The Apple Mac Cost Misconception

[cabose369]

in his quote that ebay price is $1599... for some reason the 1 got carried down.

 

[Guest]

I was kind of surprised about the price difference in your and VTOLfreak's MacPro build. So i tried it myself:
VTOLfreak said 6000? (8000$).
My result:
? 5.169,00 (with two 2,8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon)
? 5.889,00 (with two 3,0 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon)
? 6.599,00 (with two 3,2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon)
The original procesor wasn't mentioned originally, so I'm doing all the conversion:
1? = 1,5415$
5.169,00? = 7968,0135$
5.889,00? = 9077,8935$
6.599,00? = 10172,3585$
So here it is. I don't know where VTOLfreak got the idea of 6000? = 8000$, but 8000$ is right. I assumed he originaly used ? so I picked an european, non mainstream, apple site: http://store.apple.com/at/

 

[Guest]

? should have been ? (some mistake occured)

 

[Guest]

Well sorry the last time, I'm unable to get EURO in my comment.

 

[eodeo]

Also for $350 HP offers a full warranty with drop and smash. So I could throw my HP right at your stupid head for thinking Mac's are better than HP's. Break the HP over your head. Then send it to HP to be fixed and it 5 days or less I have a new laptop. Apple CAN'T TOUCH THAT!!!)

So in actual fact this 17" HP laptop (which is in everyway superior to the macbook) weighs LESS than the Macbook and is only a little thicker. And the 15" laptops are the SAME thickness as the Mac`s.

Sweet. I did not know that 😀

This article started to show how Macs aren’t as bad as most know them to be, but all it did was to show that they’re actually worse than most believe.

 

[spaztic7]

You want-to-be nerds are pathetic trying to think of ways to defend pcs. I recently bought macbook pro because it is the best laptop out there bare none. The key here, is Laptop, not desktop.
MacBook Pro, 15-inch, 2.4GHz $1,799.00(anyone can get student discount)
Part Number: MB133LL/A
2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM - 2x1GB
200GB Serial ATA @ 5400 rpm
SuperDrive 8X DVD+R DL/DVD+RW/CD-RW)
MacBook Pro 15-inch Widescreen Display
Backlit Keyboard

$1799-$200(sell free ipodtouch on ebay)= $1599.

Next time you retards try to compare a dell with a 25% off coupon, don't try comparing it to the full price of a Mac.

Next thing is Warranty:
$239 3 Year Apple warranty(you can take it to any Apple store worldwide for 99% of the repairs)
vs
$200-300 3 year warranty you have to mail in and wait 1-4weeks for repairs.

Then you need to compare the OS.
OSX
vs
XP/Vista

Anyone who thinks OSX sucks, have you ever tried hackint0sh? Obviously not. Did you so called "enthusiasts" forget that OSX runs on top of *NIX?! Limitless possibilities there. Master the crap known as Windows, does not make you an enthusiast. Take some linux courses and get with it.

And for the rest of the "general" population, forget having to buy spyware,malware,virus-scan,firewalls,patch security holes and instead have all that already built into OSX. Once again, did you forget it even has iptables?

The last importance is looks:
MacbookPro
vs
XPS/HP

Do I even need to say more? 1 inch thick and 5.4 pounds. Not only that, it's actually flush on all sides unlike the staggering layers of Dells/HP.
When you open the lid of your dell/hp and let go, does it stay exactly in place, or does it bounce a little bit? (craftsmanship anyone?)

Apple is slightly more expensive on the hardware side, and I certainly wouldn't reccomend anyone buying a Mac Pro especially buying memory from Apple. But when it comes to laptops, who wants a 2 inch/10 pound laptop? The next option is to get a severely underpowered 7"/13" mini laptop missing many standard features.

Buy a MacbookPro for $1599 and build a custom Asus/intel/nvidia/quad core/hackint0sh as a pc.

Ok buddy.... here we go.


First, lets all use our big boy voices here, k?

Please remember, us nerds who are pathetic have 91% of the market. Go keep your 8% niche market.

Just because you bought a MacBook Pro does not make it the best out there or give you the right to make a claim that it is, with no tangible proof. You opinion is yours, as mine is mine, but please don't put people down because you think your right. As we should not say someone is wrong about what they like, as it is their money and they have the right to waste it on whatever they want. You wasted it on an overpriced, trendy, notebook. I have a MacBook, so... so did I.

The point is not that its a laptop or not, so you cant play games on it. I know many people with laptops/notebooks that can play games on them. The point is that you can't play up-to-date games on a Mac. Most games that come out for it, come out a year or over from release date on PC. The majority of games that come out, never see the Mac light for it is not a market that you will make money in. Simple as that. Not enough people have a Mac (lappy or Desktop) for developers to care.

You are now blaming the retards that are getting a 25% discount on their dell, that is more powerful then the apple? Um... why? Maybe if apple would do sales like that, it would help Apple sell them. Please think before writing. Don't blame people because they are frugal with their monies. Also, pay more, get less? Sure. Your right. All you get on a Mac are trial versions for 60-90 days for applications that matter. You also get a remote that does not go anywhere on the laptop. That's great, isn't it? Normally you get better warranty with PC's, better quality build with PC's (this is my opinion based on the business dell notebooks I work with daily, Sony Vaio’s, business end notebooks from HP, and also the high end notebooks from all vendors that are targeting them toward gamers, enthusiast, or high end market). You are right though, who needs a free blue-ray player with their Sony computer?

It's nice that you have time to take your notebook to an Apple store and have a "Genius" fix it. Can you do my laundry for me? I don't have time for that. I work full time, college full time, and just had a kid. So, if you have all this free time to drive everywhere (especially cause the closest apple store to me is ~100 miles away), I have a list of things I need done. Thanks pal! 😀 For me, I would rather have the part sent to me so I can take care of it or send it back to them. This makes it simple on me.

"Then you need to compare the OS.OSXvsXP/Vista Anyone who thinks OSX sucks, have you ever tried hackint0sh? Obviously not."

I think it sucks. Happy now? No I have not tried hackint0sh or OSx86. But why should I? Why wont Apple make OSX available for PC? What are they afraid of? Maybe they know they will loose sales of the overpriced, over engineered computers. I recommend Vista over OSX. Not only that, lets compare the two OS. First, this is Microsoft’s 6th attempt at one (not counting DOS). Apple is on, well they say 10.5, but in all honesty its their 11th OS. So lets compare Apple OS6 against Microsoft OS6, Vista. Which one would you rather have? The Mac OS jut got halfway decent with OSX, and you will hear that from Mac people. When Microsoft gets to their OSX/OS10 we will compare the two and see who is more advanced. K?

"Limitless possibilities"

No such thing. Everything has a finite number. It's just how big that number is. They always say that the newest hard drives are so big, their virtually limitless. How many of us have filled up "limitless" hd?

You said it better than anyone here. "Take some Linux courses and get with it." Linux... Is this not what Apple is? What is the difference, other than true Linux is free... Apple is overpriced. Mac was a UNIX like/based OS when it was on risk processors. But now that they came over to the dark side... that would make it Linux. Thank god I can pay for a version of Linux! Apple, what would I do without you!

"And for the rest of the "general" population, forget having to buy spyware,malware,virus-scan,firewalls,patch security holes and instead have all that already built into OSX."

This is pure marketing BS. Get educated!

You last paragraph is a confusing one. The last great thing about a Mac is you opinion of how a notebook should look? Why aren’t you running companies?! I have a MacBook, and when I open the screen, guess what, IT BOUNCES!!!! It is about 2 month old! As I said before, it makes a lovely cracking noise just to let you know that you’re flexing it.

My point for this is what you think a notebook should be and what other think they should be are different. Some people care about other things of have a use that Apple can't do. We have choices for a reason, its just a shame that Apple wont allow us to chose what computer we want to run their OS on.

 

[Guest]

I have to admit I read all 32 pages of comments because... I love a flame war. Couple of points:

1. The author never refuted the point that the laptop he chose and unsuitable laptop to compare to the Macbook Pro. Many commenters have pointed out systems with similar or superior hardware that were significantly less expensive.

2. the author appears to have been mistaken about the shared memory on the Dell laptop he used for comparison. It's a pretty small excusable mistake in my opinion, but he should have at least acknowledged or refuted it.

3. I am unclear as to whether the PC hardware he picked for the pc hardware was appropriate or not. Did he mismatch the motherboard and cpu and, if so, would the same cpu for the correct socket have the same cost associated with it? I'll have to research this one a bit more.

I don't really understand why people get so worked up about the whole PC vs. Mac thing. I guess I just consider all computers to be pretty damn cool. Even if one is slightly better than another they're all far superior to... say... getting kicked in the junk.

This is a strange article. To me it seems like it contradicts itself several times. It won't prevent me from reading THG in the future but I'll certainly take anything Tuan Nguyen writes with a grain of salt.

 

[KyleSTL]

Even if one is slightly better than another they're all far superior to... say... getting kicked in the junk.

No truer words have ever been spoken.

This is a strange article. To me it seems like it contradicts itself several times. It won't prevent me from reading THG in the future but I'll certainly take anything Tuan Nguyen writes with a grain of salt.

Yeah, he should be writting for the Fudzilla/Inq of the Mac world.

 

[Guest]

using Dell XPS M1730 for starters made this article lose credibility.

Earlier today, I just configured a Dell XPS M1530 and below are the specs:
-=-=- spec comparison for the nerds -=-=-

Apple Dell
MacBook Pro XPS M1530
Size 1x14.1x9.6 (.93-1.38)x14.1x10.3
Weight 5.4 lb 5.8 lb
Processor 2.4 GHz Penryn 2.4 GHz Penryn
Display 15.4" LED 15.4" LED
Resolution 1440x900 1400x900
RAM 2GB 3GB
HD 200GB, 5400RPM 320GB, 5400RPM
DVD 8x dble-layer 8x dble-layer
graphics GF 8600M, 256MB GF 8600M, 256MB
Ports
USB 2 3
HDMI 0 1 (Type A)
VGA 1 (DVI->VGA) 1
dl-DVI 1 0
IEEE1394 2 (1394a, b) 1 (1394a)
Ethernet 10/100/1000 10/100
SD rdr no yes
battery 60 WHr 56 WHr
camera 1MP 2MP
bluetooth 2.1 EDR 2.0 EDR
wireless 802.11n 802.11n
audio out line/optical line
cost 1799 + tax 1369 + tax

 

[Guest]

$2799 - $2773.33 != $5.67. Come on guys.

 

[robbh66]

[citation][nom]compy386[/nom]If you're stupid enough to pay retail for a Dell, then Apple just might be the computer for you.[/citation]

You're the epitome of stupid PC users. What you don't understand is that MOST people DON'T want to spend their lives hunting for the best price for a computer. Even more so, most people don't want to spend their days configuring them just to make the damn thing work.

Of course, then again, from your comment you probably buy dell. When I used to use PCs I actually built them myself, noob.

 

[willgonz]

Ok for one thing. Those systems out there that are like $600. Those systems are priced to sell. They are made with cheap components and their warranties are 1 year or less. I know the components are cheap because I am the guy who people bring their computer to. I have fixed these lower cost systems time and time again. Granted they keep me in business, but still I would never buy one for myself. What I do like about the Mac OS is what you get out of the box. PDF creation is there. I can create and mount ISOs. Spell check is embedded into the OS so every little piece has spell check, including this Comment box I am typing in.
Here are some of the downfalls.
Not a lot of games for Macs unless you do Boot Camp.
You can't build a custom system.
The good news:
Because you are not able to build custom systems the drivers are more tuned to the OS. 75% of Windows problems are their device drivers. Everybody and their brother is creating hardware for Windows. So to make it run so good is difficult. Research has shown that Windows runs better on a Mac than say a Dell. That is because it uses these specific drivers to the hardware.

Here is how I sum it all up.
Get a Mac to get things done.
Get a PC thrown together to customize and play games on.
The Mac will last you 5+ years just fine.
Since PC's are so cheap buy a $600 system and use it with your Mac.

 

[willgonz]

Ok for one thing. Those systems out there that are like $600. Those systems are priced to sell. They are made with cheap components and their warranties are 1 year or less. I know the components are cheap because I am the guy who people bring their computer to. I have fixed these lower cost systems time and time again. Granted they keep me in business, but still I would never buy one for myself. What I do like about the Mac OS is what you get out of the box. PDF creation is there. I can create and mount ISOs. Spell check is embedded into the OS so every little piece has spell check, including this Comment box I am typing in. I know you can download programs in Windows to add these features, some are shareware/adware/freeware/etc but why bother.

Here are some of the downfalls.
Not a lot of games for Macs unless you do Boot Camp.
You can't build a custom system.
The good news:
Because you are not able to build custom systems the drivers are more tuned to the OS. 75% of Windows problems are their device drivers. Everybody and their brother is creating hardware for Windows. So to make it run so good is difficult. Research has shown that Windows runs better on a Mac than say a Dell. That is because it uses these specific drivers to the hardware.

Here is how I sum it all up.
Get a Mac to get things done.
Get a PC thrown together to customize and play games on.
The Mac will last you 5+ years just fine.
Since PC's are so cheap buy a $600 system and use it with your Mac.

 

[eodeo]

If you're stupid enough to pay retail for a Dell, then Apple just might be the computer for you.

You're the epitome of stupid PC users. What you don't understand is that MOST people DON'T want to spend their lives hunting for the best price for a computer. Even more so, most people don't want to spend their days configuring them just to make the damn thing work.

With that attitude, I think that I see a Mac smiling with your name on it

When I used to use PCs I actually built them myself, noob.

When you used to use PCs? When was this in pre 486 era? Let me guess, you’re a happy Mac user now. You process words and listen to music all at the same time and to boot it - it all just works, doesn’t it?

Here is how I sum it all up.
Get a Mac to get things done.
Get a PC thrown together to customize and play games on.
The Mac will last you 5+ years just fine.
Since PC's are so cheap buy a $600 system and use it with your Mac.

You lost me. Why would you use a Mac in the first place? To get what things done? Write words and listen to music? Is there one(1) objective reason you would want to pay 2x more $ for a useless custom, forced build by apple? I didn’t think so.

 

[cabose369]

uh by the way.. the way the new Mac's are built (last 2 years to present) it'd be a miracle if you got 5 years out of a Mac. I see Mac's come in broken all the time and I sell them.

Yesterday there was a Macbook that came in, 4 months old and the battery is gone... that's a new record for shortest battery life. She only used it 4 times or so a week.

But yes Mac's are built very crap right now and lots have broken HDD's, mobo's etc.

 

[Guest]

OMG, this is a flame filled with PC zealots who don't have a clue. The ONLY thing you can complain about with a Mac is that Apple doesn't make low-end hardware. But I think Tuan should not have compared only top end Macs such as the MacBook Pro (which I own). The MacBook Pro has a lot of extra features that make it worth the $2K, but for the same reasons, the XPS isn't worth in components what it costs.

One reason it is hard to compare Macs to Dells is Dell make like 40 different models and screen size laptops, Apple makes 4 (MB 13, MBP 15, MBP 17, MB AIR).

Look at a MacBook 13(my wife's) $1099... A comparable Inspiron 1420 with standard warranty is $1275 after upgrades to get it up to minimum camparison with the MacBook. But the Inspiron then has 3GB of RAM and 250GB of disk space. Those upgrades from apple direct would be enormous in price. But for about $99 you can get a 4GB upgrade from OWC, and a 250GB hard drive wouldn't be horrible in price either. So after upgrades, they are comparible. The problem that still exists, is Apple can't compare (retail) with the $650 starting price of the 1420 even though I paid $850 for my wife's MB 13 new.

I will have to say, iLife and Mac OS X are much better than XP/Vista for me. I'm going to com out here and say it. Most of the hardware geeks reading this are using stolen Windows licenses anyway, so that $150 Ultimate upgrade isn't an issue. OS X and iLife are included int he price of the Mac.

Those with no cash to spend will not like Mac because there really isn't a low end laptop (try a mini!), there is no changing that till the MacBook DIRT comes out at sub $700.

 

[Guest]

There are also the a couple of the underlying things that are also worth mentioning. Target disk mode that lets you use your mac as a firewire 400 or 800 drive, a switching ethernet jack that detects when it needs to be a cross over cable or a straight through cable. Also not everyone is interested in playing games, my 4 year old powerbook g4 is still great for programming, photo/video editing, and it even works as a mobile web server (MAMP) for internet less testing/debugging. I think all of you need to chill out, if you don't like macs don't use them no one is forcing you too. If you have nothing better to do than sit an complain that someone else likes to use something that you don't approve of maybe you should go complain to your parents for raising you to be so ignorant.

 

[nukemaster]

First off, no matter what Apple brain washed you with, an Mac IS A PC(PERSONAL COMPUTER)

stolen Windows licenses

How can you make that assumption, Ultimate does not have anything extra for most users and for under 100 you get Home Premium

I am glad you enjoy your PC(Mac), that is the only thing that matters in the end.

There are also the a couple of the underlying things that are also worth mentioning. Target disk mode that lets you use your mac as a firewire 400 or 800 drive, a switching ethernet jack that detects when it needs to be a cross over cable or a straight through cable. Also not everyone is interested in playing games, my 4 year old powerbook g4 is still great for programming, photo/video editing, and it even works as a mobile web server (MAMP) for internet less testing/debugging. I think all of you need to chill out, if you don't like macs don't use them no one is forcing you too. If you have nothing better to do than sit an complain that someone else likes to use something that you don't approve of maybe you should go complain to your parents for raising you to be so ignorant.

Target disk mode is cool

Auto MDI-X is a standard to all current network devices. It was invented by HP
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/abouthp/iplicensing/automdix.html

long as it works, good.

My old system does all my pvr duties as well as web, voip and file server. Why waste something that works.

 

[Guest]

These responses sound like the voices of children. We have all built a cheap machine. None of them would compare to a Mac in fit, finish , and design. I have been using Windows machines for years and have finally had enough of crappy operations, constant security "fixes" and the tons of trash software that PC's always come with. The applications that come with Windows are crap. Movie Maker? Please. Microsoft wants to make a business operating system. The apps they ship that aren't business focused are generally crap. Apple does make some great consumer software and it comes free or cheap in comparison to MS.
i have always loved that I could build a PC that did what I wanted and came with what I wanted. Clearly there is no comparison in the OSX world. What I am gettion form the Macs that I have bought after years of building Windows machines are machines i don't have to spending more time securing than using. the software that comes on the Macs gets used by everyone in my family. Not just the geek/gamers reading this article that think they are the whole world.
Finally as far as speed, I have built MANY windows machines. I know how to keep them lean and edgy as i am sure most of you do. I don't find them to any faster than the Macs I own for what I use them both for or I would not have wasted the money in purchasing a couple pig machines.
At the end of the day, believe what you will and spend your money on what gets you the best results for your uses. Speak from knowledge and experience and not assumption.

 

[Guest]

"Apple needs to launch a Mac tower, with components in line with the iMac, which would prove to be more sensible and popular as well as more affordable."

The guys at Macworld magazine have been saying this forever and I completely agree. Macworld calls it the "mythical midrange mac minitower."

 

[Gatto]

Today I came to Tom's to check hard drive benchmarks, and I find a Mac article. Interesting. I never understood to whole Mac vs. PC debate... the comments here seem rather tiresome to me. If we had a discussion on whether Sun workstations are simply overpriced PCs, any of the same arguments for and against would be applicable (it would be an almost identical question), yet I can't imagine that the discussion would elicit the same kind of malevolence and antagonism I see here. I've never understood why people get so emotional about this issue. If we want to compare prices, that's fine, but it wouldn't really strike me as particularly important to a lot of consumers. Most Mac owners didn't go broke buying their computers, and regarding the Lexus analogy: I've heard people justify what to me would be an unnecessary $20,000 on a car with the argument that they spend two hours a day in it; if you spend 8 hours a day at a computer, a few hundred dollars difference for one computer seems fairly trivial for most people of typical economic means. And I'll also wager that most Mac owners also own and use PCs, and so, it seems silly to me to ostracize them on a PC enthusiast site. I happen to have a couple of Alphas along with my Mac. I'll tell you just how great Alpha is, right after I'm done evangelizing Amiga and laserdisc.

Regards

 

[Guest]

This is like saying you can buy a Toyota that has 195HP or you could buy a Ford that has 195HP. They both have 4 wheels, they both have the same "umpfh" but one costs more than the other. What's the big deal? Ever since Apple moved to Intel hardware all you hardware gurus have been bashing the price of that Mac you can't afford. Give it up. You're not just paying for the hardware because unlike Windows, you can't just buy Mac OS X -- the thing that makes that extra money worth it, unless it's genuine Apple hardware (EULA). If Windows was exclusive to only Dell, Dell would cost a lot more.

 

[Gatto]

There is another article here on Tom's, "iSCSI SANs Compared : iSCSI Appliances By Adaptec And Enhance Technology", in which are reviewed two iSCSI appliances, the least priced of which is cited as being $1750. There is not a single comment on the article. It might be pointed out that for $500, you could get a PC with the same functionality, as an iSCSI target, and you could do this with linux or FreeBSD (take your pick; they are both free). Not to mention, you can use it to transcode movies in the background. It won't look as good as that shiny Enhance Technology box. Not one comment on either of these being overpriced, or probably any of the other reviews of the NAS appliances. But just mention Mac and flame on. Seriously.

 

[Guest]

"and have yet to sell 1 of the Apple packages" - uforik

Um, that's because everyone is buying their Macs at the Apple Store or the college bookstore and not in your "small computer retail chain?"

Macs. More expensive than PCs. And worth every penny.

The end.

 

[blinkdt]

Back again ;-) Another former student brought in an Inspiron 1520 today, 2GHz - 3GB RAM - 250GB HDD - Wireless N - Bluetooth - Headphones - Vista Home Premium - $699 plus tax. Said she found it on sale at Circuit City? Dunno, but the system was snappy and responsive. I loaded up Office 2007 Enterprise for her and sent her on her way.

And I learned today that two other former students have *gasp* bought Macs. They're dating and likely will marry after their college years, I hope they go on to high income-earning jobs if they hope to raise an Apple tribe.

So that's about 40 laptops for college-bound kids this summer.

Dell/Microsoft = 38
Apple = 2

Do the math.