IMO there should definitly be a computer under the Mac Pro and above the mini (as headless systems go). I recently built a PC for a friend and it was a fantastic price for what it is so assuming this price plus Apple's markup, I'd say it would be very feasable to have a very fast, well performing box for the masses. The box I built for my friend is this:
Antec Sonata III 500W case - $119
Core2 Quad 2.4Ghz (Q6600) - $300
Asus P5K (P35 chipset) - $149
4GB Kingston DDR2 667 Valueram - $130
80GB WD startup disk - $48
500GB WD data disk - $110
Pioneer Internal DVD burner (model 112)- $36
EVGA 8600GTS 256MB video - $180
So without the OS, the hardware came out to $1072. If apple was able to sell something like this with the OS for say $1600, that would be a good price no? Of course they'd use different parts but in terms of spec if they can offer something similar - quad core, decent video, option to at least hold a couple HDD and a quite chassis.
Antec Sonata III 500W case - $119
Core2 Quad 2.4Ghz (Q6600) - $300
Asus P5K (P35 chipset) - $149
4GB Kingston DDR2 667 Valueram - $130
80GB WD startup disk - $48
500GB WD data disk - $110
Pioneer Internal DVD burner (model 112)- $36
EVGA 8600GTS 256MB video - $180
So without the OS, the hardware came out to $1072. If apple was able to sell something like this with the OS for say $1600, that would be a good price no? Of course they'd use different parts but in terms of spec if they can offer something similar - quad core, decent video, option to at least hold a couple HDD and a quite chassis.