iMac or Mac Pro

[twoodcc]

i vote for mac pro....but that's just me

 

[generik]

Actually I beg to differ on price comparison against dell. I think apple are cheaper than equiv configurations!

Look at what you get with the iMac (including all the software you get) and compare it to dell.

The iMac has a high quality screen, something dell doesn't have. To upgrade to the better screens with dell you have to fork out quite a bit more money.

Dell has no style either, apple does. It's like comparing a supercar against a run of the mill ford.

That style argument is pretty stupid, especially if following your supercar analogy that run of the mill ford could be modded and reworked to have... I dunno... all those turbo charged bits and nitrogen tanks for some extra racing powwa, and outspeed the "supercar"

I wouldn't go as far as to say that the iMac has a high quality screen since there are quite a number here who buy the 2407 made by... Dell! and claim that the same brand of panel is used in that monitor as a similar sized ACD.

Also, considering the Mac Pro is selling one thing (upgradeability & choice) at a relatively high premium by making that available only at the top of their line, applying that to the same comparison could mean that a computer the likes of a Dell would sell for twice its current price if Apple is selling it

This is not a Dell vs Mac comparison, but with the Dell you can go to Newegg, pick up a 7600GT for like $100 or so, and the next thing you know you will be sitting at your computer with your hair trailing behind your head. The same applies with the Mac Pro too, at least until Kentsfield ships... when we will see regular desktops with quad too, but that doesn't make your machine any slower. With the iMac you can probably get the 7600 today, but what about tomorrow? Next year? Two years down the road?

You may argue that "most users" don't care about what's in their computers. Perhaps, but you don't have any statistics backing it up. It would definitely hold true in the Mum and Pop as well as Granny and Granddad demographic, but what about the others?

The OP is looking to buy a 24" iMac, so I suppose performance does matter to him. We see a lot of "can I buy a Merom chip for my iMac" threads around, and it doesn't even need to get that extreme, since a hard drive upgrade for an iMac probably ranks up their in terms of complexity as a MBP hard drive upgrade.

Upgrability - you may not think you need it, but when you actually do you'd be cussing the bejesus out of yourself