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For those who think Apple is too expensive

I

iDavidLeeRoth

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 4, 2006
117
0
I'm going to buy a 20 inch imac for myself. It will cost me $1300. This is how much it would cost me to buy a PC at that price (software isn't included because tons of people don't pay for it) :

300 dollar LCD monitor:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1293263&CatId=1410

Webcam: 65 bucks
http://www.amazon.com/gp/amabot/?pf..._m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=148WNFZMZR7QHMZBNXTM

There, we've spent 365 bucks and we have NOTHING yet.

That leaves us only 935 dollars to buy a kickass pc.

I configured a Dell similar to the iMac that I'm looking at. In some ways, the iMac kills the Dell (most ways). However, the Dell includes 1gb ram. Nonetheless, the specs are fairly similar.....


PROCESSOR Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6300 (1.86GHz, 1066 FSB) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® XP Professional with re-installation CD edit
MEMORY 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz- 2DIMMs edit
HARD DRIVE DataSafe 250GB (Includes main hard drive plus a hidden reserve hard drive) edit
OPTICAL DRIVE Single Drive: 16X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) w/double layer write capability edit
MONITORS Video Ready w/o Monitor edit
VIDEO CARD 256MB nVidia Geforce 7300LE TurboCache edit
SOUND CARD Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio edit
Accessories
SPEAKERS Dell AS501PA 10W Flat Panel Attached Spkrs for Analog Flat Panels edit
KEYBOARD LOGITECH MX 3000 Laser Mouse/Keyboard Combo edit
MOUSE Mouse included in Wireless, Laser or Bluetooth Package edit
FLOPPY & MEDIA READER No Floppy Drive Included edit
MODEM No Modem Requested edit
OPTIONAL PORTS IEEE 1394 Adapter edit
Software
PRODUCTIVITY Microsoft Office Basic - Includes Word, Excel and Outlook email edit
ANTI-VIRUS & SECURITY PC-cillin Internet Security with AntiVirus and Spyware removal 15-months edit

Dell Recommends
Help Protect Your New PC!
PC-cillin™ Security Software, 24 months!
Help Me Choose
Upgrade to PC-cillin Internet Security with AntiVirus and Spyware removal 24-months [add $20 or $1/month1]
DELL DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT Starter pack- Basic and trial products from Corel and Yahoo edit
Service
HARDWARE WARRANTY 1Yr Ltd Warranty, 1Yr At-Home Service, and 1Yr HW Warranty Support edit

Dell Recommends
An Additional Year of Service!
Upgrade Your Years of Service. Choose 2 Years of Service and protect your investment!

(If Complete Care selected, number of years must match warranty term)
Help Me Choose
Upgrade to 2Yr Ltd Warranty, 2Yr At-Home Service, and 2Yr HW Warranty Support [add $100 or $3/month1]
DIAL-UP INTERNET ACCESS 6 Months of America Online Membership Included


Bottom line: this dell does not include a monitor and is STILL more expensive. It's also big, loud, clunky, and ugly. The iMac is INSIDE THE FREAKIN LCD! It doesn't include ilife, iphoto, garageband, or ANYTHING useful. The iMac is a steal.... throw away your thoughts about it being too expensive. The PC was nowhere near worth competing against the imac. The imac kicks ass at 1300 bucks, while this pc will be slow as hell in a year or sow at around 1800 bucks.
 
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THis discussion again? Besides, most of the people on this particular forum are with you, so aren't you kinda preaching to the choir?
 
Ok. Your case is rather extreme. I am going to go ahead and assume the $1300 iMac is used and hopefully an Intel.

Use actual market prices in your comparison. As not everyone is capable of finding a deal. Even the Refurb 20" Intel iMac is $1399 + tax, which would be a slighy better comparison. However the actual retail price on Apples site should be what you use if you want to compare.

Not to say the iMac is not a good deal. But use realistic prices if you want to do comparisons.

Also, that dell has a Core 2 Duo and 1GB of RAM as you said. It would be a faster computer. So consider that. Also, to assume that a Dell with new parts will be slow in a year is stupid. And the same argument could be used against the Mac you are praising. Heck, in comparison to the Dell the iMac is already slower.

Now if you are basing the slowness factor on the OS (Windows) sure I can get with that. Otherwise your argument is rather weak.
 
These new iMacs certainly do give you a lot of bang for the buck and Apple cuts very few corners in these AIO configurations.

The displays are beautiful and the quality of the iSight camera is suprising.
you can also add a second external display if you wish and still have plenty of room
at your workstation.

As chaotic as business travel has become, I think we may be seeing a whole lot more Videoconferencing too.

It will be very interesting to see the next revision.
Hopefully the 17" model will get bumped up to 2.0 GHz or better.

I would consider 1 GB minimum RAM if you want respectable performance.
 
I'm so sorry, I meant 1700 for the imac. I'm tired, what do you want?!? :D Yes, I am basing the slowness of the dell on the crapload of spyware that will surely accumulate. With viruses, exploits, etc on top.

Plus, even fairly old macs can still run OS X rather well. Try running Vista on an older (circa 2000-01) pc and see what you get.
 
The desktop Core 2 Duo you've picked out for your test-Dell would run laps around the (mobile) Core Duo in your test-iMac.

I can't even think of a comparable Core Duo desktop on the market today. It's either old-tech Pentiums or Core 2 Duo if you want an OEM desktop (or AMD).
 
macs are expensive...

I can build a decent PC for 6-700.... macs jsut dont coem that cheap..
and I CHALLENGE to you to find me a new running mac for $400

EDIT:: 100th post whoop!
 
iDavidLeeRoth said:
I'm so sorry, I meant 1700 for the imac. I'm tired, what do you want?!? :D
Click to expand...

So $100 more for a faster, dare I say more future proof :rolleyes: computer with more expandibility? Great comparison bud, you really convinced me.
 
ljump12 said:
macs are expensive...

I can build a decent PC for 6-700.... macs jsut dont coem that cheap..
and I CHALLENGE to you to find me a new running mac for $400
Click to expand...

Yeah, let me see that $600-$700 working for you in a year with your 1.5Ghz Celeron and 512MB of RAM. Heck you might even have an 100GB hard drive.

If you want to build worthless plastic boxes, have at it. However when you buy an Apple you are getting a computer that WILL last YEARS. Not a junker you will be throwing away next year because it cant run 3D pong.
 
iDavidLeeRoth said:
I'm so sorry, I meant 1700 for the imac. I'm tired, what do you want?!? :D Yes, I am basing the slowness of the dell on the crapload of spyware that will surely accumulate. With viruses, exploits, etc on top.

Plus, even fairly old macs can still run OS X rather well. Try running Vista on an older (circa 2000-01) pc and see what you get.
Click to expand...

Yes, that is the benefit of Apples end to end hardware/software solution. They can optimize to make it run on any Apple they want.
 
I build all of my own PCs. The price of building your own PC isn't really comparable to buyng one from a manufacturer because it's always going to be more expensive to buy from a company.

Bottom line, the usability, quality, and intelligence of both the hardware and software (XP vs OS X = no comparison) is what makes the macs awesome.
 
iDavidLeeRoth said:
I build all of my own PCs. The price of building your own PC isn't really comparable to buyng one from a manufacturer because it's always going to be more expensive to buy from a company.

Bottom line, the usability, quality, and intelligence of both the hardware and software (XP vs OS X = no comparison) is what makes the macs awesome.
Click to expand...

Thats a myth geeks like to promote. It is cheaper to buy a comparable computer from a company, as they buy in large volumes and can afford to sell something cheaper.

A better argument is the customization possbilities and "fun" that lure people to build their own computers.

Also, you can build a nice PC and use Linux for this usability, quality and intelligence you speak of. Considering you can build a computer, I assume you could handle Linux.
 
I used to use ubuntu, but I was frustrated with the driver support. A screensaver should not bring an AMD 3700+ 1gb ram system to a damn halt, just because I have an ati card.


Dapper won't even boot on my PC. Besides, when you build your own, you know exactly what goes in it.... it is also made better.
 
iDavidLeeRoth said:
VIDEO CARD 256MB nVidia Geforce 7300LE TurboCache
Click to expand...

Are you kidding me? This is the cheapest card in the Geforce 7 series. Not a bad card by any means but not even comparable to the Radeon X1600 in the iMac.

The iMac has a far superior graphics card.
 
GFLPraxis said:
Are you kidding me? This is the cheapest card in the Geforce 7 series. Not a bad card by any means but not even comparable to the Radeon X1600 in the iMac.

The iMac has a far superior graphics card.
Click to expand...


I know that! That's why I said "The Dell is better in some ways, but the iMac is better in most".
 
suneohair said:
Thats a myth geeks like to promote. It is cheaper to buy a comparable computer from a company, as they buy in large volumes and can afford to sell something cheaper.

A better argument is the customization possbilities and "fun" that lure people to build their own computers.

Also, you can build a nice PC and use Linux for this usability, quality and intelligence you speak of. Considering you can build a computer, I assume you could handle Linux.
Click to expand...

I actually find it cheaper to build myself, because while the large companies buy in large volumes, they also mark it up more. When getting a super-cheap PC ($300-$500) it is much cheaper to buy from, say, Dell, but once you get to around $500 it starts getting cheaper to build. When you hit around $1000 it is WAY cheaper to build.

If you buy refurb parts it becomes even cheaper and can cut the price almost in half.

I'm one of the biggest cheapskates on the planet, I have more money in my bank account as an unemployed college student than my sister has working full time while living at home. That said, I'd still take the Mac, just because of the better hardware/software setup. It really does "just work".
 
We could also save tons of money building our own home, working on our own cars,
growing our own food and so on, but some people just want the dang thing to work out of the box.

If you make a living tinkering with computers GREAT!

If you earn you living by how much you get done, you don't have time to tinker.
 
It's so cool that it's possible to use the ilife suite 5 minutes after opening a brand new mac. I know that isn't the case on the pc. You have to restart a few times to get everything up to speed.
 
I'll vouch for the "no time to tinker" people.

Because if you are using your time wisely, you don't spend every day configuring your computer. You spend it doing other things like keeping the GF happy, or earning money for the new Apple you are going to play with :D :D :D
 
FFTT said:
Yes but I spend my spare time using my computer, not working on it.
Click to expand...
I've come to this point, and I no longer want to deal with it. I've already switched my mom (sorta), my brother, and two friends.

Killer! Steve Jobs told me that my check was in the mail :D
 
All that, and the added fact the PCs can't (legally or securely) run Mac OS X, while Macs can run the big 3 (Mac OS, Linux, Win XP).

dejo said:
The cheap keyboard you got with that cheap PC doesn't appear to be working properly. It's mixing up the letters. ;)
Click to expand...
good call ;)
 
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