Are some Apple PCs priceworthy?

[Sosseres]

What is your opinion? To start the discussion I will do one comparison where the Apple PC iMac comes out ahead.

Apple PC
http://store.apple.com/us/product/FC814LL/A?mco=MjMxMjQ0MjA (refurbished) $1,699.00 Non refurbished is 300 more.

DIY PC (roughly the same computer with worse parts in some places, components found using google price comparison)
http://www.amazon.com/Intel-i5-2400-Processor-3-10GHz-LGA1155/dp/B004EBUXIA $189.99
http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Dominator-PC3-10666-1333MHz-CMX4GX3M2A1333C8/dp/B003BYRLF4 $46.99
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-SATA-Internal-Drive-AD-7260S-0B/dp/accessories/B003MRHOQG $20.00
No monitor of same type until Samsung releases theirs. So picking a different one in roughly the same class. http://www.pcrush.com/product/LCD-Flat-Panel-Displays/675335/DoubleSight-DS-275W-IPS-27-inch-2560-x-1440-1000-1-Widescreen-LCD-Monitor?refid=1238 $875.63
http://www.everingtons.com/product_info.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=581&c=01&i=B002MCZJ78 $45.79 (HD camera, something I would skip)
http://www.nothingbutsoftware.com/catalog_type.asp?ProductCode=151789&ai=1550 $119.39 (Radeon HD 5850 ~= AMD Radeon HD 6970M, see http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-6970M.43077.0.html)
http://www.pc-titan.com/product_info.php?currency=USD&info=p23818_Gigabyte-GA-PH67-UD3-B3--H67--B3---dual-PC3-10667U-DDR3-.html $ 89,50 (there are plenty other ones in this price class)
http://www.amazon.com/150M-Wireless-Adapter-Stick-802-11n/dp/B003E41U8U $6.99
http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-S-120-Speaker-System/dp/B0016SUJFG $9.47
http://www.k12computers.com/Apple_Genuine_Magic_Mouse_MB829LL_A_New_p/MB829LLA.htm $40.00 (since I have no clue what a mouse of that type is really called and thus can't search for it)
http://www.k12computers.com/Apple_Wireless_Bluetooth_Keyboard_MC184LL_A_New_p/mc184lla.htm $40.00 (apple keyboard, can take any at all really)
http://www.pc-titan.com/product_info.php?currency=USD&info=p3234_ASUS-TA-D31-black.html (case) $ 30,23
http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-eXtreme-ATX12V-Active/dp/B001G0WPLK $43.71
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Spinpoint-3-5-Inch-Internal-HD103SJ/dp/accessories/B002MQC0P8 $59.99
Total: $189.99 $46.99 $20.00 $875.63 $119.39 $ 89,50 $9.47 $6.99 $40.00 $40.00 $ 30,23 $43.71 $59.99 ~= 1570
+ OS

[mgz]

i didnt go all shitty on the case and used pretty much all high rated shit in my build it was cheaper and EVERYTHING inside is brand new instead of all of it being refurbs.

If you look for only refurbed parts you can save a lot and all at newegg since im lazy and came with 1685 but then when i go to buy a computer in another couple of years i already have a bomb monitor so that saves me 800$ in 2 years
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106289 - dvd burner
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042 - case highly rated antec 300 case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148697 - hdd
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824185011 - monitor has 50$ MIR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125342 - video card i went with nvidia since its same bang for buck and less issues with drivers - 10$ MIR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139027 - corsair power supply 20$ MIR - need i say more its corsair ...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836121013 - shitty speakers
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823109237 - microsoft bluetooth kb - buy a mac keyboard if you want i dont care its apparently cheaper
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826146013 - bluetooth mouse
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833315091 - wifi
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820717005 - card reader
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145278 - corsair memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826105451 - webcam - useless 50-60$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138317 - mobo has usb3.0 something the mac doesnt have
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833340012 - tiny bluetooth adapter
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115074 - processor - has a 5% discount on it

so before tax and shipping ends up being right about 1600 after rebates.

And like i said you dont need to rebuy a monitor every time you buy a computer, that fact alone is what would make this the better buy because even if you spent a little more and had a nicer monitor then it just means in a couple years when you go to buy a new comp you dont need to blow 800 or 1000 dollars on a new monitor + by not going with apple your not stuck with shitty glossy monitor

again i will repeat that this is for a brand new computer and monitor instead of a refurbed one with that being said you would be looking at 1600-1700 vs 2000 for the mac brand new or say fuck it
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC007LL/A?fnode=MTY1NDA5OQ&mco=MTkwMzc1NDA - 1000$ and you can get rid of the shitty speakers for 15$ its still less then the imac

Realistically if half the gimmicky bullshit is taken out you can build a much nicer comp for that 800 dollars, that gimmicky bullshit your stuck paying for with prebuilts like macs, hp, lenovo etc.

You built your own when you dont give a shit about getting a keyboard with your comp, and a 8 way memory card reader, speakers built into your monitor, seriously how often do buy pc speakers ...

[kitamesume]

i dont get this thread... bah and true, you dont really need to rebuy a new monitor, you'll only need to buy another if the first one is either damaged or is ancient.

CPU: i5-2500k ✔
Motherboard: Asus - SABERTOOTH P67 ✔
RAM: Corsair CMZ8GX3M2A1600C8 8GB 1600MHz CL8 DDR3 Vengeance Memory Two Module Kit [£84.29] ✔
GPU: Asus 2GB ATi Radeon 6970 ✔
BootDrive: OCZ 120GB SSD Vertex 3✔
Storage Drive: 1TB Spinpoint F3✔
PSU: OCZ Fata1ity 750w semi moduler✔
OS: Windows 7 64 bit OEM
CD/DVD read|write & Blue-Ray?: Samsung?
CASE: Undecided.

this build was planned to be around £1000.00 so changing some stuffs would make it like this.
[190$] Intel Core i5-2400 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz (3.4GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core
[150$] ASUS P8P67-M PRO (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
[75$] G.SKILL Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600 CL9
[250$] XFX HD-695X-ZNFC Radeon HD 6950 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 -OR- [250$] ZOTAC ZT-50301-10M GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5
[100$] Antec High Current Gamer Series HCG-750 750W ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V v2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Certified 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply
[120$] Crucial M4 CT064M4SSD2 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
[65$] SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
[50$] COOLER MASTER Elite 430 RC-430-KWN1
SUM : 1000$ without rebates.

[bloody000]

If you are looking at an iMac you most likely:
a) want a compact all-in-one
b) want a high quality display
c) want OS X
d) want something neat looking
e) want something with quality you can see and touch

If not, why even bother?

[mgz]

If you are looking at an iMac you most likely:
a) want a compact all-in-one
b) want a high quality display
c) want OS X
d) want something neat looking
e) want something with quality you can see and touch

If not, why even bother?

apple isnt synonymous with quality i dont know why you would mention that, and the high quality display is an issue as well since they have decreased the quality of their displays and switched from matte to glossy finishes on them

[bloody000]

If you are looking at an iMac you most likely:
a) want a compact all-in-one
b) want a high quality display
c) want OS X
d) want something neat looking
e) want something with quality you can see and touch

If not, why even bother?

apple isnt synonymous with quality i dont know why you would mention that, and the high quality display is an issue as well since they have decreased the quality of their displays and switched from matte to glossy finishes on them

The glossy screen is a non-issue unless you have strong light sources in front of the display, in which case you should reposition the display, even matte ones(who here likes washed out, cloudy pictures?). It's not a laptop.
There are films you can  put on iMacs/phones/tablets but they will act like microlenses and make you notice individual sub-pixels.

I specifically said "quality you can see and touch" for a reason.

[blubart]

i'm sorry, but mac displays are NOT "high quality" - at least in relation to their price. the only one even remotely worthwhile was their Cinema Display line.
by default extremely over-saturated (that's what the marketing guys are selling you as "quality") with a limited color gamut, mediocre color accuracy especially under different viewing angles and crappy viewing angles in general.

[bloody000]

i'm sorry, but mac displays are NOT "high quality" - at least in relation to their price. the only one even remotely worthwhile was their Cinema Display line.
by default extremely over-saturated (that's what the marketing guys are selling you as "quality") with a limited color gamut, mediocre color accuracy especially under different viewing angles and crappy viewing angles in general.

Nice try.

8-bit sRGB IPS > 8bit AdobeRGB IPS

The rest can be left to calibration and profiling, which must be done for any display if you remotely care about color accuracy.


*fixed link.

[Micharus]

How many times over the years have I seen this sort of discussion?

Both APPLE computers and PC computers have their pro's and con's.

As far as I know, if you plan on playing a lot of computer games, you should go and buy a 'normal' PC.

If you plan on getting into graphics in a big way, Apple is the way to go.

That is how it used to be, it may not be the case these days.

What it comes down to is individual choice.

Some like the look of the Apple, others like having the option of upgrading their PC whenever they wish.

Me I'm one of the latter.
I like being able to walk into the nearest PC shop to buy an upgrade for my computer.

[AceHigh]

e) want something with quality you can see and touch

Yeah.... like this guy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGKgivGA970

[bloody000]

e) want something with quality you can see and touch

Yeah.... like this guy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGKgivGA970

You ever noticed that I started my post with "looking at an iMac"?

[AceHigh]

Start nitpicking...

In that case you are still wrong on this one:

want something neat looking

[bloody000]

Start nitpicking...

In that case you are still wrong on this one:

want something neat looking

It's a smooth, elegant all-in-one. With the default keyboard and mouse there aren't even wires except the power cord, later this year even iOS devices can be sync wirelessly(officially anyway). Not some HAF 932 abomination with puke green CCFL.

[KuraiAkumu]

I'm always amused by MAC vs PC.

MAC's are garbage these days ... I wont deny they have some fancy notebooks and whatnot and a nice OS however if you actually want a good computer build a PC.

There are a few reasons you'd buy a mac over a PC.
You're some old grumpy from back when macs were actually better than PC's or when MAC OS actually mattered. 
You want to show off at how much money you can throw away on GIMICK.
You think that MAC OS is still some how superior to Windows. 
Some old grumpy told you to get a mac because they used MAC for 50000 years.
You saw only MAC's in some place that used them thinking that because they used them they must actually be better for whatever the task was that they were using them for.

In reality the only reason to buy a mac these days is for MAC OS because ... how many years has Apple been using Intel CPU's now?? Even that is moot because you can run MAC OS on some newer PC hardware. ....simply put.. No, Apple PC's are not worth their cost.

You can run windows 7 on some MAC's btw although i don't see why you would unless you happened upon a MAC for free.

[blubart]

Nice try.

8-bit sRGB IPS > 8bit AdobeRGB IPS

The rest can be left to calibration and profiling, which must be done for any display if you remotely care about color accuracy.

aside from the fact that i never said anything about sRGB vs. AdobeRGB (which is a pointless debate anyway) you fail to point out anything even remotely disputing my claim.
the only thing you bring up is some review of a iMac which fails to include even a single monitor of the two best monitor brands: EIZO and NEC. and even there the iMac display isn't exactly shining. i'm constantly switching between a high grade EIZO and a 27" iMac (2010 model) and the iMac isn't even remotely close to the quality of the EIZO.

[kitamesume]

Nice try.

8-bit sRGB IPS > 8bit AdobeRGB IPS

The rest can be left to calibration and profiling, which must be done for any display if you remotely care about color accuracy.

aside from the fact that i never said anything about sRGB vs. AdobeRGB (which is a pointless debate anyway) you fail to point out anything even remotely disputing my claim.
the only thing you bring up is some review of a iMac which fails to include even a single monitor of the two best monitor brands: EIZO and NEC. and even there the iMac display isn't exactly shining. i'm constantly switching between a high grade EIZO and a 27" iMac (2010 model) and the iMac isn't even remotely close to the quality of the EIZO.

+1, they're just too overpriced for their worth. those are professional equipments though.

[bloody000]

Nice try.

8-bit sRGB IPS > 8bit AdobeRGB IPS

The rest can be left to calibration and profiling, which must be done for any display if you remotely care about color accuracy.

aside from the fact that i never said anything about sRGB vs. AdobeRGB (which is a pointless debate anyway) you fail to point out anything even remotely disputing my claim.
the only thing you bring up is some review of a iMac which fails to include even a single monitor of the two best monitor brands: EIZO and NEC. and even there the iMac display isn't exactly shining. i'm constantly switching between a high grade EIZO and a 27" iMac (2010 model) and the iMac isn't even remotely close to the quality of the EIZO.

"price": 2560-wide 27-inch/30-inch. In this class anything less than 1000 is afforable.
"limited color gamut": sRGB is good. The current trend of forcing ultra wide gamut upon 8-bit panels is marketing BS designed to burn retinas.
"mediocre color accuracy especially under different viewing angles and crappy viewing angles": In the review it is stated that it performs like Cinema Displays. Which is 999.

[blubart]

"price": 2560-wide 27-inch/30-inch. In this class anything less than 1000 is afforable.
"limited color gamut": sRGB is good. The current trend of forcing ultra wide gamut upon 8-bit panels is marketing BS designed to burn retinas.
"mediocre color accuracy especially under different viewing angles and crappy viewing angles": In the review it is stated that it performs like Cinema Displays. Which is 999.

- considering you can get the same hardware for 900 bucks (without the monitor) and the iMac goes for 2000 the display in the iMac costs you over 1000 - so i take it you agree that it's rather expensive? not to mention that you can't keep your monitor if you change hardware.
- 8bit sRGB is perfectly fine - 10bit sRGB is just better - and it's again beside the point. the gamut of the mac displays are just noticeable worse than what i see on my EIZO - and they are both calibrated.
- so because the apple iMac display performs roughly as bad as the current apple Cinema Display your conclusion is that it must be of incredible quality. nice logic!

the displays apple builds into their iMacs aren't bad. they are perfectly in the usable range. they aren't great either though - so you are lying to yourself if you buy a iMac for it's great display.

[kitamesume]

shut this thread, CRT all the way! wooooooooooo!

the argument is just going in circles...

bloody000: iMac is for picture quality

bluebart: i've seen better

bloody000: the iMac still is the better buy all in all

bluebart: i've seen better for the same price

bloody000: the iMac has everything about picture quality, other brands are just exaggerating

bluebart: i've seen better with real specs

so stop it, both costs a grand, i`d rather grab a u2711 for 800$ and be done with it. bloody000's own link backfired imho u2711>iMac for less the price as well.

[AceHigh]

It's a smooth, elegant all-in-one. With the default keyboard and mouse there aren't even wires except the power cord, later this year even iOS devices can be sync wirelessly(officially anyway). Not some HAF 932 abomination with puke green CCFL.

It looks like shit, because that white colour makes it look like my fridge, my washing machine and all other appliances.

It looks like shit. Prove me wrong