Not sure what you are on about spending $1000 for 25% more performance. I have a cheap $22 CM212+ cooler, that's a pretty far cry from $1000. The gains are absolutely worth it, I have a 2500K that has a stock speed of 3.3 GHz, it's overclocked to 4.5 GHz, or about a 36% increase.

$22 for 36% more performance is absolutely worth it, maybe not for gaming now, but it's definitely useful for other tasks.

Personally, I do a decent amount of encoding video files, and the speed increase is absolutely time saving. I encode roughly 5-6 ~10 min. 1080P videos into H264 a day. The overclocking saves me about 45-50 minutes a day in encoding time. That's nothing to sneeze at.

Contrary to popular belief, violence is the solution, If you are sure you know who it is, go to town on them. Give me a baseball bat and 5 minutes with any cocksucker that steals my shit, and he'll wish he didn't. Sure you might have my laptop, but I just knocked out all of your teeth and broke your legs. Fair trade.

It's pretty easy to automate a bunch of off switches. ;)

What?

So Apple selling a machine that isn't as good as mine in terms of quality, performance, or specs., and for more money means their equipment is a good deal?

You have an interesting perception of value, lol.

Uh... Pretty sure the post I replied to specifically stated Mac were better quality than self built PCs.

BS. You can build a way better PC for the money than you can buy from Apple.

Service: I can get things done quicker myself, and done right the first time. I can't tell you how many times I've seen PCs get work done on them, only to be sent back exactly the same as when they sent it in.

Build Quality: Like anything you can get cheap parts or quality parts. However I can guarantee you can get a lot better parts then the foxconn ones used in Macs.

Here's a PC I built 2 months ago, 4.5 GHz 2500K, over 5TB of HD space, an SSD, etc. A very good PSU (where OEMs use trash). The motherboard has an over done VRM phase, and solid caps compared to the shit electrolytic ones Apple uses. Also, my stuff isn't all cramped together, and has superb airflow. The case is awesome to work in. PICTURE LINK

Here's the Specs and cost:
$220 - I5 2500K
$129 - ASR P67 Pro3 Motherboard
$60 - G.Skill 8 GB DDR3 1600
$119 - GTX 460 OC
$89 - HAF 922
$20 - CM 212+
$75 - Corsair TX 650 V2

$99 - 80 GB SSD
$79x2 - 2 TB Samsing HD 5400RPM
$59 - 1 TB Samsung HD 7200 RPM
$20 - DVDRW

$89 - Win 7

Total: $1137

Show me a Mac with those specs, at a cheaper price, and you'll make a believer out of me.

Noise level: The case uses big 200mm / 120mm fans. Since they are big, they spin slow (~800 RPM) but still move a lot of air. I'd imagine it rivals a Mac in terms of noise.

Footprint: A Mac is somewhat smaller, but really, it's a tower, it's not like it takes up a lot of room, really.

intangibles like style, macs own their category: I like the HAF 922 look. Style is subjective, what you like I may not, and vice-versa. However, with building your PC, you get to pick your case. When you build a PC you can always choose a case you like, this doesn't happen with Apple (or all OEMs really, but you referred to self built PCs in your OP), you take what they give you and that's it.



I stand by my assertion, a properly built PC is way better and cheaper than a Mac.

Nice job pulling those numbers out of your ass.

Here's the real power consumption of a 5870 right off of AMD's spec sheets: http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/graphics/ati-radeon-hd-5000/hd-5870/Pages/ati-radeon-hd-5870-overview.aspx#2

I'll pull the relevent part out for you: Maximum board power: 188 Watts

Assuming people who bitcoin mine use at least a decent power supply that is 80% efficient PSU at given load (realistically most decent ones are 82%+ in optimal load range), you're going to be pulling 235 watts from the wall per card, max.

235 watts is way less than 350-400 watts, by a long shot.

The rest of the system isn't going to be pulling huge amounts of power, since nobody who is mining bitcoin for real cash does it on a CPU, they do it on GPUs, and the amount of power a motherboard, RAM, disk drive, CPU use while they aren't really working is pretty low, usually in the 30-60 watt range, depending on your CPU, but nowhere near 200 watts of draw

Am I the only person who read that and hoped it would be more of the other way around? Got some disruptive douchebag slapping away on her cellphone near you? Turn on your GPS and toss it in your pocket.

In court, I'm under penalty of perjury.

Outside of the courtroom, there is no law prohibiting me from being a lying douche bag with any/all of my interactions with people.

I was lying to them your honor, not to you.

This above post is rated +1 economy.

Hey now, speak for yourself.

Now bow before Zuel!

That's funny. I'm writing this from my 30x5 mbit connection ( here is a link I just took so you know I'm not just blowing smoke: http://www.speedtest.net/result/1126878052.png ). Oh, and I don't even live in a major metropolitan area. I live in a mid income suburb (avg home value is about $120K).

They shouldn't be allowed to sell "Internet access" then. If I'm paying for service, and I can't get to a site because my "ISP" has it blocked, then they aren't providing Internet access. They should be forced to advertise the service as a "Restricted web portal". Yeah, they might not like it, but it would be a lot closer to the truth.

Side note: "TalkTalk" sounds cutesy. I have another cutesy for them: "Bye-Bye", as I cancel my service.

Not only that, it's a popular thing to do. *Lots* of people play video games. It's as ubiquitous as watching a movie or talking on the telephone. Just by raw numbers alone, some of the people that play them might have a mental condition, it doesn't mean it's the games fault. All it means is popular activities are popular.