’re Mac Users and we take the high road. Save the snide remarks for the PC users who don’t know any better.
Loved that take, MDN.
Nice to see PT eat crow. Hilarious!
So what if the Dell monitor is cheaper? Just buy it instead of the Apple monitor. That’s what I did and it just works! (Like everything else on the Mac.)
Maybe looking at a Dell monitor would make Thurott feel less insecure.
I forwarded a copy of this article to Paul. I think it sums it up better than I could. He can now claim that his new site is award winning. Congratulations!
http://daringfireball.net/2006/08/jackass_paul_thurrott
I ask that everyone not use the phrase, “Macs are cheaper than Dells.” I cringe when I read that as nothing is cheaper than a Dell. Less expensive, yes. Cheaper, No!
Here’s the fun part of Apple computers being priced BELOW Dell computers.
Dell aggressively lowered prices to pick up market share against Hewlett/Packard. Well, the results are in AND, Dell did not gain any market share, BUT, they did lower profits by 51% on higher revenue.
Now the fun part is that Dell CANNOT lower prices any further (in fact they may have to raise them), which means that Apple has negated Dell’s ONLY market advantage.
Apple Computers are now not only superior in design, integration of hardware and software, and OS, but they are LESS EXPENSIVE as well.
Game, Set, Match.
What Thurrott should have said is this
“If you configure a Dell workstation to match the Mac Pro, it will cost more, but with a Dell you have the option to configure it with less features and add your own when your ready from the endless supply of third party companies. Something you can’t do with Apple product. Take for instance the lack of third party PCI video cards, I rest my case.”
As usual all Thurrot proves is that he’s a bonehead.
MDN:
I think you spelled it wrong… it’s “Tool” with a “T” not an “F”
mac myths debunked…
more expensive (now cheaper)… check
incompatible (now based on standards and same hardware)….. check
no software (can run mac and windows software)…… check
The only thing they really have now is that windows has a larger market share. That is the only arguement. Steve has really taken out all of the barriers to entry for the mac platform.
I think Intel is using Apple as its cat’s paw to buy back into the server business. Apple is now the one significant computer company that uses Intel CPUs exclusively in its computers. Any win for the Apple Macintosh is a win for Intel. I have to suspect that Intel and Apple have agreed to lower margins on the CPUs for the Mac Pro and also for the Mac Pro itself. Intel gains by getting back the market it has been losing to the Opteron. Apple gains by getting switchers for its high end products, especially in corporations. Intel and Apple are playing a win/win game.
I can hardly wait to hear about corporations switching to the Mac Pro, even if it is only intended to run Windows. Experiments will then naturally take place running OS X. And we know what happens next.