[at-fates-hands]

Interesting they compared the new Mac to a workstation.

Older workstations these days are a lot more affordable and can easily be upgraded. Most MACS you're stuck with what you get.

Case in point, I just purchased an HP 8400 workstation for a friend. $320 for a dual proc 2.6GHz quad core Xeon, 16GB RAM, Two 320GB SAS drives in RAID config and ATI Fire V7350 1GB video card. Sure its a pig and isn't the quietest PC in the room, but it completely shreds anything I could find in a retail setting.

[Cookingboy]

Really? $320 for a new machine with that spec? That graphics card alone costed more than that when it was new, did the CPU/storage/power supply come at negative price?

If this was true, it would really explain HP's financial situation /s

EDIT: that graphics card despite being old, still sells for $300 on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/ATI-100-505143-FireGL-512-bit-Express/...

[LukeShu]

Read closer. He "just" recently paid that. The HP 8400 is what, a 2007 machine? The prices when the parts were new is irrelevant.

[Cookingboy]

I suspected as much, but then it's silly to bring it into a cost/performance comparison against a brand new top of the line 2013 desktop. Yes they are upgradable, but by the time you upgrade them to modern spec it will cost a lot more than $320.

[ericd]

It doesn't shred anything with an SSD, though...

[mwfunk]

"MACS"?

[mortenjorck]

Writing "Mac" in all caps as if the writer obtusely believes it to be an acronym for something is part of the style manual for passive-aggressive platform debate.

[rsynnott]

I assume it stands for Malevolent Alien Computer System, or something.