Quote:
Originally Posted by LSA
I don't know what prices your looking at but for comparable specs mac's are overpriced....
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Well for the Laptop I started with a 15 inch machine same as the base Mac Laptop. After all that was the point, to try and equalize the hardware to get a realistic look at pricing. Thought that was understood.
For Toshiba the Tecra A10-ST9017 fit the bill since the processor and other specs were the closest to the Apple base machine. $1,099.
Upgrades:
Windows 7 Ulitmate 64. $90. OS X is 64 bit. There is no such thing as a stripped Mac OS.
Increase base RAM to 4 GB. $110
Picked the 15.4" Diagonal WSXGA+ display since the stock display has a lower resolution than the Macs. $75. Now the Macs resolution is somewhere between the 2 Toshiba choices so we'll stick with the stock display.
256 MB NVIDIA Card. $100
230 GB HD. $30. (hmm your right about the 5400 rpm drive, thought they all came with 72's these days)
Bluetooth. $25
Camera $35
9 cell battery. $99, Macs run up to 7 hours on the stock battery.
So that box out the door is $1,588.
Not what I would call a monstrous difference in price.
The exercise was to illustrate that Apple is not the only machine at a given price point for a given configuration.
Can you find cheaper and loss leaders, sure, but that was not the argument.
And like I said, your home built machine does not factor into this unless you are willing to sell it to me for $380 and ship it free and provide service and support for a year.