BlizzardBomb said:
WTF does a Dell have to do with the machine I posted? I remember when that article came out and all they did was get the worst Dell they could possibly find and compare it to the Mac Mini. At the time, Dell was offering free LCD's with every computer purchase but somehow the article in question refused to note that or many other things. Either way, look at the specs of the e-Machine then look at the price.E-Machines from the last few years have actually been of very good quality, they are easily better than anything you can get from Dell Home at a similar price. The Dell Server and Business lines are nice as are their mid-range and high-end (XPS) but their low-end is one of the worst in the industry.
But I don't buy computers because I know what the parts cost and how easy it is to make them. When I look at a desktop the first thing I see is the markup on it, that's one reason why I'd never buy another Mac. To be fair, I'd never buy an HP, Dell, or Emachine either. I build all my machines (desktops) and they are all cheaper and higher quality than anything put together by Apple, Dell, HP, Sony, or Gateway/E-Machines. The only manufacturers I've seen who make PC's with similar quality are boutique makers like Alienware, Falcon-NW, Velocity Micro, Voodoo PC, Boxx-Tech etc.
If you ever get a chance to go to a gaming festival and see a Falcon NW computer take a good look at it, it's probably the best quality machine money can buy. They run tests and benchmarks on your system for 3-days before they ship it to you. Then they give you a huge 3-ring binder with all the results of the benchamrks and tests along with the manual to every single part in your machine (mobo, video card, case etc.). The paint job on a Falcon NW looks better than the one you see on showroom cars, it's amazing!!!
But anyway...
The mini doesn't even come with a keyboard, mouse and speakers, much less a cheap set.
I'll take a machine with a proc that can often beat a dual proc G5 PM (a64 3400+), 1GB ram (multiple slots BTW), PCI Express, PCI, 6-channel Dolby Surround Sound, a 16X dual layer DVD burner, a Radeon Xpress 200, a 200GB 7200rpm hard drive, 7 USB2 posts, a media card reader (reads everything but XD) and Media Center 2005 over a something with DVI and very little expanability.
Just the fact that Apple removed the CoreImage specs from their site after the Mini came out as to not discourage sales should be a sign. Why didn't they just ship it with a DX9 class card in the first place? Because the lowest ATI DX9 card is the Radeon 9600 that the $2500-3000 high-end PM ships with. That card costs $54 on pricewatch BTW-- that's what I see when I look at a desktop machine.
A A64 3400+ (2.4ghz) beats an iMac G5 in nearly everything.
I always considered "build quality" to mean the brand and quality of the parts the machine ships with. For instance, does the machine ship with a Pionner DVD burner or a Lite-on? Is the hard drive Seagate or Western Digital? How is the power supply rated? In those terms, Macs don't really stand out at all. I hated the way the iMac G5 looked at first but it has grown on me. I think it looks great now. It's probalby the best looking desktop I come in contact with on a regular basis (the PowerMac is still ugly) but yeah it's overpriced.
If eMachines can offer those specs in a $599 machine then Apple should be able to offer them in a $1500 machine. Even overlooking the differences in processor architecture, Apple should be specing their machines out with 200GB hard drives (iMacs and eMacs), much better video cards, and 1GB ram standard. To me its a shame that Apple ships a 250GB drive ($100), 512 ram ($40-45) and Radeon 9600 ($54) with their $3000 top-of-the-line PowerMac. I bet the markup (margin) on a PowerMac is higher than the markup on a Honda Civic or Ford Mustang.
