[clue-talk] - - - anybody know anything about these guys . . . ?

[Brian Gibson]

Not that Apple bars purchases of Mac Pro for the home,
the Mac Pro isn't necessarily considered a home PC. 
Based on the specs, it's a "business class" machine. 
Hence the "Pro" monicker.  Then there's the fact that
"Average joe" no longer spends $3000+ on a computer. 
It floored me when computer prices dropped under the
$500 price point.  Notebooks hit that mark recently
too.  Personally, with every subsequent computer
purchase I've spent less and got more for my money.

Now let's look at Dell.  You can get a similarly
spec'd Dell Precision Workstation for just under what
you would pay for the Mac Pro.  No surprise.  In most
situations, we're past the point of being able to
compete simply on hardware.  Therefore, Mac wins out
in the OS department since OS X > XP 64 and you get
all the nifty bundled software.  But with the Dell you
get a 3 year warranty vs 1 year.  You get a more
powerful video card in the Dell---Quadro FX 3450 vs
GeForce 7300.  Let's make it more even by putting
Quadro FX 4500s in each box and upgrading the Apple
warranty.  The Dell now went from having a $200 price
advantage to a $800 price advantage.  (Dell must've
struck some sort of deal with nVidia.)  Of course once
you factor in software purchases to match iLife and
what not, that $800 advantage whithers away but i'm
sure the Dell still comes out ahead.  

Here's the kicker tho.  With Dell you can upgrade the
processer to 3.73 GHz (2MB cache tho) and you also
have the option of installing 10K RPM drives instead
of 7200 RPM drives. I know for a fact 10K RPM drives
have been out for more than a year and when it comes
to price-performace is a better investment versus
upgrading your processor.  I/O is still the major
bottleneck in computers.  (RAM drives anyone?)  As I
said, Macs tend to lag somewhere when it comes to the
latest technology when configuring the box.  I suspect
the reason why is because every Mac is prebuilt for
each permutation and they have sufficient quantities
of each SKU based on projected and actual sales.  This
probably applies more to the Mac Mini than the Mac
Pro.  Of course, without an Apple employee to confirm
that's just my guess.  In order for Dell to provide
all their numerous options, each one is custom built. 
There's a 2-week lag with each sale.  In contrast, you
can just pull a Mac off the shelf at any Apple store.

So to say that Apple provides the fastest available
prebuilt home system is a bit of a stretch because a)
you can configure a faster machine from Dell and b)
the price of both the Apple and Dell are not within a
typical home budget.  Have you seen gas prices today?
Are you stuck with an ARM mortgage?  Do you have 2.5
kids?

I certainly believe the Apple is the better
out-of-the-box experience though, and would whole
heartedly recommend one.  Apple has been on my watch
list for my next purchase over the last year.
Unfortunately, even though most of what I use a
computer for is OS agnostic, I still go where the
games are and right now that's on machines capable of
running Windows.  Though that may be less of a
consideration as the consoles continue to improve. 
Regardless, I'm not paying $3000 for a new computer no
matter who makes it.  




--- Nate Duehr <nate at natetech.com> wrote:

> Brian Gibson wrote:
> 
> > However, you don't get that without a price.  Macs
> > tend to be about 6 to 12 months behind in hardware
> > technology and depending on the model there's
> little
> > you can upgrade beyond memory and hard drives.  As
> is
> > typical with most Apple products, there's very
> little
> > that is user-serviceable.  With Apple, you're not
> > buying a piece of hardware, you're buying an
> > experience (and more or less into a philosophy).  
> 
> I would disagree at the moment.
> 
> Mac Pro is by far the fastest desktop machine
> available pre-built for 
> home consumers, in the new quad-processor format, a
> format not easily 
> obtainable by the "average Joe" from anyone else.
> 
> And the MacBook's available 2.0 GHz dual-core
> processor isn't exactly 
> anything to sneeze at.  Definitely not "6 months
> behind" anything.
> 
> > So should the newness and lack of specific info
> make
> > you wary? No. At the same time, just use common
> sense
> > and do your homework when dealing with any
> (internet)
> > company.  And if you have questions, better to
> contact
> > the company to get answers from the source instead
> of
> > a third party who may only be able to offer
> subjective
> > conjecture, as informative and long-winded as it
> may
> > be. :)
> 
> Yes, definitely do your homework.  :-)
> 
> The rest of your missive seems reasonable or at
> least one man's point of 
> view.
> 
> Nate
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> 


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