Puncturing the "PCs Are Cheaper Than Macs" Myth

jcatcw writes "The recently converted Scot Finnie went notebook shopping. At the high end of the notebook spectrum, in order to get comparable power and features, a Dell machine comes in $650 over the Apple, and it was clunkier and weighed more. Sony couldn't beat the Apple either. Midrange and low-end machines, though, turn out to be pretty comparable, with more choices in the PC arena but some good values if you happen to want what Apple has decided you need. So, if you're talking name-brand hardware, it's just no longer the case that PCs are cheaper than Macs."

Comments

Horrible Comparisons!

[moore.dustin]

Well thanks for busting the 'myth?', I guess, but it actually fact in case you were wondering.

This comparison is bogus, using "name brand" hardware and using Dell as a comparison. This may work for the plebs that buy Dells or whatever, but here on slashdot... sorry no dice. Laptops are one thing since you cannot build them yourself, but even so, they do not come in cheaper. Anyone who has priced comparable laptops knows this to be true... the writing is on the wall, or at least on the bottom line.

The difference becomes glaring in the desktop sector though. Especially to us here, where we build our own machines. Everyone knows that you can get the specs for a G5, go to Tigerdirect, Newegg, wherever and price things out piece by piece and come in well under what that Mac would cost.

These are not guesses either, I am sure many here have done the same already as I have. I have bought a laptop and built a PC this year and managed to get great machines for at least a savings of $500. On my desktop, I managed to come in around $750 less than the G5. That was for the whole shebang too, box, power supply, OS, everything.

I for one, am fed up with this huge wave of Mac fanboyism based on false beliefs. They make great machines, but they are over priced, to most people, for what they offer. The problem only compounds in the tech community because actually have insight in what things should and actually do cost.

Goodbye karma :)

Re:Horrible Comparisons!

[moore.dustin]

In business time is money this is why companies that are not in the business of building PC's do not build thier own PC's. Just like you drive a car but you dont build your own...it is not cheaper. If you want to puy a system with the most bang for the buck and it to work...and it to be capable of RUNNING EVERYTHING then a MAC is the only choice. Are you kidding me? If that were true Macs would be all over in the business world. Your arguement is flawed is so many ways it is hard to even reply. Business do build their own machines all the time, not all, but the bigger it is, the more likely they mess with their hardware. If you have 20 machines in your office, you are going to have PCs so you can:
1) Get them cheaper out of the box
2) Maintain them easier - hardware and software wise - replacing parts is possible!
3) Ability to upgrade

Now if you are buying one machine for your office, sure Mac is probably a choice to consider, but for anything where every employee has a computer, Macs are not even in the race.

Time is money? Sure, but money is money too. PCs are manageable(software), upgradeable, and cheaper to maintain and fix, period.

Re:No competition on the low end

[QuantumG]

Yeah, god forbid you read the article, or even the god damn summary.

Can't say I'm surprised, a Mac user is exactly the kind of person who would bring a sword to a gun fight.

Hmmmm not sure where they be shoppin'....

[DarthVain]

Seeing as I just priced out midrange laptops for a buddy of mine like 3 months ago, and I myself just built a PC 3 weeks ago, I would have to say that the idea that PC's are the same price or more than Mac's is incorrect.

My buddy wanted to spend around 1000$, no more than 1200$ on a laptop. I am not a big laptop fan myself, but Dell(online), HP(online), Apple(online), and several name brands at local computer stores were compared. I liked the Dell but it was about 1400$ for what features I suggested to him. The Apple was 300$ BEYOND that. The HP was about 1200$ so he went with that solution. The brand name computers being sold by a local computer store were about the same as the Apple. So you can take what conclusions you like from that.

As to my PC. I built it from the components I wanted, bought at a store online and it cost me 1700$. To get the same PC from Dell probably would have cost me 2700$. I have no idea how much an Apple equivalent would be, but I can tell you right now it would be a hell of a lot more than 1700$. The fact that I can pick and choose what components I want, and that I have a choice of manufactures, and various places to buy said products is the strength of the PC. You can choose to buy someplace else at a cheaper price, you can choose a better component if you wish... etc... So again you can take what conclusions you like from that as well.

Here is my over all conclusion. Apple/Mac users are dumb. Some are dumb, like stupid, others dumb like ignorant. The stupid ones need something simple to use, or can't handle simple tasks such as learning how to use things. Ignorant, simply don't want to bother, and don't care. In either case the view/opinions of said individuals can also be broken down into those categories. The weight of the article is also the same. Any time I see an article written by a Mac zealot they are either too stupid to realize that their comparisons are not valid, or ignorant of the fact and just don't care to look beyond whatever conclusions they had previously made before the review was ever written. To say that I am getting somewhat tired of this sort of crap is evident in the harshness of this post. This was probably just a Troll post anyway.

Don't get me wrong I am far from a PC fanboy. Just get the damn facts straight. Macs are good. They are also less flexible, and more expensive than a PC. Apple tried the TCO bullshit argument, just the same as window's tried the TCO against linux. The idea that you would pay more in tech support, upgrades, etc... all BS. One of the problems is that most PC owners take whatever their masters say with a grain of salt, and until a thing is proven independently not to buy in. I have see too many times some apple punk will say, "My apple is faster and better than your PC, because Apple told me so, here is a graph and everything!". See my comment about stupid above.

A key example of this are the "I'm a Mac/I'm a PC" commercials. Don't get me wrong I love them and think they are well done and funny. However they are only really truthful if A) you are stupid and b)you take them without context. One of the stupid comments in the post (no doubt gleaned from the truthiness commercial) is that Macs are somehow more secure than PCs. How can they even say that? Macs have what, 5% market share??!!? So they are more secure because no one will bother to write evil code as you will only hit a few machines. Again see my comment about stupid people. Now I am not saying that PC's are the most secure systems in the world, I have had my system hosed (but because I was using pirated unpatched software). In all these cases APPLE is talking about WINDOWS PC's of course. How about a Linux PC? I challenge Apple to prove that one. Anyway all I am saying is if the roles were reversed RIGHT NOW and Apple had 95% and Windows 5% of the market share after several months I am pretty sure every Apple would explode or something (yes I am being sarcastic).

Anyway I have ranted long enough on this stupid subject that seems to never

Re:No competition on the low end

[geekoid]

Also, why don't you compare pears to Oranges while you are at it.

Re:To the average person

[homer dulu]

Now, anything *else* you want to make your self look like more of an idiot over? so...where's your comeback? no reply? cat got your tongue?