[Solved] Why do people think macs are overpriced?

Why do people always say that macs are overpriced? Here is a build I planned on newegg that went with the same specs as the lowest tier 21.5" imac. Since the mac includes OS, Screen, and wireless mice/keyboard I put those in the shopping card as well.

Here is everything listed out:

CPU $124.99: Intel Core i3-540 Clarkdale 3.06GHz 4MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 73W Dual-Core Desktop Processor BX80616I3540

RAM $94.99: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL8D-4GBRM

Motherboard $119.99: GIGABYTE GA-P55-USB3 LGA 1156 Intel P55 USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Video Card $84.99: HIS H467QR1GH Radeon HD 4670 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

PSU $109.99: CORSAIR HX Series CMPSU-650HX 650W ATX12V v2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

Case $154.99: Antec P183 Black Aluminum / Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

HDD $69.99: Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

DVD burner $18.99: LITE-ON Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA CD/DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM

Display $179.99: ASUS VH226H Black 21.5" 2ms(GTG) HDMI Widescreen 16:9 Full HD 1080P LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 1000:1 (ASCR 12000 : 1) Built in Speakers

Bluetooth adapter $29.99: D-Link DBT-120 USB 2.0 Wireless USB Bluetooth Adapter

Bluetooth mouse $39.99: Interlink Electronics VP6151 Black Bluetooth Optical Rechargeable Notebook Mouse

Bluetooth Keyboard $99.99: SolidTek KB-3962B-BT Black 89 Normal Keys Bluetooth Wireless Mini Keyboard with Touch-Pad Built-in

Heatsink(apple doesn't use crappy stock heatsinks in their computers) $35.98: ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2 92mm Fluid Dynamic CPU Cooler

Operating System $99.99: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM



TOTAL: $1,261.85 for the PC vs. $1,199.00 for the MAC

This system is MORE expensive than the price apple advertises on their website. Not to mention the fact that the mac has a warranty and is an all-in-one professional grade build

Yes you could have built this computer a little bit cheaper by selecting crappier/lower end parts but I tried selecting the same quality components as apple uses in their systems.


Flame me all you want haters, you can't avoid the truth. Stop living with your blind fanboyism and wake up.

couple things wrong with your "comparison."

first, apple doesn't list which brand/model RAM they use, so your choice is not a true reflection of price comparison. (I imagine apple uses the same type of crap RAM most other pc makers use)

second, like above, your choice of motherboard is random as apple doesn't say which mobo they use (probably some generic intel mobo)

third, the PSU apples uses is probably some generic POS psu, not top of the line corsair (and probably not modular like your choice)

fourth, you chose a fairly high performance SATA HDD. Like everything else I said, apple probably uses some crap 5200 RPM HDD

fifth, apple uses wireless, not necessarily bluetooth

So in conclusion, your price comparison method is just a waste of time...nice try

Lets look at the price of the parts that would go into the mac

They likely get their motherboards from foxconn, they get many products from them so the board only costs about $80

They dont need to put in an 850W PSU, since the mac is non-upgradable, and you picked and outrageous PSU for the rest of the system so you were purposely biasing that part. The imac could easily run on a 400CX so that drops $50 off the price.

You picked one of the highest end 500GB HDD available, it wasnt even out when the new Imacs got released so its definitely not in their, i would expect them to use a 500GB caviar blue that costs $55, so thats knocks off another $15

You are right that apple doesnt use crappy stock cooling in their machines, they are forced to do a custom cooling job because the airflow is so bad within their machines. Mac Pro's have to use custom Mac ram with extra large heatsinks because they cook themselves if they dont have the bigger heatsinks.

An imac has a lot in common with a laptop, small low power parts packed into a tight space, and when you buy 10k of a single part you can get it for quite a bit less.

When I went laptop shopping a few months back I did compare Macs to PCs.

My Toshiba laptop: $1099
Closest equivalent Mac laptop (200MHz more CPU but less RAM, less disk, etc): $2499.

So yes, Macs are overpriced.

^LMAO

You configured a radeon 4670 and lowly i3 with a Corsair HX Series CMPSU-650HX? There are just so many things wrong with your comparison it's not even funny.

wow expensive case much, the antec 300 would be fine, good design, doesn't look horrible, and decent airflow

not to mention they use a very low memory 4670, that they special get (that is cheaper), speaking of which, there is a Gigabyte 1GB DDR3 4670 for $70 (instead of $85)
"ATI Radeon HD 4670 256MB GDDR3 SDRAM"

EDIT: though if you really want to talk about over priced, you can't even get a laptop with the same specs as mine as they only go up to the i7-620m (i have the i7-720QM)

why not compare all of them, i find that building your own comes out better anyways (except for the extreme low end garbage computers, but even that gets close sometimes)

a build using a foxconn board, non-gaming memory (generic G.Skill), the Gigabyte 4670, WD Blue 500GB, Antec 300 + Antec Earthwatts 380W, same monitor, logitech wireless keyboard mouse came to $850

thats $350 less than the base model, now if you start upgrading that base model, a DIY starts becoming a lot cheaper, not to mention if you want OSX on this machine OSx86 has a list of hardware for each revision of OSX that works and tells what patches needed to be applied (in many Intel LGA 1156 cases - none)

C'Mon folks he said Flame him not Forum Nuke him.

lol you pc guys are giving barebones configs but fail to recognize that APPLE DOESN'T USE CHEAPASS PARTS IN THEIR SYSTEMS. They are different than dell and hp they use premium highquality parts in their computers. They custom design their motherboards to be fully optimized for the parts they are putting in to it.

Everything in a mac just fits, and they don't use cheapass foxconn/generic brand.

^ and for what highend you get, you pay a great premium

Why use high quality parts in your system when mid level parts are perfectly fine for what you can do to a mac? Why would they pay extra to get boards with good chipset cooling, high quality capacitors rated for 105C, and multiphase voltage regulators? Unless you plan to be doing overclocking these features are useless. Most of the cost of high end motherboards is the added features, if you custom design a board to give you just what you need and no more you can get it for a lot cheaper and still know it will work fine.

Apple has no reason to buy premium high quality parts that enthusiasts do, Macs are restrictive enough on what you can do to your hardware that you would never be able to encounter the limitation a cheaper board has to a more expensive one.

and when you really think about it, there is no reason for Macs as any software that is mac exclusive has a windows versions that is as good if not better

word. this kid has it right. *** pc's, they always glitch, never workright, and are all around plastic pieces of ***.

Ok I have a QUESTION for all you PC fanboys out there. IF your pc's were at all hightech, THEN WHY ARE THEY SO DAMN BIG AND HAVE HUGE OPEN SPACES IN SIDE OF THEM.

This makes total cents. remember moores law? *** IS SUPPOSED TO GET SMALLER EVERY 2 YEARS. Macs have been following it, pc's havent lol.

this proves in pure and sound logic that:

MAC > PC



gg nubs <3

FLanighan, you totally misunderstood Moore's law. He noticed that every 18 months they were able to fit twice as many transistors on a chip, only the transistors were shrinking, the chips were staying the same size or growing to give more room for more features to be added. If we were content with the performance of an old Pentium 1 system, then yes it would be tiny, but some people enjoy things that get progressively better overtime so we left things the same size and chose to boost performance and add features.

Oh and before you talk about why is a PC so damn big, take a look at a mac pro. There is one where i work, it is bigger and heavier than my desktop, mostly because its cooling system was soo poorly designed that its memory has to have massive heatsinks to keep them from burning up because there is almost no airflow through the case, thats why PCs are big and have huge open spaces, because some of us like not having to worry about our parts dying from overheating.

hmmm, i can't remember the last time i had a BSOD (except from overclocking, but that comes with the territory)
also, you tried to pick out some of the most expensive hardware to make it "look" like the PC was more expensive when the setup could be had for $800-$850 and still be compatible with OSX with minimal intervention (if you pick the right parts, no intervention)

+1, EDIT: was a little different when there were actual builds going on to show a closer representative of the price

show me the huge spaces... and also, the case appearance does NOT make the computer more high tech... you are blinded and unintelligent... also pc builders, BUILDERS! (go build a mac ) like to be able to customize their systems and that's unachievable on a mac... finally go try and play Crysis on your mac

Also, Macs still get viruses, there's just fewer 'cause fewer people are blinded by the ignorance of buying a mac. Finally, My computer hasn't ever crashed. ever. You don't know jack.

hmmm, i have had a few non-custom PC's as well, never had a problem except for age

except now you seem like an idiot since there is no reason to install 4 5970's, and even so, the last two lanes are PCI-E x4 slots that are x16 mechanical (first two are x16)

EDIT: not to mention this thread was about iMac computers

you would have to find one that supports Quad SLI (so it has the 8 expansion port slots on the case) and enough room to allow a 12.5" behemoth, good luck

Best answer selected by ehanger.

wow...holy hell.... i am speechless at that best answer, complete waste of that forum feature

I dont think my antec300 can fit 4 5970s... hell my motherboard only can fit 2!

Seriously though, if you want to compare a mac to a PC you gotta do it with OEM such as HP or dell. Comparing it to DIY crowd like is is nonsense as we already ditched OEM's many many years ago.

And please... tell me when a MAC can have an i7-920 + Caviar black 1tb + GTx260 SLI+ corsair tx750w + 3x2gb DDR3-1033 crucial & overclock easily to 3.6ghz in matter of minutes.

I do not hate Mac's, nor do i use them. My only experience with them is a Imac my friend uses. Ever since i installed W7, the only BSOD was due to the fact i forgot to secure my wires correctly (woops) and me overclocking a tad too high (3.8 on a average air cooler).

Meanwhile... i have gotten no viruses at all. Why? Its not because of windows 7 or OsX. Its because i actually watch where i go and what i download.

Someone please lock this flame thread =D

the only actual reason i can see for it is if you use an openCL app that can use multiple GPU's, as this would give you 8 (remember openCL doesn't need and possibly want the GPU's in a multi-gpu config like crossfire)

but i understand the point, it should just be a bit more practical, like 2 x 5970's