You decide…

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  • http://about.me/parrack Dave Parrack

    Don’t you just love the Apple ‘premium’? Er, no.

    • http://twitter.com/sbeckstead Scott Beckstead

      Yup I love that premium, I’d be surprised if the crap PC with the discount parts made it through a year.  The base warranty on the Apple is worth about half the price of the crappy PC.  Being able to call or walk into a store that sells the hardware AND software and ask questions is priceless.

      • Anonymous

        The average lifetime of a PC is four years… a Mac six years.

        • Anonymous

          Maybe so for Macs 3 years ago.

          The quality over the recent years for mac haven’t been so good.

        • Anonymous

          Maybe so for Macs 3 years ago.

          The quality over the recent years for mac haven’t been so good.

          • Anonymous

            I wouldn’t know about only recent Macs. I don’t have any data for that. But I know I plan to keep my MBP Early 2011 for a long time, which I got as a (really early) birthday present in February. I’m not going to be getting a present like this for a long time.

        • KM_

          Haha, 6 year lifespan for a Mac? Not if you want to be fully up to date. Just about every other new release is dropping support for hardware or limiting support for hardware over 3 years old.

          • Anonymous

            Drop support or have a computer that can’t keep up with the new OS’ demands, your choice. Oh and BTW, that Mac, whether you upgrade it or not, will perform just as good as the day you bought it (so long as you don’t clog it up with lots of corrupt pref files, etc.). Plus, the installer blocks are based on simple plist values, just change them and you can install on an unsupported computer. Like installing Leopard on dual 800 MHz G4, which are better than a single 867, but unsupported.

            Oh, BTW. My first Mac was a Power Mac G3. Tiger was on it and it ran as smooth as you can imagine. That’s year 2005 OS on year 1999 hardware on 2005 OS. Now Lion is supported on up to 5 year, 2 month old hardware. Soon that will be 6 year old hardware in Late October 2012, so I don’t know what you’re talking about.

        • Max McFarland

          So I’ll take the money saved on the PC and buy 2 PCs. 2 x 4 = 8. Longer than the single Mac and will have 4 years newer hardware in the end.

          • Anonymous

            AVERAGE lifetime is 4 years. That’s across the variety of hardware for the PC, so the more expensive ones contribute to that average. As soon as you get a cheaper PC at half the price of the Mac, the expected lifetime would probaby drop. So some of the price increase is for the longer lifespan, but then some of it is for the myriad other improvements on a Mac.

      • Ghceotto

        Yeah, if u mean $9540.00 is priceless, then I agree.

      • CAB

        Hahahaha hilarious. They are all the same hardware when bought at the same time as “new”. Apple gets the same video card, sound card and processors from the exact same manufacturers as PCs do. Stop kidding yourself. If both machines are maintained well, as all PCs and Macs should be, they will survive just as long as the other. The only thing that hurts is your wallet, common sense here.

      • Email

        So you are willing to pay over $5000 to be able to ask questions at a store?  I tell you what, for 1/2 that $2500, I’ll fly to your home and answer questions.

  • Arbom

    You can buy the base model Mac and buy third party for all of the upgrades and get close to the same price, plus the mac includes an OS. this is not a fair comparison

  • Greg

    Although the mac pro is overpriced, the iMac is a much fairer price. I agree with this, but rather than comparing a super-PC with a super-Mac, compare the high-end iMac 21″ and 27″ with an identical PC. Especially with the 21″, the iMac price gap should be smaller. Also, I agree that Apple is a bit overpriced, but the quality you get is great. I have an iPhone and iPod touch. I also own 4 old macs, but no modern intel ones. The old macs are what I have from being an old computer collector.

  • JerryBerry

    This is bullshit — the Windows (crap OS!) machine cost does not include the price of hiring someone to build it for you, or all-inclusive warranty & support. Also, where are the performance stats??? Another idiot savant – focused on the trees, can’t see the forest ~

  • JerryBerry

    Order this up at Alienware and let’s see the price! Comparable monitors??

    • Whooohooo123

      Denial?

  • Tomdri

    You do the math. I thought the engineers at Apple were good at math and science.

  • http://www.makeuseof.com/ Joel Lee

    I suppose the price of being a hipster is $6,000. xD Jokes, jokes.

  • Maybe

    Actually, yes :) It does work better on a Mac. Because the OS is optimized much much better for a narrow range of Mac hardware. Even hackintosh’es work faster than windows on the same hardware.

  • http://ipadboardgames.org James Bruce

    Please people, I dont why you even bother trying to point out all the many ridiculous flaws in this pathetic attempt at humour. Just ignore it and move on… 

  • Steve Mcwilliam

    If all these Apple devotees/proselytizers wish to pay inflated prices for the same damned machine (diff. OS obviously) then let them they are obviously overpaid snobs.  Me. I’ll stick with my PC and thank you very much.

  • Daniel Joshua

    Makes me go nuts…WTF the same configuration yet nearly 6000 $ to be wasted for A Mac premium

  • http://twitter.com/jackkeller Jack Keller

    For me as a long time Mac user it comes down to the OS, if a non Mac could run OS X I’d probably go that route, I just found that when I ditched Windows (around NT 4) I’ve had zero critical crashes requiring me to reinstall the OS, and for good measure I’ve used Windows XP and even use Windows 7 occasionally as Virtual Machines and even as an occasional testing platform they need to be reinstalled a couple of times per year.

    So the cost offset can be a lot of things, for me time is money and time wasted on reinstalling an operating system is money wasted.

  • happyAPPLEgirl

    Not getting a virus in my 5 years of owning my “too expensive” MAC…. PRICELESS.    I always will stand by MAC. I was happier than a pig in mud to hand off my PC to someone else. FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUU PC.

  • dchandler380

    Apple products are overpriced crap.

  • Tonyd

    Thing is with Apple never discounts or slides their prices. Its been a while since they released new pro models. When they first come out they’re cutting edge hardware and are more price comparable to PCs with the same new hardware. As time goes on the PC price slides and the Mac price doesn’t making the differences more dramatic. Also the base machines, OS and software are much more competitive but adding on memory and other hardware makes the difference more dramatic. Apple also tends to charge larger premiums for peripherals like the monitors. Compare at the start of the product cycle, buy with base memory and add your own, buy with base HD and add raid or more drives, buy third party monitors and prices are much more competitive with the same OS, base hardware, virus and trojan advantages, service quality etc. PS Love Macs, love PCs hate exaggeration except in sports radio where they are forced to talk 24 hours a day have to say dumb things to avoid dead air time.

  • Bivnic

    Not having to deal with Microsoft Windows is worth quite a bit. I also question your price tag for the MAC having just built similar units for work for much, much less. You seem to have taken the most expensive route possible, just to embellish your point.

  • cam

    I wouldn’t pay it for one of the desktops, but I paid it for my laptop and it’s served me very well. At school, most of the other students have bought their in-program laptops within the last six months and they’re already falling apart, but my macbook is over a year and a half old and still holding strong.

  • psk715

    ALL Apple products are ridiculously overpriced.

  • Chrisvalford

    As Apple produce notebooks which are far superior to any pc notebook in existence, I think the comparison offered by your article is so totally stupid.
    The right tool for the job doesn’t mean just a bunch of components, it means a completely integrated system which functions flawlessly and is easy to operate. Using the car comparison, all cars now follow a similar configuration, but some are reliable, some are collectible, some are icons but most are crap!

  • guest

    2 words…. user experience.

  • Anonymous

    When the PC can run Mac OSX as seamlessly as the Mac, I’d consider it. Until then, no Windows for me, thanks.

  • Woodogg18

    Ill take the pc and dual boot windows and linux. Windows for games, and linux for everything else. I see absolutely no reason to ever buy a mac. Or any apple products for that matter. Unnecessary.

  • Anonymous

    Why not just get 3 NVidia GTX580s instead? You’re going over the $2000 mark, you might as well.

  • John

    This picture is a couple years old. I think if a new price comparison was done, they would be a little more comparable. Apple prices have come down quite a bit in the last few years.

  • http://www.walkerreuben.com/ Reuben Walker

    At prices like that, I would rather buy a $1500 Windows laptop every year for 6 years.

    As for slowing down over time, my previous laptop was going at the same speed two years after I bought it. And I’ve never had a virus on any of my machines, and I’ve only ever had free antivirus. (And only because Windows complains about it.)

    And for the person who has to reinstall Windows a couple of times a year – what on earth do you do with it? I’ve only ever reinstalled Windows due to a major user error, or just for fun. (And there was the switch from 32-bit to 64-bit.)

    And then the laptops that fell apart after 6 months compared to the Macbook? I just sold my younger brother a laptop that would have been at least 7 years old, and fully capable of running the Windows 8 Developer Preview. (Except for lack of touch screen.) And that also goes to the person saying that they could have a new version of OS X on an old Mac.

    And for all the people calling Windows a crap OS – You’re idiots. Windows, Mac, and the many flavours of Linux all have their own strengths and weaknesses. As for me, Windows strengths are where I need them to be, so I use it. (But I also have an iPod Touch, and will probably be getting an iPhone.)

  • Ronan

    For a simpler, and less rude, explanation of the Pc side of things. Windows may be crap, linux may be comparatively young, but both offer good abilities, software compatability and range of software thats way beyond a Mac. Add to this the fact that no-one has the right to ask more than a couple of hundred for ‘any’ OS. Now add on the fact that even if the pc failed at four years and the mac at six, the pc could be fixed with an upgrade for proble no more than a hundred while the Mac would need a complete replacement at the full ridiculous price. There’s a reason why Macs are on the desks of the fashion conscious and set-in-their-ways professional designers and unfortunately that reason has nothing to do with sense.

    • http://www.walkerreuben.com/ Reuben Walker

      My parents PC was bought in December 2005, and it’s still running pretty good. (For those bad at maths, that was 6 years at the end of last year.)

      But if technology is really doubling in speed every two years, who wants a computer that old anyway?