From: "Antti Kurenniemi" 

Dell hasn't been cheap for a long time now. The last time I bought
computers for my customer, HP was about 15% cheaper than Dell in similar
specs. I don't know if their pricing is the same in the US, but here,
they've gone nuts.


Antti Kurenniemi

"/m"  wrote in message
news:8bqrd2l1fpvohgrv2fk41mc0nupi7ik3ml{at}4ax.com...
>
> http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=33576
>
> ===
> THE MAC PRO was unveiled at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference
> (WDCC) a couple of days ago. It's a formidable system, based around a
> two Intel Xeon 'Woodcrest' processor dual core system, similar to what
> Dell is offering within the Dell Precision 490 range for small
> businesses.
>
> We thought it would be interesting to compare pricing between similarly
> specced systems from Dell and Apple, and were gobsmacked at the results
> - this should be very good reading for Apple advocates after our
> previous commentary, which discussed the poor showing from Apple at this
> year's WDCC.
>
> Let's get the base specifications out of the way first, so it's clear
> the systems are very similarly specified. Considering the recent Apple
> move towards Intel architecture, the specs are almost indistinguishable:
>
> Dell base specs
> -Dell Precision 490
> --Graphics Card - 128MB PCIe nVidia Quadro NVS 285
> --Memory - 1GB, DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz, ECC (2x512MB DIMMS)
> --HDD - 160GB 7200RPM S-ATA
> --Optical - 16X DVD+/-RW drive
> --KB/Mouse - USB Entry Quietkey, Dell standard USB
>    2-Button Optical Mouse
> --Sound and Firewire- Onboard AC97 sound and 1394a Controller Card
> --No monitor
> --Three year onsite economy service & support
>
> Apple base specs
> -Mac Pro
> --NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB
> --Memory - 1GB, DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz, ECC (2x512MB DIMMS)
> --HDD - 160GB 7200RPM S-ATA
> --Optical - Superdrive dual-layer DVD+/-RW drive
> --KB/Mouse - Apple Keyboard and Apple Mighty Mouse
> --Sound and Firewire - FireWire 800/400 and sound with
>    various I/O inc. optical
> --No monitor
> --One year standard AppleCare
>
> Now let's take a look at different processor configurations and the
> resulting pricing from the US stores.
>
> Dual Core Intel Xeon 2GHz x 2 (4MB shared L2 cache)
> Dell: $2,086.00 (with a $200 discount for small business)
> Apple: $2,124.00
>
> Dual Core Intel Xeon 2.66GHz x 2 (4MB shared L2 cache)
> Dell: $2,866.00 (with a $200 discount for small business)
> Apple: $2,424.00
>
> Dual Core Intel Xeon 3GHz x 2 (4MB shared L2 cache)
> Dell: $3,686.00 (with a $200 discount for small business)
> Apple: $3,224.00
>
> You can see Dell pips Apple by a tiny $38 for the 2GHz option, but then
> is whipped into shape by Apple with a $442 saving on the 2.66GHz option
> and a similarly large margin with the 3ghz processors - $462 per system.
> It must be noted that the machine from Dell does have a three year
> on-site warranty whereas the Apple has only the one year, but this is
> less important to small businesses who have their own IT support, and
> consumers who wish to get the cheapest deal - something Dell usually
> wins hands down.
>
> This is quite incredible. Any major OEM has trouble matching pricing
> with Dell, considering the massive volume discount Dell gets from Intel.
> But Apple aren't only matching them on the lower specs, they're
> thrashing them on the higher specced systems - relatively huge margins
> of pricing difference.
>
> You have to wonder what sort of discounts Apple are getting from Intel,
> and if this is why Dell is now holding hands with AMD. æ
> ===
>
>
> gobsmacked???
>
>  /m

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