A fundamental reason behind the commercial success of Windows PCs over Apple's Mac has been the wide price gap between the two platforms. Apple computers always cost more than PCs, so most people save money by buying into Windows.
Right? Wrong. Today's Macs are often cheaper than their Dell equivalents. And the new Mac Pro is ridiculously cheaper than the Dell Precision 690 workstation.
I configured a Dell Precision 690 to match the tech specs of Apple's base Mac Pro. In fact, I even paid to add more RAM to the Mac to exactly match the Dell.
And the saving was still £2,046! Enough for me to add a second DVD-R drive and Apple's iLife suite of creative apps, and still be less than half price.
Dell Precision 690, dual Xeon 2.66GHz, 2GB RAM, 250GB hard drive, 256MB nVidia graphics: £3,975 (inc. VAT)
Apple Mac Pro, dual Xeon 2.66GHz, 2GB RAM, 250GB hard drive, 256MB nVidia graphics: £1,929 (inc. VAT)
Whether Apple focuses any marketing on this amazing turn around remains to be seen, but this switch in expenditure is truly astounding.
Comments
asdf said: I just checked Macbook Pro 15 inch with 22ghz i7 is 2739 in Australiabut a Dell XPS 15 same specs plus a dedicated graphics card beats intel hd always is only 119920That is 1540 more than double more for a worse laptop
uidiot said: the dell includes a display try comparing lowend macs to pcs stupid macmini is 600 NO display monitor for that price get a DELL with 17flat panel all goodies and upgradability
BIO said: While I checked the US site the only 256 mb nVidia card Apple offers is the GeForce 7300 GT 90 while dell offers 2 nVidia cards with 256 mb the Quadros FX 3500 1300 and 3450 900Doing an Oranges to Oranges comparison using the the nVidia Quadro FX 4500 that both offerDell is 3800Apple 4150
Adam said: Intel Macs dont run XP at native speeds XP relies heavily on virtual memory HDD access and doesnt support the MacOS driversformat EFI is it
Stringy said: Also as far as I can tell on the UK Dell site you can only only configure your PC with a single Dual Core processor and not with 2 of them like the apple I guess I might be missing something though Dell website is like a labrinth
stringy said: Quote - Posted by simonjary on August 11 2006 Actually you can configure the Mac Pro without iLifeAre you sure about that seems to me you can configure without iWork but seems that Ilife is included in any config
Martin Hadfield said: Not only are they beating Dell on price vs performance the new Mac can run Win XP and MacOS X at native speeds using Apples bootcamp You get a superior hardware for less with more options My Dells are already on ebay -
SwissMac said: One thing that is being overlooked here is that the Mac comes with a vastly superior operating system the acclaimed OS X Tiger soon to be updated to the even more desirable OS X Leopard You just cant get OS X on a PC but you can get a virus
Seele said: It is perhaps not quite the first time that a Macintosh is cheaper than an equivalence PC but by having such a price advantage margin it helps to dispel the myth that Macs are expensive since a lot of people use sticker price to judge the cost of a product TCO is not something which comes to mind of the man in the street but a lower ticket price can indeed get them through the door However the Dell had to be configured to match the specs of the Mac Pro and the missing parts are not often mentioned in the advertisments Dell or any other PC assembler would rather leave the computer quite pared-down so as to appear to be less expensive than a Mac and that is what gets the man in the street into the PC platform in the first place
James said: gt Well see how long that lasts Dell is just too big and has too much control over the channel to stay far behind in priceIm not sure of that Problem for Dell is that its profits are being badly squeezed in the cheap end by HP and Lenovo and so it has to make and plenty with the top end machines This strategy is now badly threatened by the new Mac Sure Dell can reduce prices there but where does it make moneyAnyway that is irrelevant The point is that Mac Pro are cheaper than equivalent machines Dell is just an example
simonjary said: Actually you can configure the Mac Pro without iLife - which is what I did in this scenario And I took out the modem from the Dell It really is an equal comparison
Bennco said: Doesnt the new macs already come with iLice suite software
Bennco said: Sorry - iLife fat fingers
ADeweyan said: Hmm Not such a Mac ExpertAll of the features you mention are available as add-ons when purchasing a Mac The total additional price would be just a few hundred dollars Of course the key difference between these products for the Mac and the PC equivalent is that the Mac products would actually work
Mac Expert said: and Apples iLife suite of creative apps Uh Simon That software was already included with your computer All Macs come with iLife no matter the configuration except the Xserves The bigger problem really is that these comparisons are rarely directly equivalent Most PCs also offer TV-out for example and modems are usually on the mobo None of the current Mac lineup has either of these features Six slot mobos support for SLI video LightScribe burners PVR functionality These are often included on many PCs but are nowhere to be found on Macs
Mac Pro - true workstation said: The Mac Pro is a serious workstation - amazing power Im glad Apple passed on the Conroe for the towers and went with the XeonUp to quad 3Ghz for 3K drool The Quad G5 with Quadro graphics was probably the first true workstation from Apple but now all of the towers are true workstationsIn a few weeks we will see real benchmarks and comparisons to the DellsPCs and G5s - then well know the true powerStill waiting for Kentsfield and a 4-way with quad core 16chips in mid 2007 yummy
addaramchp said: Aramespecially since apple bumped up the base price of the mac mini - that was dissapointing It was really bad since the low end is core solo A 499 mac mini is really needed They need a basic mac mini a standard and the Home Theater version with TV tuner at 450 600 and 900
price advisor said: Well see how long that lasts I love seeing Macs win in the price war but Dell is just too big and has too much control over the channel to stay far behind in price
Aram Fingal said: You are quite right within the scope of your comment that Apple Computers are quite often competitive or even better priced than PCs The problem lies in the cases where you do the comparison the other way around In many cases you can take a PC and find no real equivalent at all from Apple How about a sub-notebook or an economy model that has expansion slots