Business Week: Mac Pro powerhouse cheaper than Dell

[emulatorloo]

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http://yahoo.businessweek.com/technolog ... 201871.htm

Business Week: The Mac Pro: More Vroom for the Buck
With the equivalent of a V-12 engine, this media powerhouse is cheaper than a tricked out Dell

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MUSIC AND MOVIES. Although Apple is sometimes accused of overpricing its wares, that rap won't stick with the Mac Pro. When I configured a Dell (DELL) Precision 490 workstation to match the base Mac Pro as closely as possible, the price came in at $3,033, upward of $500 more than the Mac. Even a much less capable Dell Dimension 9200 came in at $1,840 when tricked out to approximate the Mac.

Apple's free software bundle is another Mac advantage. True, a professional musician would probably pay the $999 Apple charges for Logic Pro music creation software or go with the pricier Avid Pro Tools system. But someone else••”a photographer who spends $800 for Adobe Creative Suite 2, say••”might enjoy dabbling with the free GarageBand music program or making a quick video in iMovie.

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[emulatorloo]

AnandTech Review:

http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=2816

snip on pricing because I am damn tired of "macs are so overpriced"

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The Dell is clearly more expensive, although you can knock off $100 - $200 thanks to the bundled LCD (unfortunately Dell gives you $0 credit if you remove the monitor from your order). We're able to come close with our own configuration by shopping at Newegg and other vendors through our shopping partner, but note that the $2390 total does not include an OS, case or power supply.

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[Frodo]

e-loo:

I'm glad to see that the price argument is weakening. No OS, case, or power supply? Wow.

What's cool is that there's much more universal connectivity than before, so components such USB, FW, SATA, etc., could all be drawn from similar sources. If you don't want an Apple Cinema monitor for $1000, you can buy almost any DVI compatible monitor for a fraction of the cost.

Bundled apps in OSX are proving to be more useful than ever, and more than that, they are among the best and easiest of their kind to use.

Perhaps now the PC/Mac arguments can be limited to a question of taste. What is to be considered "better" is clearly up to the user-- and while discussions about platforms may be healthy, arguments about them are futile and fatiguing.

Thanks for the links!