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OK, so I was curious about this. What would happen if I tried to put together an equivalent PC based on the Mac Pro 2.66 specs?
This was the Standard configuration Mac Pro before the 8 cores came out.
These are based on the Apple Mac Pro 2.66 Ghz specs. Source Apple.com: Apple Mac Pro 2.66 Ghz Tech Specs
List price: $2,499.99.
So I did some real quick research online to find out how much each component of the Mac Pro would cost if I bought it new and just put it together.
Here are the results I found:
Intel Xeon 5150, 2.66 GHz Dual Core Processor - 2 x $772.99 = $1,545.98
Intel Serverboard S5000VSASATAR Socket 771 Motherboard, Intel Chipset 5000V, Dual LGA771 Sockets, 8x ECC FBDIMMs, SATA RAID - 1 x $401.98 = $401.98
DATARAM DTM65507C 1GB FB DIMM 667mhz - 1 x $104.81 = $104.81
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - 1 x $68.99 = $68.99
250W Power Supply - 1 x $19.99 = $19.99
XFX nVidia GeForce 7300GT 256MB DVI/HDTV/2H PCI-Express Video Ca 1 x $74.66 = $74.66
Antec TITAN650 Black 1.0mm SECC Server Case - 1 x $170.00 = $170.00
ENERMAX UC-12EB Case Fan - Retail - 4 x $6.99 = $27.96
Teac 16X Black DVD Drive - 1 x $46.99 = $46.99
Keyboard - 1 x $6.99 = $6.99
Mouse - 1 x $6.99 = $6.99
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition w/SP2 - 1 x $98.95 = $98.95
Total $2,574.29
So from the research I did, it seems like the Mac Pro is about equivalent in hardware cost as a similarly spec'd PC. Now, I'm sure you can find some of these parts a bit cheaper than the prices I have listed here, but 3/4 of the cost of the machine is the two Dual Core Xeon processors and the motherboard to support them, which comes out to almost $2,000 alone. The cost of the motherboard and processors are probably not as volatile as the other components.
Now Apple has their motherboards made to spec by Intel, so I couldnt find an Intel configuration exactly the same, but I think the Apple Intel board is actually better, as it has 4 PCIe slots in it and the board I have listed only has two.
In addition, the Mac Pro has the 2 FW800, 2 FW400, 5 USB 2.0, 1 digital audio in/out, and 1 analog audio in/out. These options are not available on the server-class Intel motherboards I found, which would make sense since the boards I found are really designed for servers, not consumer-class workstations.
So in conclusion, this really affirms what most of us have known all along: its all the same hardware, at the same prices, and that's probably a good thing for both the industry and consumers alike. The only difference is who you buy it from and what OS you want to run. Now, can you get cheaper stuff with nearly the same specs? probably, but I always say "you get what you pay for" and nowhere is that more evident than in technology.
So, you can draw your own conslusions from these results. This research was done in a quick and dirty fashion, so you may be able to find other results if you look into it yourself, but I hesitate to think that there would be a huge price difference once you get down to the details of each component. If its loads cheaper, then there is probably a good reason why. Something is either missing or its shoddy manufacturing. This is one of the reasons why so many of us recommend the more expensive ASUS/Intel boards over the cheap "no-name" mother board brands when building PCs.
This is in no way an endorsement or a slap towards one platform or the other. Some people like PC, some like Apple and some, like me, find uses for both in their computing needs. I happened to go with Apple because I wanted to run Logic and OS X and my audio interface driver support is a little more up-to-date with Apple.
However, after being a Cubase/PC user for 10 years and then going to Apple and Logic a few months ago, one thing is painfully obvious to me: Choosing one platform over the other will not make your music any better. That, my friend, is up to that old computer in between your ears.
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I don't even use windows on my PCs here.
. so i just went with the macbook instead.
