“For years, Macintosh computers have been praised for their cool looks and elegant simplicity while being knocked for often carrying a hefty price premium over Windows-based machines sold by Dell Inc. and others. It’s time to think different – again,” Robert Weston reports for The Associated Press.
“The recently released Mac Pro maintains the Apple shine in design, usability and software but also does something unexpected: It turns the old Mac versus Windows PC price equation on its head,” Weston reports. “A low-end Mac Pro will cost you $2,124 compared with $3,071 for a nearly identically configured Dell Precision Workstation 490. The Mac is about $947 cheaper – and the gap widens when you start piling on options such as more memory, faster processors and bigger hard drives.”
Macs are “also capable of running Windows if you’ve got a copy of the Microsoft Corp. operating system and supporting software from Apple or others,” Weston reports.
Weston reports, “The Mac Pro workstation is not only competitively priced, it’s fast, too… And the latest Macs are cool, literally. In fact, they run so much cooler that Apple was able to remove about half the fans used on the older machines. It frees up room for more features and makes for a considerably quieter system. The Mac Pro also is expandable. It comes with two optical drive bays, four PCI Express expansion slots and four hard drive bays. The computer also can handle up to 16 gigabytes of system memory.”
“Once again, Apple has produced a computer that really shines. With its ability to run Windows software too, it’s an attractive system for any Mac or Windows-based business or high end consumer who needs a powerful machine at a competitive price,” Weston reports. “The difference in price – and that it was in Apple’s favor – was so surprising that I contacted Dell to confirm that I had not made a mistake in configuring its workstation.”
Weston reports, “Dell spokesman Marco Pena suggested that the numbers might be closer after configuring the Mac to include a three-year warranty similar to the Dell offering. ‘But I think we’re still going to end up a little higher than the Mac,’ he said. ‘The results were a bit surprising to me too,’ he said. ‘But it is what it is.'”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Ken” for the heads up.]
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