No the cheaper Imac outpreformes gateways copy of an imac the gateway one. Buy a regular PC for 1500 and compare it to an Imac and the results will be much different. Or we can compare apples computer with a tower the mac pro $2500 min to a $2500 pc and again the pc will come out ahead.

 

It's hilarious to notice that this thread devolved into this. Obama supporting leftist/liberals are the only folks using the Mac? I'm Conservative to the bone, and have been using the Mac for a long while. My wife too. I just got a 32GB iPhone 3GS, and I'll say its the coolest little device I've seen in a helluva long time. Nobody is even close to this thing yet, but they're all racing to copy it. I don't care who the Hell makes it, but it does happen to be Apple.

I'll have to say though that every time I've been in an Apple store in the area– Palo Alto, and Stanford shopping center, I know that I'm mostly surrounded by the super-duper-uber-left But it comes with the territory round these parts.

 

Why does it come out ahead?

Here's a Mac 2.93 Ghz Quad Core Mac with 6MB Memory comes with a keyboard and mouse. For $3199.00 I added 3mb ram and a wifi card to get to that price
http://store.apple.com/us/configure/...mco=NDE4NDIwNA

Now here's a 3.33 Ghz Dell Quad Core with 6MB memory, $3304.00 I added the cheapest mouse and keyboard and added wireless.

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellsto...sktop-xps-730x


Should I not be comparing the Dell? If not give me one to compare.

 

Agreed! I love my iPhone!

- NCSU

 

The dell has an I7 processor and will smoke that apple badly, the apple has a geforce 120 compared to the dell sli gtx 260 (that's 2 cards) that is an enormous difference.
Here is the xeon in the apple: Rank 15th
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_look...#37;40+2.93GHz

Here is the i7 in the dell: Rank 2nd
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_look...75+%40+3.33GHz

apple graphics: Rank 150th
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/vi...GeForce+GT+120

dell graphics: Rank 6th with one card 1st since its 2 cards
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/vi...eForce+GTX+260
That is a single card the dell actually has 2 of these. Would actually be faster than the top spot on the chart.

The second fastest processor they have ever tested in the dell and 2 extremely good video cards, the apple a much slower processor and a decent at best video card, so comparing those to computers is way off but you did just prove my point for me.

 

You don't have the right processor in that Mac. Google: Intel Xeon Nehalem. Definitely not a slower processor. We may not be comparing apples to apples here either. I need to do some more reading.

 

Thats the problem. JK

My revised post has the nehalem in it and its still quite a bit slower.

Here is a gateway
http://www.gateway.com/systems/product/529668285.php

It has a faster processor, 3 more gigs of memory, a much better graphics card, nearly double the hard drive, 7.1 surround sound, a keyboard, and mouse. It is 1,799 to apples 3,149 also you can click on the buy it online button and get it from newegg for 1759.99.
BTW I just noticed the dell has dual gtx 260 not the single gtx 285 I thought, I will revise my post above. Running dual cards increases performance by around 30% on average so the video cards in the dell blows the apple away, and is even better than the gtx 285 in the gateway.

BTW apple doesn't even offer a video card anywhere close to either of the cards in the dell or gateway, in fact if you were to take the best card apple offers and run two of them straped it would still not be as fast as one of the dell cards(2 gtx 260).
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/vi...deon+HD4870+X2

 

I think I have proven my point, but I want to add 1 more thing when trying to build an apple as fast as the dell or even the slower gateway the price jumps to $3449.00 and its still not as fast.

Oh and sundevil congrats on the new computer, I hope you enjoy it as I am sure you will its a nice machine.

 

Now you can think that Mac is the best thing to hit the technology sector ever.

 

That's alot of machine for the money. But you need to really compare the two.

Here's Gateways quad core http://www.gateway.com/systems/product/529668219.php MSRP of 2999.00 that you can get online for 1999.00. But the expandability is not there compared to the Mac. Take a look at expansion slots for example:

Gateway: Expansion slots - PCI Express x1 (occupied), PCI Express x4 (occupied), 2 x PCI Express x16 (one available)

Mac: Three open full-length PCI Express 2.0 expansion slots

Mac: Four FireWire 800 ports
(two on front, two on back)

Gateway: 2 Firewire 400 ports. One front One back

Gateway 3.5 Internal available drive bays: 2

Mac 3.5 Internal available drive bays: 4

Gateway network: 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN (RJ-45 port) 1 Port

Mac Network: Built-in dual 10/100/1000BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet 2 Ports (I actually use both at work)

Mac: Built-in Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR

Gateway: No Bluetooth

That's just the hardware it's lacking. Not sure about the software it comes with so I won't comment on it.

Here's a better comparison IMO: http://www.gateway.com/systems/product/529668298.php Hardware on that one is still pretty scarce, too.

And to say the i7 processors will smoke is being a little dramatic. This http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_look...40+%40+2.93GHz really means nothing unless it was in the Gateway computer you linked and the 3540 was in the Mac. You agree?

I will agree that the first gateway you posted is a lot of computer for the money. I'm not sure Gateway is a brand I would outfit an prepress department with. But if I were self employed it might be an option.

 

Lol I'm about as far away from that comment as possible and this is being posted on a Macbook.

 

I just like using OS X better personally. The Mac laptops IMO look much better than anything else that is out at this moment, inside and outside. I just like the way everything flows together, from Safari to iCal to Mail, etc. I'm not saying its better than windows but I just prefer it, which is why I pay the extra money for it. I'm lucky enough to be able to do that

 

Expandability can be an issue, but you used a different gateway than I did I added some of the features from that one to your list ,and if you are smart enough to expand your hardware then your smart enough to build your own computer and that opens up a whole nother can of worms were I believe pc is much better.
The 3540 is whats in the mac, the i7 is a faster chip by a fairly good amount, plus with the difference in graphics cards the performance of the two machines will be dramatically different. The dell is a much faster computer.
BTW the difference in the i7 and the 3540 is like going from a pentium d 3.2ghz to a core two quad q6600 2.4ghz that is a very very big difference.

 

Please read up on the I7 and Xeon 3540 further. They are almost IDENTICAL processors. The I7 for games and the 3540 for CPU intensive work. The 3540 will "smoke" the I7 in graphic apps. The I7 will "smoke" the 3540 in games.

And since I'm completely clueless when it comes to PCs, it seems the ones we've been comparing to the Mac are mainly for gaming. Not especially intented for graphic programs or CPU intensive programs. So I got to digging deeper on Dells site (Gateways $1799 computer would get "smoked" by a mac pro btw) and found much more comparable computers. They are still lacking in expansion and connection ports, but only less so than the gaming computers.

So two comparable professional computers IMO (I'm sure you'll disagree ) would be the following:

http://store.apple.com/us/configure/...mco=NDE4NDIwNA

and Dells

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellsto...=MLB1668&s=biz

The Mac came in less so I added 8gb of ram, a 2nd 650GB internal drive, Upgraded Graphics card (cause you like those), Put in a 2nd Superdrive, Final Cut Express 4 video editing software, A HP Wireless Fax All-in-One Printer, Scanner, Copier (cool) and a 3 year protection plan.

I will say this. PCs make better, faster and cheaper gaming computers. But why spend $1799 on a gaming computer with XBox 360 and Playstation 3 out there? Are there computer specific games that gamers play? I honestly don't know, I'm not being a smartass.

 

Look at the links I provided for processor performance and see how they are tested, the i7 is a faster chip all around, its not just faster at gaming and a gaming pc is not great at gaming and bad at anything else a fast pc is a fast pc, and both of those pc's are fast. Infact both of them are faster than the apple, processing data or graphics. The reason I like graphics cards is because a fast processor will be slown down by a chity graphics card especially when doing any kind of graphics intensive operation. Seeing as the apple has a crap card its not going to be very fast at doing any graphics apps. The reason people like gaming pc's is because they like the better graphics of a pc and they like using mouse and keyboard instead of a controler.