Review: Mac Pro beats Dell on price

[siddhu]

This is from an article on the AP newswire.

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.

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.
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.

Full Article is here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060823/ap_ ... _mac_pro_3


[/quote]

[hambone1]

Ya pays your money, and ya takes your chances!

[richardl]

This is from an article on the AP newswire.

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.

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.
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.

Full Article is here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060823/ap_ ... _mac_pro_3

[/quote]

Don't believe everything you read!

That "review" doesn't match what I found when I ran the numbers.

Mac Pro -- 2x 2GHz Dual Core Xeon, 1 GB (2 DIMMS) 667MHz ECC RAM, 250 GB SATA 7200, GForce 7300 GT 256MB, Applecare: $2448

Dell Precision 490 -- Tower, 2x 2GHz Xeon 5130 (same chip as Apple), 1 GB (2 DIMMs) 667 ECC RAM, 250 GB SATA 7200, 16x DVD+-RW, Quadro NVS 285 128MB, SoundBlaster X-Fi and 1394, Std 3-year enonomy warranty: $2156

The video boards don't match. But they are both using the base model. They are probably within $100 of each other.

If I change the configuration to the 2x 3GHz. It's Dell $3756 vs Apple $3548. If I sub the Quadro 4500. Dell $5206 and Apple $5198.

When I configure machines like the one used in that "review" I get $7689 for the Mac Pro. And a similarly configured Dell 690 (needed because of the four 500GB hard drive requirement) $8084.

Also while the Mac Pro has 4 drive bays and the Dell 490 has 3, the Dell 490 will take 32GB of RAM vs 16GB max for the Mac. The higher-end Dell 690 has 4 drive bays and will take up to 64GB of RAM. The Dell 690 also has SAS support. In general the Dell 690 adds a few hundred dollars to the price of the 490.

The Mac Pro and Dells are very very nice machines Although in the "tested" configuration is ridiculously expensive. It's hard to come up with needs that justify spending that much money before the machine become outdated.

The bottom line is don't let Apple's PR department determine what you believe just because you read a "review" that says it's so. If you are that concerned about price and value do the leg work.

[polyslax]

Still, interesting that the price argument that always went against Apple is almost a non-issue with the pro. The different configs are within 3-400$ of each other on either side - not a big deal in that price range imo.

I know, someone's gonna tell me they can build one for $800!

[Michael-SW]

The dual core Xenon processors are very new and very cutting edge. Wait a month or two to until there are some competition between manufacturers and I think we will see a bigger difference.

I saw a similar "review" when the MacBook Pro was absolutely brand new and it also qouted some ludicrous figure that Apple's nearest competitor was at least twice as expensive. That might have been true for a couple of weeks, but when I configured a Dell system to the same specs it was a a bit cheaper than the MacBook.

But there is no denying that the new Macs are much more competitively priced than they used to be.

[KU]

this is gonna sound ridiculous I'm sure, but I have a friend who works at intel who I was gushing about the performance of the Macbook Pro with with. I have always been a PC person, but I am certainly impressed with my friends new top of the line Macbook Pro. He told me to avoid the all the Intel Macs like the plague until they start using the Conroe processers. He said that once those come out, the difference in performance and stability will be extreme.

of course the new macs are great computers regardless, but its gonna suck when for the same price such a drastically better macbook arrives

[stew]

Still, interesting that the price argument that always went against Apple is almost a non-issue with the pro. The different configs are within 3-400$ of each other on either side - not a big deal in that price range imo.:

To me it's like a price comparison between Ferrari and Lamborghini when I want to buy a compact car. A Xeon is overkill for what I do, I'd love to have something similar with a Core 2 Duo instead.