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erikE
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Quote: from bkkz on 2:04 pm on Oct. 29, 2008
What sort of price difference are we looking at?
Daffy has a point, Mac Pro CAN be set up with two quad cores (that you also can get in a PC), but if you need that you can probably afford it. I have no doubt the Mac Pro is a great machine, but Apple has few alternatives in the desktop segment (mac mini, iMac, Mac Pro).
Gigabyte GA-X48-DQ6
Core 2 Quad 9400
NVIDIA 9800GTX+
8GB OCZ Platinum DDR2 1066
640GB Seagate SATA Hard Drive
2x 1TB Seagate SATA Hard Drives
Some ATX Mid Tower
Thermaltake 750W Power Supply
Pioneer DVR-216 SATA DVD-R Drive
~$1460
I set up roughly the same config in the apple store (with one quad core processor) :
One 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon (quad-core)
8GB (4 x 2GB)
750GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB (Two dual-link DVI)
$4,999.00
That is 3,4 times more expensive.
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Thai Girls : Meet Sexy Thai Girls
Posted on: 9:48 am on Oct. 29, 2008
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DaffyDuck
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Now, let's try this without using deliberately misleading numbers, and exclude commodity parts which Apple traditionally overcharges (RAM and Hard Drives), and what are we looking at, then:
One 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon (quad-core)
2GB (2 x 1GB)
750GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB (Two dual-link DVI)
$3,099.00
Supplementing with third party hardware:
2 x 1TB Seagate SATA drives $150 x2 = $300
8GB RAM (4x2GB) = $265
Total; $565
$3,099.00 + $565 = $3,664
Granted, that's still over twice in delta cost, but vastly different from your 3-4 times higher estimates.
The fact is, you can ALWAYS build a system yourself, and pretend you are saving money doing it, but it's a disingenuous comparison, as the folks needing the kind of performance a Mac Pro delivers, are not the home-brew crowd -- and those who are pouring over building their own systems are NOT the crowd that Apple sells to (for example, gamers).
You are right that within Apple's products, once you reach the Mac Pro, there is not much variability - but there isn't intended to be.
I generally see the comparisons to friends of mine that are building their own machines, and 'boasting' of the savings, and my approach, which is to either buy a Mac Pro (or, in the case of my servers, Dell Servers).
My friends nearly constantly have issues with their hardware, especially when they 'upgrade' it - this holds more true for the servers even.
In fact, a long time ago I did the same, built my own stuff, and dealt with the subsequent problems (cooling fans always seemed to die while I was on vacation) and headaches.
Ever since I started buying (good) brands of quality hardware (be that Dell servers, or Macs), I have had ZERO problems. In fact, my servers have uptimes of nearly years (brought down only when I update operating systems, or increase RAM or drives), and my Macs run without problems for months at a time (one Mac mini even for years at this point - though it might go down soon, to be replaced with an intel Mac mini).
That's really the differences.
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Bangkok Women : Meet Sensual Bangkok Women
Posted on: 11:58 am on Oct. 29, 2008
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erikE
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Daffy, I do agree with you on this one. If I would set up a pro sound studio with Digidesign's Pro Tools, I would go for the Mac Pro.
But as person looking for a kickass number cruncher for my home, and I do not mind getting my hands a little bit dirty, I look for cheaper options.
And for many people it is a budget thing. I have 1500 USD, what can I get?
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Thai Girls : Meet Sexy Thai Girls
Posted on: 12:41 pm on Oct. 29, 2008
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DaffyDuck
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Fair enough - again, and this is, in the end, why Apple is not necessarily placing a huge roadblock in the path of running a hackintosh system (they have demonstrated they can lock down hardware, if they want to, with iPhone 3G).
For the savvy bricoleur, the hackintosh sure provides a good middle-path, though I still believe that the iMac is a great deal in 20" and 24" configurations.
Though, right now, if I were looking at hackintoshing, I'd consider some of the ultra-light portables, like the hp mini 1000 which is a sweet machine indeed, if the right drivers were available. For $400, getting a 10" mini laptop with webcam a great keyboard, and SSD drive is a great deal, indeed.
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Sexy Bangkok Girls
Posted on: 2:53 pm on Oct. 29, 2008
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Sarge
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updating the conversation, I've been away for a few months;
The next iteration of OS X called Snow Leopard 10.6 - Core Innovation, will be showcased at the next and last Macworld Expo in January '09.
Main new features:
Microsoft Exchange Support
Support for Microsoft Exchange 2007 built into Mail, Address Book, and iCal
Multicore
Grand Central, a new set of technologies to bring support for multicore systems
64-bit
Snow Leopard extends the 64-bit technology to support huge amounts of RAM; up to a theoretical 16TB
OpenCL
Open Computing Language, allows developers to tap the vast gigaflops of computing power currently locked up in the GPU
Quick Time X
It features optimized support for modern codecs and more efficient media playback
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Thai Women : Meet Matured Thai Women
Posted on: 4:21 am on Dec. 26, 2008
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DaffyDuck
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Quote: from Sarge on 8:11 pm on Dec. 26, 2008
Microsoft Exchange Support
Support for Microsoft Exchange 2007 built into Mail, Address Book, and iCal
I like to call that little feature as "The Death of Entourage" - and considering how Apple (read: Steve) feels about the idiots from the MacBU, I would not be surprised to see a 2009 release of iWork that kills Word and Excel as well.
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Bangkok Women : Meet Beautiful Thai Girls
Posted on: 9:42 am on Dec. 26, 2008
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Sarge
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why, did Entourage enjoy any reputation at all? Indeed did Office for Mac attract no other than derision.... what do you expect when even their CEO (Steve the Monkey) talks down the suite.
iWorks '08 does everything (better) what Office for Mac should be doing, and with more refinement. It only needs a database app
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 10:55 am on Dec. 26, 2008
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