Dell’s Media PC is twice as expensive as an iMac
Posted by: dnorman in Uncategorized, tags: apple, dell, hardwarePeople have said that Macs are more expensive than PCs. Until Apple made the switch to Intel chips, we had to basically eat that, because there was always the Apples-to-oranges comparison. Now that all new Macs are running the same chips that Dell etc. use, it's fair to make direct comparisons. And the result blows me away. Not only are Macs NOT more expensive, they can be cheaper. Much cheaper. Like, half the price cheaper.
Bill Bumgarner (bbum, to the WO folks out there) posted a rant about how badly the Dell online store sucks. I took it with a grain of salt, since Bill works for the Fruit Company. Then I clicked through. He was talking about Dell's new Intel Core 2 Duo "Media Guru" - obviously poised to take down the iMac. The user experience of the Dell online store is absolutely dreadful. I mean, wow does that suck. For a company with all of its business coming through their online store, you'd think they'd spend some effort to make the experience easy, efficient and maybe even not-painful. Maybe they should switch back to WebObjects…
I finally found the system Bill was referring to, and eventually managed to configure a system on par with a comparable iMac. Here's what I set up:
Dell's Media Guru (iMac killer?)
Now, for comparison, here's the iMac:
iMac Core 2 Duo 20"
Both are from the "consumer" stores, in US dollars, without any edu discounts. I had to tweak both slightly, selecting a faster processor in the Dell, and upgrading the video card, RAM, and adding AppleCare in the iMac.
The iMac is roughly half the price of the comparable Dell.
Yes. I know you can get cheaper Dells. You can get a free one just for signing up for DSL now. That's not the point. Those are el-cheapo POS PCs. For a decent system, you're looking at paying up to twice what you'd pay for a comparable Mac.
Update: Just for kicks, I tried configuring a Mac Pro with display to see what it would take for a Mac to be as expensive as this Dell. I wound up with a quad Xeon, 2GB of RAM and a 23" Cinema Display, still costing less than the Dell…
MacPro with 23" Cinema Display
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mmm, the XPMs M2010 must be a bad value. You can certainly get Dell machines with Core 2 duo processors (thy use the faster Conroe btw) and 24″ monitors for less than $4K. I guess this model is some sort of all-in-one iMac analog. Still, the price is shocking. But there are other XPS models that are modular (separate monitor) that come in WAY less than this Dell price.
The iMac is a pretty good value though, I’ll agree.
Marcos: how about them laptops?
I am surprised that even with the RAM upgrade and AppleCare it beat that system but that system price is nuts, especially for dell. I work in a total Mac office and other Mac areas of campus (Math) can actually prove that Mac’s total cost of ownership kills the standard PC… but no one listens. IT tells everyone Macs aren’t compatible with anything, still. Mac users are just zealot computer freaks who drive volvos, why listen to them?
…or they are trendy web folks…
You can even take the base model core duo dell with a 17″ monitor and you are still $500. more than the iMac with similar configuration plus the imac has a much better software package than the Dell. People who buy dells must be stupid. The mac is a much better value proposition and you can run Windows too… if you really want to.
I just got my MacBook Pro and boy, am I happy. Plus I’m running three different operating systems–OSX, Linux (Suse) and Windows. Hard to do that on a PC. Plus I agree with the TCO comment above. I do way more support for windows people than mac people. Though I will say, there are a handful of mac people who bought macs because they aren’t “technical.” When those people try to do more complex things, they sometimes get in trouble.