*Official*Anand going to buy a Mac?! EDIT: He bought one!*Confirmed*

[mpitts]

Originally posted by: Joeyman
Final Cut Pro.....puts all PC video editing software (even Avid) to shame.

Just with I could afford a decent mac laptop....$2999 WTF!!

You can get the 15" PowerBook for $1999 new.

Why is it when people look at prices for Apple computers they inevitably look at the most expensive machine available in whatever line they're interested in?

 

[JoeKing]

Because if I'm going to get a notebook I'm going to get the top of the line since its much more difficult to upgrade MACs especially there Powerbooks.

 

[Eug]

Originally posted by: Joeyman
Because if I'm going to get a notebook I'm going to get the top of the line since its much more difficult to upgrade MACs especially there Powerbooks.

Well, it's not as if you can really upgrade x86 laptops either. Anyways, the 15" PowerBook is almost identical to the 17" PowerBook. The only significant difference is the screen size (and weight). (The CPU speed of the 15" is only 6% less than the 17% - almost meaningless difference.)

I personally prefer the cheaper 15" to the 17" because the 15" is much more portable. The screen on the 17" is beautiful, but it's too big for my tastes. And both laptops support DVI out so you can run a nice external Samsung 17" monitor or something when you're at your desk.

Oh and BTW, $1999 is the retail price with free shipping I believe. It's even cheaper if you can get the educational pricing.

 

[beachbreeze]

Seven years using a variety of Mac Oses - no anti-virus software - carelessly downloading & opening without a care.

Never got spyware
Never had my homepage hijacked
Never ever had a virus

"the day will come"

well I'm still waiting...

Some fanboy's gonna come along now & say: "Well you COULD get a virus just no one's written one"
I live in the real world and as I said, seven years & I'm still waiting...

 

[beachbreeze]

"the cost, the cost..."

I keep reading about this over & over in these fora, yet you never give any facts with the comments. Every time I compare Apple's prices with Dell's they look very competitive. What I usually read is someone comparing Apple's prices with what they can make a PC for themselves. Does anyone here really think that that is a fair comparison?

I could salvage an beat out a Ford involved in a minor accident, then salvage parts from similar models & get it on the road for a fraction of the cost of a new one. Does that make Ford an expensive make of cars? Of course it doesn't. Relative to their competitors they are good value.

But let me compare owning an Apple eMac to a home made PC - since you insist.

$749.00 - with education discount
1GHz PowerPC G4
128MB SDRAM
40GB Ultra ATA drive
USB, Firewire, 10/100 Ethernet
Harman Kardon Speakers
Combo drive - DVD/CD-RW

It is a really basic first time PC with an excellent software bundle:

Mac OS X, Mail, iChat AV, Safari, Sherlock, Address Book, QuickTime, iLife (includes iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD(6)), iSync, iCal, DVD Player, AppleWorks, Mac OS X Chess and Classic environment; Microsoft Internet Explorer, EarthLink TotalAccess 2003 (includes 30 days of free service), AOL, Quicken 2004 Deluxe, World Book 2003 Edition, Microsoft Office v. X Test Drive, Tony Hawk?s Pro Skater 4, Deimos Rising, Sound Studio and Zinio Reader; Apple Hardware Test

A novice could use it for a year & then decide to upgrade. How much do you think you could up grade for $250. If they were using a PC they could buy a new hard drive and perhaps the graphics card - if the sell the old ones, and provided they don't need a new power supply.

And what will $250 get you if you had an Apple eMac? You'd sell it on eBay for $500 easily and go out and buy a brand new computer with the latest software!

So owning a new Apple eMac every year costs $250/year.
A brand new DVD-R eMac also costs $250/year
A brand new 15" LCD iMac costs the same $250/year
The 17" LCD iMac will cost more at about $300/year
The iBooks cost from $250/300 per year
The 12" and 15" powerbooks will cost you $500
The 17" is expensive in my experience, costing $1000/year
The PowerMacs cost $600/800 per year


Compared to the depreciation of PCs this is phenomenal....

but fanboys just look at initial price. So lets compare Apple with Dell, a company with a reputation for outcompeting its competitors on price. Let's make sure the PC has ethernet, firewire, a game, an encyclopaedia, DVD mastering & burning software, anti-virus protection (the Mac won't need it), a similar screen, RAM & graphics... we can ignore the PCs poorer build quality & design.

eMac DVD-R $1099 ($999 education)
Panther OS X 10.3
1GHz PowerPC G4
256MB SDRAM
80GB Ultra ATA drive
SuperDrive 4xDVD
Probably virus free for life
Flat 17" CRT with anti-glare coatings
ATI Radeon 7500 with 32MB DDR
Harmon Kardon Speakers
Appleworks drawing, painting & iPhoto
iMovie, iDVD, iTunes
4 USB, 2 Firewire, 10/100 Ethernet
1 year warrantee



Dimension 4600 - $1,246.00
XP Home
P4 2.8GHz
256 DDR RAM
120 GB SATA drive
Single Drive: 8x DVD+RW Drive
MyDVD Deluxe burning software
McAfee Security Center w/VirusScan (just one year)
Cheap curved 17" CRT
Integrated Intel® Extreme Graphics 2
Stereo Speakers
WordPerfect® Office 11
Dell Picture Studio, Photo Album Premium
Microsoft® Plus! Digital Media Edition
Must have USB, no mention of Firewire on site
1 year warrantee

Oh the PRICE, oh that expensive Apple! The spec is as close as I could get it. The Dell has better Processor, RAM, Hard drive, DVD +RW. The Apple has a better Screen, Graphics, Firewire, Software & Design... oh and it is up to $250 CHEAPER!

Let's go up market - the 17" WideScreen iMac:

iMac 17" - $1,799.00 ($1,699.00 - education)
17-inch widescreen LCD Digital 1400 x 900 custom size
1.25GHz PowerPC G4
Panther Mac OS X 10.3
Appleworks word, draw, paint, spreadsheet, database
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra
64MB DDR video memory
256MB DDR333 SDRAM
80GB Ultra ATA hard drive
SuperDrive Sony 4x DVD-R/RW +R/RW
iDVD
Anti-virus not needed
5 x USB, 2 x Firewire, 10/100 Ethernet
Apple Pro Speakers (Harman Kardon)
iPhoto
AirPort Extreme Ready
Bluetooth Option
Ottomatic, Deimos Rising, Chess
1 year warrantee

Dimension 4600C (small form factor) - $2,116.00
18.1 in 1801FP Dell Ultrasharp? Digital Flat Panel Display 1280 x 1024 (SXGA)
Pentium® 4 Processor at 2.80GH
Microsoft® Windows® XP Home
WordPerfect® Office 11 with Money
256MB Dual Channel shared DDR
120GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM)
4x DVD+R+RW Drive CD-RW including Sonic RecordNow and MyDVD LE
MyDVD Deluxe software
McAfee Security Center w/VirusScan
Front/ Rear IEEE 1394 Ports and Dual Front PCMCIA slots, 10/100 Ethernet
64MB DDR NVIDIA GeForce4 MX? Graphics Card
Dell A425 Speakers w/Subwoofer
Dell Picture Studio, Photo Album Premium
Age of Mythology
1 year warrantee


My , my there goes Apple again with its ridiculously high costs. What a nerve to charge just $417 less that that design ICON - the Dull Dimension 4600C!

So they are both small form factor. The Dell has a better Processor, Hard drive & PCMCIA slots. The Apple has better Software bundle, Graphics, DVD -+ drive, is WiFi ready and the best adjustable Widescreen LCD design on the market... and it's $417 CHEAPER.

Finally, in dogged pursuit of these "oh the cost" high prices you guys keep mentioning - lets go to the top of the range. Surely Apple is charging a professional premium (though I have heard these nasty rumours of Virginia Tech choosing Apple on PRICE over Dull & HP).


Dual 2GHz PowerPC G5 - $2,999.00 ($2,699 - education)
Panther Mac OS X 10.3
1GHz frontside bus/processor
512K L2 cache/processor
512MB DDR400 128-bit SDRAM
Expandable to 8GB SDRAM
160GB Serial ATA
SuperDrive Pioneer A06 4 x DVD-R/RW +R/RW
Three PCI-X Slots
ATI Radeon 9600 Pro
No Monitor
Anti-Virus software not needed
64MB DDR video memory
56K internal modem
iLife (including iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD), QuickBooks for Mac New User Edition, Zinio Reader, Art Directors Toolkit, Microsoft Office v.X Test Drive, FileMaker Pro Trial, OmniGraffle, OmniOutliner, GraphicConverter, QuickTime, iChat, Safari, Sherlock, Address Book, iCal, iSync, DVD Player, Mail, EarthLink, Acrobat Reader, Classic environment and Apple Developer Tools


Dell Precision?Workstation 650 - $4,495.00
Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional
Dual Intel® Xeon? Processor, 3.06GHz
512MB,DDR266 SDRAM Memory
120GB SATA, 7200 RPM Hard Drive
40GB ATA-100 IDE,1 inch (7200 rpm
SATA PCI Non-RAID adapter for 2 SATA HDDs
4X DVD+RW/+R with Roxio® Easy CD Creator and DVD decode
ATI, FIRE GL? X1,128MB,1-2 VGA/DVI
No Monitor Option
McAfee? VirusScan® 8 retail ReadyWare
No DVD mastering software - very little software at all


You know guys - you're right - this makes me laugh... that damned pricey Apple. Imagine that - they think they can get away with selling a faster computer for $1,796 LESS than an INCREDIBLE Dull!!!

Lucky you guys are around to find them out, aye!

 

[InlineFive]

I just thought of this and I am going to post it in the webblog also.

I would like to see the G5 hooked up to the forums for some benchmarks!

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: beachbreeze
What I usually read is someone comparing Apple's prices with what they can make a PC for themselves. Does anyone here really think that that is a fair comparison?

Yes, because you're using the best option from both sides:

PC - Build your own with exactly the parts you want from where you want.
Apple - Take what Mr. Jobs gives you at the price he sets.

Now stop trolling.

- M4H

 

[InlineFive]

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire

Originally posted by: beachbreeze
What I usually read is someone comparing Apple's prices with what they can make a PC for themselves. Does anyone here really think that that is a fair comparison?

Yes, because you're using the best option from both sides:

PC - Build your own with exactly the parts you want from where you want.
Apple - Take what Mr. Jobs gives you at the price he sets.

Now stop trolling.

- M4H

It's unfortunate because Macs are kind of cool. I would own a G4 if they weren't so expensive.

 

[JoeKing]

Originally posted by: Eug

Originally posted by: Joeyman
Because if I'm going to get a notebook I'm going to get the top of the line since its much more difficult to upgrade MACs especially there Powerbooks.

Well, it's not as if you can really upgrade x86 laptops either. Anyways, the 15" PowerBook is almost identical to the 17" PowerBook. The only significant difference is the screen size (and weight). (The CPU speed of the 15" is only 6% less than the 17% - almost meaningless difference.)

I personally prefer the cheaper 15" to the 17" because the 15" is much more portable. The screen on the 17" is beautiful, but it's too big for my tastes. And both laptops support DVI out so you can run a nice external Samsung 17" monitor or something when you're at your desk.

Oh and BTW, $1999 is the retail price with free shipping I believe. It's even cheaper if you can get the educational pricing.

Oh you make a good point about portability, but my dream is to have a completely modile editing studio using a powerbook and canon DV cam (gotta find some great audio editing software for macs first). Working on video and graphics on a 15" screen just makes me cringe...17" is streching it as it is But I'm budgeting 10k for this dream setup of mine with a small audio board thrown in there somwhere.

 

[Ornery]

• No updates lately?

 

[First]

Originally posted by: Ornery

• No updates lately?

The last one was March 2nd?

 

[Koing]

I read Anand going to buy a Merc for some reason.......

Koing

 

[Ornery]

Originally posted by: Evan Lieb

Originally posted by: Ornery

• No updates lately?

The last one was March 2nd?

I meant this thread...