Apple Conputers

Lum

sam959 wrote: »

mac pro desktop has so much room to upgrade you can fit 4 of everything in it. you can have up to 64GB ram, up to 8 tb of hard drive space and fit two 3GHZ 6 core processors in it! They are so powerful its is incredible!!

So exactly the same as you can do with a modern PC then?

Which is unsurprising really, since once apple switched from PPC to Intel their hardware is actually identical to what Windows PCs use.

The only thing that sets apart Apple desktops is the design of the case that they put the hardware in, and the fact that you get to run OS X instead of Windows.

Apple also seriously price gouge, take a look at their listed prices for upgrades:
http://store.apple.com/uk/configure/MD770B/A

I'll compare prices to PC parts. I'll even used the overpriced blingy enthusiast-orientated PC parts instead of just normal ones.

Apple: 32GB memory (4x 8GB) - £780
PC: 16GB memory (2x 8GB) - £139.39 x2 = £278.78
Saving: £501.22

Apple: 512GB Solid State Drive - £850
PC: 512GB Samsung 840 Pro SSD - £449.41
Saving: £400.59. BTW Apple use Samsung SSDs in their computers.

Apple: ATI Radeon 5870 1GB graphics card - £174
PC: You can't even buy that card any more it's so old, so I went for an AMD Radeon 6870 1GB - £127.19
Saving: £46.81 and this is a far superior card, oh and AMD bought ATI quite some time ago.

I haven't even bothered to look at the purchase price for the bare hardware. We're already saving £948.62 just on the upgrades alone. That wipes out your £250 resale value already.


You really do pay a hefty fee for the privilege of running OSX. If running OSX is worth it to you then go ahead, but since Windows 7 things have been pretty damn good in PC land such that the Apple premium is looking less and less attractive.

mrochester

Lum wrote: »

So exactly the same as you can do with a modern PC then?

Which is unsurprising really, since once apple switched from PPC to Intel their hardware is actually identical to what Windows PCs use.

The only thing that sets apart Apple desktops is the design of the case that they put the hardware in, and the fact that you get to run OS X instead of Windows.

Apple also seriously price gouge, take a look at their listed prices for upgrades:
http://store.apple.com/uk/configure/MD770B/A

I'll compare prices to PC parts. I'll even used the overpriced blingy enthusiast-orientated PC parts instead of just normal ones.

Apple: 32GB memory (4x 8GB) - £780
PC: 16GB memory (2x 8GB) - £139.39 x2 = £278.78
Saving: £501.22

Apple: 512GB Solid State Drive - £850
PC: 512GB Samsung 840 Pro SSD - £449.41
Saving: £400.59. BTW Apple use Samsung SSDs in their computers.

Apple: ATI Radeon 5870 1GB graphics card - £174
PC: You can't even buy that card any more it's so old, so I went for an AMD Radeon 6870 1GB - £127.19
Saving: £46.81 and this is a far superior card, oh and AMD bought ATI quite some time ago.

I haven't even bothered to look at the purchase price for the bare hardware. We're already saving £948.62 just on the upgrades alone. That wipes out your £250 resale value already.


You really do pay a hefty fee for the privilege of running OSX. If running OSX is worth it to you then go ahead, but since Windows 7 things have been pretty damn good in PC land such that the Apple premium is looking less and less attractive.

You could of course buy exactly the same cheap parts and put them in your Mac Pro yourself instead of paying Apple for the priviledge, so that's rather a moot point you're making there. You'll also find that you pay a company such as Dell very handsomely for upgrades as soon as you stray from the basic specification, so this isn't something that's unique to Apple.

[Deleted User]

sam959 wrote: »

mac pro desktop has so much room to upgrade you can fit 4 of everything in it. you can have up to 64GB ram, up to 8 tb of hard drive space and fit two 3GHZ 6 core processors in it! They are so powerful its is incredible!!

Are you under the illusion that the Mac Pro is somehow unique in the marketplace and nothing similar exists?

Plus MAC hold there price i sold my 10 year old IMAC for £250 what would a PC be worth after 10 years?

Some prefer to pay less and upgrade more often. I know I do.

diable

A Mac is phalic it's c0ck enhacer, I only have a mac Mini ;o((((

chunter

Lum wrote: »

Apple users pay a premium for their product and so expect premium quality and premium service.

Excellent point. Apple user are overcharged so they can have that premium service. Like buying a £60k Merk....

Lum

mrochester wrote: »

You could of course buy exactly the same cheap parts and put them in your Mac Pro yourself instead of paying Apple for the priviledge, so that's rather a moot point you're making there. You'll also find that you pay a company such as Dell very handsomely for upgrades as soon as you stray from the basic specification, so this isn't something that's unique to Apple.

If you want to invalidate your warranty sure.

But you are missing my point. I was responding to a post that said you should buy a mac because they are available in such high spec, with the implication that you cannot get a PC so powerful. I was pointing out that yes you can and you can do so for a lot cheaper.

You are right to avoid Dell, so lets compare a prebuilt system from PC Specialist. I tried to get the systems to be as similar as possible, but the PC ended up with a significantly better graphics card and an 8 core CPU instead of six core.

Apple:

£5032

PC Specialist:

£2926

Click the thumbnails for full size.

mrochester

Lum wrote: »

If you want to invalidate your warranty sure.

But you are missing my point. I was responding to a post that said you should buy a mac because they are available in such high spec, with the implication that you cannot get a PC so powerful. I was pointing out that yes you can and you can do so for a lot cheaper.

You are right to avoid Dell, so lets compare a prebuilt system from PC Specialist. I tried to get the systems to be as similar as possible, but the PC ended up with a significantly better graphics card and an 8 core CPU instead of six core.

Apple:

£5032

PC Specialist:

£2926

Click the thumbnails for full size.

You don't invalidate the warranty on machines that Apple have designed to be user servicable.

Cash-Cow_3

This thread has grown arms and legs.......... as usual.

sam959

Apple still looks better!

Lum

With the possible exception of Firewire, which most folk never use, Those are standard on pretty much every PC.

Oh, apart from the mini displayport because that then needs an adaptor to use with every non-apple monitor ever made.

Personally if I was going to spend money on a premium system, I'd go for something like this:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-093-OP

Yes the case looks a bit gash and it only has 6 cores, but most apps can't even take advantage of 3 cores yet, so it's better to get that one where they run at 4.2GHz

Combine that with a nice shiny 27" Hazro monitor like this one as that is the part you will actually be looking at and you're good to go.