(no subject)

[theducks]

Damn those macs are expensive

	Intel iMac	Handbuilt PC
Screen	Built in 20 inch	Dell 2005FPW ($959)
Memory	2GB (2 x 1GB)	2 x 1GB (@$107ea)
Hard Drive	250GB SATA	250GB WD SATA ($159)
DVD	SuperDrive	Pioneer DVR110D ($60)
Case	iMac G5	CoolerMaster Centurion 531 380W PSU ($180)
OS	MacOS X 10.4.4	Windows XP Pro OEM ($290)
Graphics	256MB Radeon X1600	256MB Radeon X1600 ($189)
Internal components	Intel Dual Core 2.0ghz	Intel Pentium D 820 2.8Ghz CPU 2Mb; Dual Core ($358) Intel D945 PSNLK ($229)
Subtotal:	$2479.30	$2638
Other items	Apple keyboard, Apple Mighty mouse, built in wifi, bluetooth, iSight	Apple keyboard + Mighty mouse ($113), iSight ($205), PCI 802.11g card ($46), Bluetooth USB dongle ($29.70)
Total cost:	$2797.30	$3021.70

(Disclaimer: Apple prices are educational prices, but the PC is using a faster desktop processor and motherboard.. the iMac is probably using a laptop one, since it's only 2ghz.. a 2.0ghz laptop CPU + motherboard for the PC would be $251 more)

I invite a better priced PC spec, but it must match the iMac in all ways possible, must be PCI-E, have the same video card type, hard drive size, etc :)

Comments

[pennae.livejournal.com]

i still want the new lappy though... if only it wasnt 3K+!!!

will wait and see what the ibook is replaced with

i just want a dvd burner :((

[koyote.livejournal.com]

$3k for the macbook pro? i thought they started at $2000.

[theducks.livejournal.com]

Australian prices :)

[trs80.ucc.asn.au (from livejournal.com)]

All from shopbot.com.au
Ram (Corsair ValueSelect): $107ea
HDD (WD SATA): $159
Which is another $70 cheaper.

[david adam <zanchey> (from livejournal.com)]

I would be totally unable to use an Apple keyboard on a PC, so replace that with a simple Microsoft wired keyboard/optical mouse combo for $35 from Harris Tech. HT also supply a PCI 802.11b/g card for $46 (not 108 mbps, though). Mind you, that is an awesome price on the Bluetooth dongle - where from?

I would also expect that an MSI or ASUS-brand motherboard would be cheaper, although I can't be bothered looking through them.

The educational prices are astonishing, though.

[theducks.livejournal.com]

But not using the apple keyboard, when it would work fine with a PC, would be cheating ;)

Bluetooth dongle is from http://www.eyo.com.au/prod_M-PD-BluT_proddesc_Bluetooth_USB_Dongle_PenDrive_Class_2_up_to_30Meters.html

[silne.livejournal.com]

My husband gets wholesale prices. You really want me to undercut? :-)

I might have a look at the retail prices for his work a bit later though. Some damn fine samsung monitors out recently.

[theducks.livejournal.com]

It has to be a 20 inch 1650x1080 LCD, and it has to be a dual core Pentium 4 of at least 2ghz :)

[koyote.livejournal.com]

cost of virus. cost of virus protection. cost of ilife capabilities in functional commercial equivalents. what esle?

It's hard to quantify the experience of 104 and safari as compared to xp pro and IE. I'd put it at at least 12 hours time saved per month...

[theducks.livejournal.com]

But d00d, the ROI on Windows is lower! All the studies paid for by microsoft say so! ;)

Seriously, amen to that brother, but a lot of people will go "I'm a geek, I can look after my windows box so I don't need to worry about that!" But as those prices show, you can't match an iMac G5 on terms of hardware price (and quality).

w00t!

[koyote.livejournal.com]

okay, well, I am a geek, and I could look after a windows box, but that's time away from other stuff. pretty expensive time if you calculate it in contracting pay rates.

and I admit i'm drinking the koolaid a bit here, since I support the stuff, but dude, ilife is worth $400 in pc software.

ROI? well, the resale values of macs versus PCs (excepting some oddities like fujitsu P series notebook and thinkpads) is pretty stunning :) subtract that from the total cost of ownership- more than makes up for the cost of applecare (and as far as I can tell, MS has NOT got anything approaching that level of phone support)

[ataxi.livejournal.com]

Shiny! Of course the reason you're crowing about is that Macs have always been pricier than PCs in the past, right?

Without making the software argument (which admittedly can be made in a fair number of ways in favour of Mac OS X) this is basically just a "finally Apple has its boxen at a reasonable price" celebration ;-)

I'm not a Windows advocate myself, but I guess you can assume that Vista will approximately level out the user experience issues in 12-18 months.

[theducks.livejournal.com]

Of course that's the reason ;)

And yes, Microsoft's GUI "development" team will have finished copying most of the cool stuff in 12-18 months time, then it'll slip until 2008.. by which stage Apple will be up to 10.6 or something ;)

[ataxi.livejournal.com]

The most impressive thing about Apple right now is their ability to hold to schedule, though.

[shrydar.livejournal.com]

They're not doing anything that has the sole purpose of preventing you; it's just not supported.

Does windows support EFI these days? There's no BIOS on these beasties.

[dr-jekyl.livejournal.com]

I wonder why the phrase "lies, damn lies and statistics" springs to mind...

If this is PC verses Mac, I'd actually contend outfitting the PC with Mac gear to be cheating. Show me some the lowest prices you can find on non-Mac peripherals that do the same job and then you might convince me. :)

[lizbyrd.livejournal.com]

But if you only go by the first subtotal there ISN'T any Mac gear in the PC costs...

*pokes* Reply to my comment on your journal.

[lizbyrd.livejournal.com]

Anyway, to look it another way (as Tom pointed out), all it means is that Apple finally released a product that lives up to their prices. *ducks from Alex*

[theducks.livejournal.com]

Yes well :) Assuming instead of the Apple keyboard and mouse, and the iSight, you get a $20 keyboard + mouse bundle from Target, and a $30 craptacular webcam, the total comes to $2763.70, less than the iMac.. but the quality of the thing isn't going to be the same as using the Apple stuff, which is what I'm really comparing. Using the apple keyboard, mouse and webcam means you can compare exact qualities.

I'll also grant that the $2479.30 for the iMac is not obtainable - you have to buy the mac with the keyboard and mouse, but for the purposes of comparison, we do know how much the keyboard and mouse will cost to buy seperately.

I'll agree that Mr Twain's statement applies to this, but also to almost every other thing in the PC industry :)

(and yes, you should reply to liz's comment.. some of the mail looks like a telstra bill.. :)