Mac Vs. Dell Price

SISO

Member
Oct 11, 2008
306
11
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Are Macs More Expensive?

I did a little research and compared Dell's most comparable model to Apple's new Mac Book pro.


Dell Studio 17
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.5Ghz 899Mhz FSB
17 inch WLED display
3GB Memory
250GB HD @ 5400RPM
256MB ATI RADEON HD 3650
CD/DVD Burner
4 USB 2.0 Ports
Ethernet
8-1 Media Card Reader
HDMI Port
Dual headphone jacks and Mic

Backlit Keyboard
Windows Vista Home Premium

TOTAL: $1399


Macbook Pro

2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 1066Mhz FSB
15 Inch LED scren
2GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x1GB (memory)
250GB HD @ 5400
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M +9600M GT with 256MB
SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Ethernet/Firewire
2 USBS 2.0 ports
Mini Display Port
Express Card/34
Audio In/Out
Backlit keyboard
Mac OSX

TOTAL $1999



Bottom line:

The Dell is $600 cheaper and you both loose and gain things. You loose some processing and graphics power (maybe not a noticeable amount, depends on what you're doing) but you can a bigger screen and several ports. You also have to put up with Windows haha. But, $600 isn't chump change. So, Macs it would seem, are a bit overpriced for what you get.
 

DAB

Mod Emeritus
Oct 9, 2008
9,434
149
63
Louisiana
I use to build desktops myself, but with the prices today it isn't worth it. We use HP business machines at the office, but they come with 3 year warranties with next day repair service.

Do you build laptops Bad? I've built many desktops over the years, but never a lappy.
 

DaJoker

New Member
Oct 15, 2008
18
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3
Roanoke, VA
Asus allows you to "build your own" with their white book lines. I have the Z71V provided through work, though it is now a "hackintosh" ;-)
 

Fergz99

Member
Oct 14, 2008
650
15
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I used to be one of the people saying the price of a Mac just isn't worth it, but after playing around with a friends macbook i am going with a mac in the near future.

Not having to use windows really is worth the extra money.
 

Deacon

Member
Oct 14, 2008
75
4
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14.4 miles from Pepe's Pizza
And not having to worry about viruses, etc... is a good thing.

I never got the whole 'no viruses' thing with a mac. I have been using a pc for ~20 years and have gotten maybe 2 viruses in all that time. Keep in mind that I have surfed many questionable sites (porn, hacker sites, freeware/shareware, gaming sites, etc)...and that is on top of the fact that the majority of virus writers are writing for Windows.

Anyone have a good explanation, or am I just in the minority?
 

limegrass69

Confused
Oct 12, 2008
6,079
245
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New York
I like the idea of the Mac. They look pretty cool, and a few friends of mine love them. The times I played around with them, I found them to be pretty intuitive and I like the interface.
My problem is that some of the things I need for work (like a Bloomberg) do not work on a Mac. So, that more or less knocks me out of the box.
 

DaJoker

New Member
Oct 15, 2008
18
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Roanoke, VA
Ah, but they DO work on a Mac. Just get VMWare Fusion or Parallels and run a copy of XP alongside OSX. It will allow you access to those windows applications somewhat natively right in OSX. No rebooting into windows like with Bootcamp. It works GREAT. I have to have IE to test websites at work, and I use VMWare Fusion all the time for this. There really is no excuse for not switching to a Mac these days.
 

limegrass69

Confused
Oct 12, 2008
6,079
245
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New York
Ah, but they DO work on a Mac. Just get VMWare Fusion or Parallels and run a copy of XP alongside OSX. It will allow you access to those windows applications somewhat natively right in OSX. No rebooting into windows like with Bootcamp. It works GREAT. I have to have IE to test websites at work, and I use VMWare Fusion all the time for this. There really is no excuse for not switching to a Mac these days.

Hmmm...good thought. Maybe I'll give that a shot. If I can't get what I want out of it for work, I can always give it to my wife to use. Although, I have a feeling she'll commandeer the computer if I were to get a Mac.
 

Davis

Member
Oct 10, 2008
576
7
18
The kicker is that Dell will often sell laptops (not top of the line but still very powerful) for under $600. They often have amazing sales when it is the end of their quarter because it boosts sales (they could care less about profit at that point).

Two or three years ago they sold laptops for $250 each.
 

Davis

Member
Oct 10, 2008
576
7
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SAP is a great reason to not switch. I'll add that SAP does work on a Mac but the newest updates generally have huge problems when running on a Mac.
 
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MM

Administrator
Oct 9, 2008
4,312
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Ah, but they DO work on a Mac. Just get VMWare Fusion or Parallels and run a copy of XP alongside OSX. It will allow you access to those windows applications somewhat natively right in OSX. No rebooting into windows like with Bootcamp. It works GREAT. I have to have IE to test websites at work, and I use VMWare Fusion all the time for this. There really is no excuse for not switching to a Mac these days.

This is what I have been doing since March. I chose VMWare Fusion over Parallels because I liked the interface better. It had more positive reviews on Macrumors. I was still new to Mac at that time. I am very happy with it. I chose XP as well due to it's stability.

I have only once booted into Bootcamp to use XP.