The last time a Mac was built by Apple themselves was when they still called it "Lisa". OK, maybe not that far back, but they moved final assembly to subcontractors in China sometime in the previous century. (And long before that, most of the components were made by other manufacturers in China too.)
Of course, they can still control the quality of the machine, even if it happens to be made by someone else.
Originally Posted by
HDNitehawk
They control the quality of the machine, unlike a PC where any one that wants to be a box builder can buy the cheapest junk (ahem ...AMD) possible and put in it.
Not so. Right now, my $2700 Macbook Pro is part of a class action lawsuit to be reimbursed for burned out graphics cards. Apple tried to save money by buying NVIDIA's reject video cards -- ones that weren't good enough for anyone else, but could be sold cheaper to Apple. They promised Apple that they would last at least three years before they burned out, but the reliability turned out to be so poor that they got another lawsuit. (This is different from the other lawsuit I mentioned about having 6-bit panels and claiming "millions of colors".)
Everyone puts the same stuff in their computers - but I think Apple does work harder to test them and make sure they will work (with exceptions like the above).
Originally Posted by
HDNitehawk
cheapest junk (ahem ...AMD)
Nonsense. AMD is just as reliable as Intel, and for the last decade has provided superior cost/performance ratio. Intel is faster, but disproportionately more expensive.
Originally Posted by
HDNitehawk
A PC with the same components in an Apple would be a fairly decent machine.
It depends on the individual case. If I had built my own computer instead of buying Apple, then I wouldn't have even had the option to buy NVIDIA's reject chips at half price, and I would have been forced to build something with much higher quality than Apple, that would have lasted more than 2 years before it burned out and died, and I wouldn't get the joy of being in this class action lawsuit (or the other one with the 6-bit displays).