October 26, 2009

So my grandparents just called me to ask for a recommendation on a new computer to purchase. They wanted something reasonably priced, but with enough performance that it would last for a while. They have always been PC users, so naturally I recommended that they get a Dell.  I found a great system for them, and at an even better price than I would have thought!

Just for kicks, I decided to jump on Apple’s website and check out how much a comparable system would cost.  I know I really shouldn’t have been surprised, but honestly?!  Well, just look at the comparison below; I’ll let the numbers speak for themselves…

Latitude E5500	MacBook Pro
Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 (2.53GHz, 3M L2 Cache, 1066MHz FSB)	Intel Core 2 Duo (2.53GHz)
4.0GB, DDR2-800 SDRAM, 2 DIMMS	4.0GB, DDR3-1066 SDRAM, 2 DIMMS
250GB Hard Drive, 5400RPM	250GB Hard Drive, 5400RPM
15.4 inch Wide Screen WXGA Anti-glare LCD Panel	15-inch Glossy Widescreen Display
8X DVD+/-RW	SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Intel WiFi Link 5100 802.11a/g/n Draft Mini Card	AirPort Extreme Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n Draft
Windows 7 Professional	OS X Snow Leopard
3 year Warranty	3 year Apple Care Protection Plan
$929 (pre-tax subtotal)	$2186.24 (pre-tax subtotal)

I decided to go with the MacBook Pro (as opposed to simply the MacBook) because it is being compared against a Latitude, Dell’s business line (as opposed to the Inspiron, their home line), so it is a more apples-to-apples comparison.  You can see that these two machines are essentially identical as far as technical specifications go – they even have the same length warranty! Now, some fanboys might sit there and say, “Well, with OS X you’ll get better performance with the same hardware, blah, blah, blah…”  But honestly, with Windows 7, that’s likely not the case.  But the point remains that, even with hardware that is nearly identical straight across the board, the Mac costs over twice as much. So, are you a Mac, or are you a PC?

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