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There’s a long held belief that Apple Mac’s are more expensive than their name-brand PC cousins. That may have once been true, but it’s now a myth. It’s easy to disprove this myth: simply price out competing systems on the web. To make the comparison fair, you’ll need to make the systems as equal as possible. I’m going to begin by pitting two top-of-the-line workstation computers against each other: the Apple Mac Pro and the Dell Precision 690.

Workstation computers are used by professionals that need raw computing power: generally graphics and video professionals, but really anyone needing a high end desktop computer. This is a comparison I did for myself when the Mac Pro was first announced, but I’m only now posting the results.

Systemshootouts.org has already posted a similar comparison between these two machines, however they opted to outfit each system to hit a price point of $3,200. My comparison will make the two machines as similar in configuration as possible, with what I believe are the true minimum specifications of a workstation computer. Let’s get started…

The Processor

The first thing we need to do is ensure both machines have the same processors. The standard configuration of the Mac Pro is two 2.66Ghz Dual-Core Intel Xeon “Woodcrest” processors (also known as the Xeon 5150.) The standard configuration of the Dell is a single older (and slower) 3GHz Dual-Core Xeon 5050 processor. Yes, that’s right, the older 3GHz processor is slower than the newer 2.66Ghz. So, the first thing we’ll do is make the Dell to match the Mac Pro by choosing the upgrade to the 5150 processor and adding a second 5150 processor.

It should be noted that both systems offer an upgrade to a 3GHz 5150 processor, and a downgrade to a 2GHz 5150 processor. We chose the 2.66GHz as it offered the most bang for the buck.

The RAM

The Mac Pro comes standard with 1GB of 667MHz DDR2 fully buffered ECC RAM (upgradable to 16GB.) The Dell comes standard with 1GB of slower 522MHz RAM (upgradable to 4GB.) We’re going to upgrade both systems to 2GB of 667MHz RAM.

Hard Drives

The Mac Pro comes standard with a 250GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA hard drive (with a downgrade to 160GB and upgrade to 500GB both available.) The Dell comes standard with an 80GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA hard drive (with upgrades all the way up to 750GB.) Both systems have 4 hard drive bays. We’ll make the Dell match the Mac Pro by using a single 250GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA hard drive.

Video Card(s)

Here’s where it gets tricky. There’s only one option of video card that’s exactly the same on both systems, and it’s the largest upgrade you can make. The Mac Pro offers the ultra high-end nVidia Quadro FX 4500 512MB with dual DVI for a whopping $1650. Dell offers the same card for an upgrade price of $1450. That’s a bit much, so we’re going to go with a slightly less powerful card.

The Mac Pro comes standard with an nVidia GeForce 7300 GT 256MB with dual-link DVI. The Dell comes standard with an nVidia Quadro NVS 285 128MB with dual VGA. We’ll need to bump that up to a dual DVI card at the least…The same card is available with dual DVI for a nominal fee, so that’s what we’ll choose. Note: to bump the Dell up to 256MB on the video card is a substantial upgrade, as it’s a higher level card. We’ll stay with the lower-end card for now.

Optical Drives

The Mac Pro comes with a single 16x dual-layer SuperDrive (CDRW and DVDRW.) The Dell comes with a combo drive (CDRW and DVD,) so we’ll need to upgrade that so that it can also write to DVD’s. We’ll make it match with a 16X CDRW/DVDRW. Note: both systems can add a second optical drive if desired.

Other Drives

The Dell comes standard with a 3.5″ floppy drive. It’s not even an option on the Mac Pro. Nobody uses floppy drives any more, so we’ll remove it from the Dell to make the two systems equal.

Networking

The Mac Pro comes standard with two gigabit ethernet ports (10/100/1000.) The Dell comes standard with a single gigabit ethernet port. To be honest, most people will only need one ethernet port, so we’re not going to upgrade the Dell to match the Mac Pro. Note that if we did, it would have added only $49 to the cost of the Dell.

Monitor

The Dell comes standard with a 17″ VGA CRT monitor. The Mac Pro does not have a monitor standard. Since most monitors can be used by either system, we’ll remove the standard Dell monitor and let you choose your own.

Wireless

Both systems can have wireless cards. Since we’re assuming this will be a work computer, most likely using gigabit ethernet, we’ll leave the wireless option off both machines.

Keyboard and Mouse

The Mac Pro comes standard with a USB keyboard (with integrated 2 port USB hub) and an optical mighty mouse with integrated scroll ball. The Dell comes standard with a USB keyboard (no hub) and a mechanical mouse (with scroll.) We’ll upgrade the Dell to have a USB keyboard with USB hub and an optical mouse with scroll wheel.

Warranty

The Dell comes standard with 3 year “essential” business warranty. The Mac Pro has 1 year. We’ll upgrade the Mac Pro to 3 years.

The Verdict

Ok, we now have 2 nearly identical systems (as configured.) There are very minor differences, as noted, and also the Mac Pro is more upgradable in terms of RAM. As configured here’s how they stack up:

Apple Mac Pro: $3048
Dell Precision 690: $3860

So, the Mac Pro was cheaper by $812. So much for the “Mac is more expensive” myth. It’s important to keep in mind that we’re comparing two nearly identical systems (on paper,) from name brand computer manufacturers both offering world-class service (your mileage may vary.) We’re not considering home brew systems built from off the shelf parts, as they’re generally not allowed in a business environment. In addition to the significant savings, another bonus for the Mac Pro is the design. Take a look at how easy it is to upgrade or work on the Mac Pro: watch the video. Another bonus is that the Mac Pro can run Windows natively, just like the Dell, but can also run Mac OS X…unlike the Dell. Choice is good (and OS X is great!)

Winner: Mac Pro

This entry was posted on Monday, August 14th, 2006 at 8:33 pm and is filed under Hardware. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.