OMFG Apple prices!!!

[Fat Tone]

Was just looking at [Education] prices for components for a Mac Pro...

The cost to increase from 1GB of DDR2 667 to 2GB is....drum roll....£158.63
From 250GB Sata II to 500GB ... £65.80
2nd 500GB HDD £175.08
DVD-RW £58.75

Good lord!

[ZokesPro]

Was just looking at [Education] prices for components for a Mac Pro...

The cost to increase from 1GB of DDR2 667 to 2GB is....drum roll....£158.63
From 250GB Sata II to 500GB ... £65.80
2nd 500GB HDD £175.08
DVD-RW £58.75

Good lord!

Is that a negative "good lord" or a positive "good lord"?

[rylan]

Ahhh yes, and there is a big reason why Apple computers never really got very far. It was even worse in the past.

[ZokesPro]

One thing I find truly disappointing is the Mac Pro. The system itself isn't a bad system, but the GPU options are. Why is it that they offer such a powerful system yet the best card they can offer you is a Quadro FX4600, Radeon X1900 XT or a pityful 7300 GT?

[Brian Ellis]

Perhaps because Macs are more often used for serious work, rather than gaming.

[Jammrock]

Perhaps because Macs are more often used for serious work, rather than gaming.

You apparently do not know a lot of Mac users. Just because they can't game doesn't mean they are being serious.

[NetSnake]

macs suck big time when it comes to office work too...

[ZokesPro]

macs suck big time when it comes to office work too...

How is that? Once you've installed Bootcamp and XP or Vista it's pretty much a PC. One thing though, the OS is far superior than Windows. That's one thing they did right.

[az]

Of course you can just install standard components (RAM, HD, etc.) in a mac, especially a mac pro. Bear in mind that it uses FB-DIMMs, though.

The graphics card stuff is probably a driver/card BIOS issue. The market for the Mac Pro is not exactly huge (and it's actually not that expensive when compared to professional workstations from other manufacturers), so I guess driver development for many cards isn't economically viable.

[NetSnake]

1. why would I pay premium prices for the hardware if I am to install XP anyway?????

2. the Mac OS is a joke if you are just an office/internet user

I really wish it was far superior than windows

[Fat Tone]

Anyway, mines-better-than-your arguments aside, my problem is we are a MS Campus. Unashamedly. New staff insisting on Macs just because their [external] colleagues use them is a serious PITA. First I have to spend twice as much on the system, second is the support issue. "can you give me access to x, I can't do y" gets "tough, get a PC".

[az]

Just tell them to use PCs or make them dual-boot windows or - if this isn't a hardware problem - have them run XP in Parallels.

[ZokesPro]

1. why would I pay premium prices for the hardware if I am to install XP anyway?????

2. the Mac OS is a joke if you are just an office/internet user

I really wish it was far superior than windows

1. Your right, macs, part for part are more expensive than PC's.

2. As far as I'm concerned, it's far from that. But I deleted my ealier post cause I don't want to get into a heated debate over which is better. All I can say is, if you haven't used OSX, or don't know how OSX runs or have done any research then, im my opinion, your in no position to comment on if it sucks or not. However, you can say that OS8 and OS9 sucks without having used or seen it, cause well, they just do and that's something that no one can prove you wrong, except that OS8 without a firewall on the internet is unhackable.

[NetSnake]

1. Generally speaking, Macs are more expensive than PC's when you compare part for part. My ex-roomate had a Macbook Pro and I have the same laptop but from Asus and it's a lot less expensive.

2. I'd really like to hear your arguments, honestly. I won't give any rebuttal, I just want to see what you have to say about the two because I think otherwise.

I just received 2 days of Mac training and despite that, just from looking at how OSX ran, it was clear to me. But my training gave me a more in depth look at OSX which further confirmed what I already knew. But i'm not talking about OS8 and 9 cause they truly sucked. But if you look back at history, when Apple canned Jobs back in the day, he made OSX originally for PC's and if they wouldn't have re-hired him, I doubt we'd all be running a windows based OS. But that's my opinion.

OK, so the past 10 months I use a 2 GHz Power PC, 1.5 GB RAM with OSX 10.4.8 at work

1. my point exactly

2. there are numerous things that I don't like about the macs (besides the fact that it has far less programs than the PC) and I'll just list a few of them


a. the way the windows are organised is very confusing, especially if you have many programs open at the same time (although Expose partially fixes that)

b. its not as efficient MB for MB as windows XP when I use big Excel and Powerpoint files

c. I get random problems when trying to print (tried on different printers).
for example:
in Safari or Firefox there is not option for print selection of webpages (why not???)
in word when I try to print graphs they randomly come out in black and white or color for no apparent reason

d. when i select save as to save any kind of work it automatically selects the documents folder instead of the folder the file was originally saved in (although this could be an option that can be changed)

e. on top of that, I don't find the OSX more stable than XP

I could list a lot more little things like that which are annoying but what bothers me the most is that although for the average user it doesn't really provide more (it provides less actually if you count all the programs that you can find for a PC but not for a mac) than a PC, it is significantly more expensive!!! why????

I mean you have a platform which is dominant (PC/windows) and you are trying to compete it by providing an alternative which doesn't provide more functionality than the competition and it's more expensive. what kind of a business plan is that ??????

I'll tell you what I think: without the premium price, macs would lose their value as "status symbols" and that would be the end of them...

[cjolley]

ChooChoo eats 4 or 5 apples a day and the danged things have gotten up to around $0.80 for one nice big apple.
That's close to FOUR BUCKS A DAY FOR SNACKS.


So, maybe it's just the name "Apple"

Chuck

PS Tell them you are an MS shop, show them a pencil and paper, and tell them that's their alternative.