Apple Mini Cheaper Than DIY PC

[peter_ob]

Here's a price comparison between an Apple Mini and a comparable Wintel

Here are the specs of the lower-end Mac mini:

1.25GHz PowerPC G4
256MB of PC2700 (333MHz) DDR SRAM
ATI Radeon 9200 with 32MB of DDR SDRAM
40GB Ultra ATA
Slot-loading Combo Drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW)
One FireWire 400 port; two USB 2.0 ports; DVI output; VGA output (adapter included)
Built-in 10/100BASE-T Ethernet and 56K V.92 modem
Mac OS X version 10.3 “Panther
iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD and GarageBand), AppleWorks, Quicken 2005 for Mac, Nanosaur 2, Marble Blast Gold

Price: $499

--

Here are the specs of a comparably equipped DIY PC

Intel Pentium 4 2Ghz CPU................$145
P4S800 (SiS 648FX) Series P4 Motherboard................$63
256MB of PC2700 (333MHz) DDR SRAM................$51
ATI Radeon 9200................$90
40GB Ultra ATA................$56
DVD-ROM/CD-RW................$60
Case/PSU................$40
Windows XP Professional................$199
Adobe Photoshop album (Compares with iPhoto)................$50
Windows Movie Maker (Compares to iMovie)................$0
Ulead DVD MovieFactory (Compares with iDVD)................$40
Fruity Loops (Compares with Garage Band)................$80
Microsoft Works (Compares with Apple Works................$50
Quicken 2004................$60
Nanosaur 2................$15
Marble Blast Gold................$15

Hardware Price: $505
Hardware and Software price: $1,022

Read more
here.

[mikaelrules]

Not quite... that doesnt mean the Mac mini is bad though.

1.25GHz PowerPC G4
256MB of PC2700 (333MHz) DDR SRAM
ATI Radeon 9200 with 32MB of DDR SDRAM
40GB Ultra ATA
Slot-loading Combo Drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW)
One FireWire 400 port; two USB 2.0 ports; DVI output; VGA output (adapter included)
Built-in 10/100BASE-T Ethernet and 56K V.92 modem
Mac OS X version 10.3 “Panther
iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD and GarageBand), AppleWorks, Quicken 2005 for Mac, Nanosaur 2, Marble Blast Gold

from only ONE website (Newegg)
$63 AMD Sempron 2400+ (faster than G4)
$35 PCCHIPS "M825G V9.2A" KM266PRO Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket A CPU
FSB 333, 6 USB 2.0 ports, LAN, etc.
$22 POWMAX 0808 Beige ATX Mid tower Case with 350W Power Supply, Model
"CP808PL-1" now, this is a dog of a case but I can get a spiffy case with
clear window and neon lightsfor $35.
$31 Rosewill 184-Pin 256MB DDR PC-2700, Model RW333/256 - Retail
$43 GIGABYTE ATI RADEON 9250 Video Card, 128MB DDR, TV...
(more RAM, faster card)
$45 Maxtor 40GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive, Model 6E040L0,...
$30 Rosewill 52x32x52x16 CD-RW Cool Gray Combo Drive, Model RB-321, Retail
$15 Link Depot AGERE (Lucent) IEEE 1394A 3+1 port PCI Card
External Port: 3x IEEE1394A
Internal Port: 1x IEEE1394A(Shared)
OS Support: Not Specified
Data Transfer Rate: Asynchronous and Synchronous data transfer
400/200/100Mbps
(the better option is to get a motherboard with firewire integrated, but
this way, i have more than the standard 2 firewire ports on pc mb's)
$136 Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2
$0 Hello+Picasa (equivalent to iPhoto)
$0 Windows Movie Maker (equivalent to iMovie)
$0 now, the Mac Mini comes with a DVD-ROM/CDR(W) combo drive. why include
iDVD??? If you're thinking to hook up an external DVD writer, then you can
get a DVD writer for the PC that is about $60 for a dual-layer 8.5GB writer
(that can also do CDRs) and nearly all DVD writers now come with Nero that
can author DVDs.
$80 Fruity Loops Compares with Garage Band). have to trust you on this one
because I don't use this kind of sw
$45 Microsoft Works 8.0 - Retail Full Version
$35 Intuit Quicken 2005 Basic, Retail

grand total
This is from shopping just one website. I'm sure I can get better numbers if I shop multiple stores.
$580 with equivalent software. this is with a faster processor, better video card, more ports (firewire, usb, etc.)
$421 PC, with just Windows XP Professional.
$284 PC, no software.

[spawnster]

They forgot to include the service charge for putting all that gear together.

[Macmon]

One thing they forgot to include in the software bundle for the window computer.
Anti-virus software.
How much is that? around 50-70 $.

Now would they run the wintel machine in the internet without such protection?

That is a must which should be included in the computation.

[FAV]

With the os that is bundled with the mac minis, it's just like you are buying the cpu for less than 20k pesos...

[jor]

Does the mac mini fare as well price-wise if we go w/ local suppliers of PC parts? Just curious.

[8xspeed]

with the local price of PC parts. a sempron system is cheap than the local price of a mac mini.

[Edited on 9-12-2005 by 8xspeed]

[lamski]

You're still not factoring in the cost of the OS plus the PC equivalent software for the iLife suite.

[jinno22]

Then again, we are in the Philippines...

[mnx]

CPU: AMD Sempron 2200+ PhP 3,250.00
SFF: Epox Minime PhP 9,000.00 (10k retail less 1k haggle)
already includes NVidia Video, 5.1 audio (with SPDIF in/out), USB 2.0, FW400, svideo output, multi-card reader
HDD: 160GB SATA PhP 5,200.00
RAM: 1GB Generic PhP 5,000.00
DVD-RW: LiteOn 16x DVD+/-RW with dual layer support PhP 5,000.00
WinXP Home: PhP 4,000.00
DVD Player: PowerDVD (bundled with drive)
DVD Authoring: Nero Burning ROM (bundled with drive)
Audio Player: Media Player 10 (free)

Total, so far 31,450 with a faster processor, larger hdd, dvdrw, 1gb ram. if you match the mini spec for spec, you'd end up saving a chunk off that. there's also no need to diy it, if you buy everthing from one shop, they'll put it together for you. i had one built a few months ago as a gaming pc with higher specs, my vendor put it together, delivered to my place and gave me 3 years warranty on it. they did well in supporting my previous gaming rig so i trust they'll continue their fine service.

if you really wanna go cheap, you can go linux for the os and that will bring a slew of free apps. i've tried mandrake and found it very easy to use.

i like my macs and all but price-wise, even the mini still gets clobbered by the pc.