gobbo's Journal: Apple-Dell price-off

Tired of the "Apple hardware is pricey" FUD, had a project needing us to compare platforms for an Avid Xpress setup, so tried to do this on the US e-commerce sites as a preliminary. Not completely comparable, since the Dell has on-board scsi, and I know it doesn't have firewire800, and the Apple has a Superdrive as well as optical audio, and holds 8GB RAM to the Dell's 4. The Xeon's are definitely faster at some things, and the G5's at others.

Generally, they're roughly the same value, if you don't consider build quality, noise, and operating system. Let's just say that if I needed a CAD system, I'd pick the Dell, otherwise the Apple would be a safer cheaper bet.

Dell Precision Workstation 650
Intel® Xeon(TM) Processor 3.20GHz, 2MB L3 Cache
Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional, SP1 with Media and NTFS
2nd Processor (Must match speed selection above)
Intel® Xeon(TM) Processor 3.20GHz, 2MB L3 CACHE
512MB,DDR266 SDRAM Memory,NECC (2 DIMMS)
Keyboard Enhanced Performance, USB (8 Hot Keys)
nVidia, Quadro NVS 280, 64MB, dual monitor DVI or VGA capable
40GB ATA-100 IDE, 1 inch (7200 rpm)
3.5 inch 1.44MB Floppy Drive
Dell USB 2-Button Optical Mouse with Scroll
56K,v.92 data/fax modem,PCI
8X DVD+RW/+R with Roxio® Easy CD Creator plus DVD decode
Sound Blaster® Audigy II with onboard 1394
No Speaker
2nd Hard Drive
120GB SATA, 7200 RPM Hard Drive with DataBurst Cache(TM)
3 Year Limited Warranty plus 3 Year NBD On-Site Service
No Installation
TOTAL: $5,109.00

Apple
  Dual 2GHz PowerPC G5
  512MB DDR400 SDRAM (PC3200) - 2x256
  160GB Serial ATA - 7200rpm
  ATI Radeon 9600 Pro
  56k V.92 internal modem
  SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW)
  Apple Keyboard & Apple Mouse - U.S. English
  Mac OS X - U.S. English
Subtotal $2,999.00

The results? G5 = $3000, Dell dual Xeon $5100. If I back down the dual Xeons to 2.4GHz w/ 1MB L3 cache, this price comes down to $3150, so the Apple is still a bit cheaper. Plus, it only runs windows if you really want to!