Computer performance should not cost more than our Cameras!

[HDNitehawk]

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@HDNitehawk: I guess I mis-spoke. I can see spending $5600 on a MacPro, I was just confused at how his friend could have spent so much and had an inferior system to the one Thomas built. If you buy the RAM, hard drives, and monitor from Apple, that definitely adds to the cost.


On another note, my MacPro is now over 4 years old (bought in Sept 2006) and still going strong. It's a dual-processor dual-core 2.66GHz Xeon. I upgraded it to 8GB of RAM, with 500GB, 2x 1TB, and 2TB hard drives. You would still have to spend quite a bit of money to match its performance.
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Where apple gets you, with your Mac Pro is the cost of upgrading the older machine gets real expensive. But I have been extremly impressed with mine.


Also...I have a 4 year old Dell with a really fast processor. It was custom speced and ordered from Dell and cost about $2200 four years ago. I have had to wipe windows off three diffrent times because of bugs and problems. Its been worked on occasionaly. Replaced the video card when it went out....and maybe added some RAM to get it up to 4 gb or so. Want to trade for your Mac Pro [:P]

[Daniel Browning]

I would be surprised if anyone took the position that Apple is comparable on cost for similar hardware. Every time I've looked, including just now, it's at least 30% more expensive, often over 100%. That's true for everything from laptops to computers to phones:


www.dell.com/.../apple-comparison


What's worse is that unlike everyone else, Apple keeps their prices fixed for a long time, so if you buy right before new prices come out, you get boned real bad.


The only sensible position is that the initial cost premium is offset by other advantages, such as better software, service, elegance, QA, TCO, etc.

[HDNitehawk]

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I would be surprised if anyone took the position that Apple is comparable on cost for similar hardware. Every time I've looked, including just now, it's at least 30% more expensive, often over 100%. That's true for everything from laptops to computers to phones:
<p sizset="41" sizcache="18"]www.dell.com/.../apple-comparison


What's worse is that unlike everyone else, Apple keeps their prices fixed for a long time, so if you buy right before new prices come out, you get boned real bad.


The only sensible position is that the initial cost premium is offset by other advantages, such as better software, service, elegance, QA, TCO, etc.
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Daniel...what you said is dead on.


And the link you posted, just like all my Dell customer support experiences. Its just not there.

[Daniel Browning]

Good one. [] Fixed now.

[Keith B]

It ain

[Daniel Browning]

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Plus aluminum cost a little more than plastic and does more than look good.

You can get non-Apple computers in aluminum too, and they're still cheaper.

[HDNitehawk]

Good one. [img]/emoticons/emotion-2.gif[/img] Fixed now.

[] $600 diffrence


Let me tell you about my last two computer purchases Dell Vs Appple see if its worth it


I bought my last two Apple Computers, brought them home pluged them in and they worked. Decided to get a bigger monitor, bought one brought it home and it worked.


Now for the Dell


At the same time bought a Dell laptop for about $2000 better than the one they listed.


It arrived, and was bugged would not work. Spent 4 hours on the phone with someone from India and shipped it back to Dell. Waited Waited...finaly 3 weeks later it arrives. Its fixed but while repairing the brand new computer they had scratched the crap out of the top. Called Dell....talked to someone from India again for hours...and finaly summed up the conversation with XXXX no I am not sending it back for repairs again, its brand new and I have waited 3 weeks already...Send me a new one....they did ...two weeks later.


Now I decide to get a monitor to use with my (what I thought top of the line new lap top). So I get on line and pick a really cool 30" monitor. Call Dell talk to someone from India again, and I ask...will this new monitor work with my new lap top..Oh yes deffinitly he says ...its on the way. It arrives but....my new lap top only has a VGA port? And the new monitor has digitial....so another 4 hours or so talking to someone from India. Yes they tell me, we have the right monitor that will work...they ship it ...and it is exactly the same monitor as the one I have. So now I have two monitors.


At this point I give the job to talk to the guy from India to a subordinate in the office. He works on it for a half day or so, brings it back to me unresolved. We then spend hours on Dell's web site and find exactly the monitor we need. We call and want to swap the monitor we bought for the right one. NO...Dell can't do it because it cost more. We have to pay for the new monitor and they will refund when we ship the other two back. We go ahead and do this...The new monitor works


End of story...no. Dell sits on our $1500 or so dollars for two months. We have to call and spend hours more and finaly force Dell in to refunding the money immdiatly. (what bothered me the most about this is that, if I had skimped and scraped money together for months to buy this monitor, I wouldn't have recieved it for three months. Thats just poor service)


Now the comparison. With what my company paid for my time talking to the people in India, not counting the lost production at work and all the heart ache. The Dell cost at least$600 more than the comparable Mac would have cost.

[Tallywho]

And that why my friend spent 5600, because he would not take my advice and get his monitor/ hard drives and ram separate from a cheaper source. He just went with macs options. I went on macs site and build a Mac Pro, not a laptop; huge performance difference between the 2. They don

[neuroanatomist]

www.dell.com/.../apple-comparison

Apples to Apples? Well, not quite. The 17" Dell "HD" display helpfully lists the resolution at 1600x900 - last time I checked, 1080p meant 1080 lines of vertical resolution, and the Dell falls short of that - anyone who edits 1080p video care to comment on doing so on a down-res'd display? The Dell comparison conveniently neglects to mention that 17" MacBook Pro with its 1920x1200 display has 60% higher resolution that actually covers full 1080p. That's just one example that I noticed, but it shows the point that when you're 'getting the same thing for less' with a PC, you need to be sure you're really getting the same thing...

[Daniel Browning]

That's just one example that I noticed, but it shows the point that when you're 'getting the same thing for less' with a PC, you need to be sure you're really getting the same thing...

Agreed. Although the Dell is slightly better in processor, video card, ram, and HDD, they don't offer 1080p on their 17" for some reason (just the 15.5").


Other manufacturers, do, though. HP does have a 1080p in their 17", though, and I just compared it with a 17" MBP, both with 1080p, 8GB RAM, 500GB 7200 RPM HDD and got $1500 vs $2750. Even with 1080p, the Apple is almost twice as much.