Investigating the Apple Tax: Part I – The iMac
Apple earlier this week refreshed their desktops across the board. The all in one iMac, the spartan Mini and the workstation Mac Pro all got some new hardware. Does this hardware come at a premium? Is there an Apple Tax, a premium charged on hardware, unavoidable due to Apple’s closed platform? Consider the iMac, Apple’s flagship desktop line, available in all inclusive package with either a 20″ or 24″ LCD.
Base 20″ iMac
Processor: 2.66Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory: 2GB 1066 DDR3
Video: Integrated GeForce 9400M
Hard Drive: 320GB SATA
Monitor: Integrated 20″ LCD
Other features: Keyboard, Mouse, DVD Burner, Mac OS 10.5
Price: $1199
Fully Loaded 24″ iMac
Processor: 3.06Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory: 8GB 1066 DDR3
Video: ATi Radeon 4850 512MB
Hard Drive: 1TB SATA
Monitor: Integrated 24″ LCD
Other features: Keyboard, Mouse, DVD Burner, Mac OS 10.5
Price: $3249
Now, Mac OS 10.5 retails for $129, the Mighty Mouse and Apple Keyboard retail for $49 each. So we’ll round this up to $230 and credit each iMac. This gives us adjusted prices of
Base 20″ iMac
Original Price: $1199
OS/Accessory Credit: $230
Adjusted Price: $969
Fully Loaded 24″ iMac
Original Price: $3249
OS/Accessory Credit: $230
Adjusted Price: $3119
Now, for comparision, I’ve composed 2 systems from parts at Newegg.com. For each I’ve tried for a rough approximation of the hardware in the iMac. I’ve created “Wish Lists” for each to share them.
20″ dwotMock
Processor: 2.8Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory: 2GB 1066 DDR3
Video: GeForce 9400 GT 512MB*
Hard Drive: 320GB SATA
Monitor: Acer 20″ Widescreen LCD
Other features: DVD Burner, MicroATX Motherboard, MicroATX Case, 500W Power Supply, no OS
Price: $629.91
24″ dwotMock
Processor: 3.06 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory: 8GB 1066 DDR3
Video: ATI Radeon 4850 512MB
Hard Drive: 1TB SATA
Monitor: Acer 24″ Widescreen LCD
Other features: DVD Burner, MicroATX Motherboard, MicroATX Case, 500W Power Supply, no OS
Price: $1005.90
Savings over Adjusted Price
20″ dwotMock vs 20″ iMac
$339.09
24″ dwotMock vs 24″ iMac
$2113.10
Verdict? Well there’s certain concessions to be made, for certain. System building may not be for everyone, though it is certainly more simple that most would imagine. It’s not without it’s challenges, no one enjoys DOA parts and not everyone can troubleshoot a build gone bad. Off the shelf systems like the Mac often come with support, which I suppose someone has found useful sometime, though I couldn’t provide any evidence to support that conjecture.
There’s also the issue of Mac OS. No Apple Hardware, no Mac OS, right? Not quite. While Apple has certainly made their position clear with litigation, Macs run on standard hardware and there is an active underground scene dedicated to running Mac OS on non Apple hardware. It may not be for the Technophobe, but it’s certainly not impossible. Check out Lifehacker’s amazing Hackintosh guides.
That said, the 20″ dwotMock / iMac showdown gives the dwotMock a $339 edge, or 35% of the adjusted price. System building certainly has some financial benefit.
The 24″ dwotMock / iMac matchup, however, is a blow out. The dwotMock’s $2,113.10 edge is 68% of the loaded iMac’s price. For the cost of a loaded iMac you could build 3 equally spec’d PCs.
Check back later this week for our Mac Mini comparison.
PAX08 Recap
With the weekend now gone, it’s time to recap what we saw at PAX08.
PAX was, in short, fucking amazing. Ken Levine of BioShock fame lead things off with a tremendous Key Note, audio available at Joystiq on what it was that all brought us to Seattle. As Ken put it, we’re all just a bunch of fucking nerds. PAX is a nerd mecca, with panels, concerts and guests tailored to the nerdish pallette.
Mere Formalities…
Tradition requires that every ended lapse in posting be preceded by the obligatory apologies and assurances that the updates will again flow and order has been restored. Inevitably, these promises are proven false over time, but for a while, we lie to ourselves and pretend that dwot is back for good. This post will have to cover for the most recent lapse in content. Then gentle prodding of a formal request for updates has stirred the mighty dwot from it’s slumber. Let’s see how far it rumbles before ceding to it’s slothful ways again. Enjoy the ride. And thanks for the kick LdL 
Weekly Preview – April 14 2008
DVDs
Juno – Oscar winner for best writing, stars Ellen Page and Michael Cera in the funniest move about teen pregnancy in recent memory. Directed by Jason Reitman, who also directed the brilliant Thank You for Smoking. A great movie, worth a trip to the rental store.
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead – Ethan Hawke and Philip Seymour Hoffman are brothers plotting to rob the family jewelry store when all goes awry. Pulled a 7.9 on IMDB and an 88% on Rotten Tomatoes. Certainly worthy of a watch.
Also out this week, Aliens vs Predator: Requiem, Lars and the Real Girl, and In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, if you’re into crappy monster movie mash-up sequels, goofy indie-flicks about love dolls or wretched Uwe Boll abominations, respectively.
Beer of the Week – Old Thumper
The Shipyard Brewery in Portland, ME has a solid line-up of brews, including this week’s Beer of the Week, Old Thumper. Old Thumper is an ESB, or Extra Special/Strong Bitter. Here’s what Shipyard has to say:
Old Thumper Extra Special Ale was created in 1979 by veteran British brewer, Peter Austin, foundr of the Ringwood Brewery in Hampshire England and mentor to Shipyard’s master brewer, Alan Pugsley. A British Grand Champion beer, Old Thumper is a non-traditional English Bitter, brewed in the United STates soley by the Shipyard Brewing Company.
Pulling in a B at BeerAdvocate, Old Thumper is no slouch, having won several awards, including Best in Show at the 2004 LA County Fair. Track some down this weekend and enjoy, it’s a perfect brew for watching the Sox trounce the Yankees. Happy Weekend!
dwot Helpdesk – Firefox 3 Beta 5
The Final Beta of Firefox 3 dropped last week and I wholeheartedly recommend picking it up to everyone who uses a web browser, whoever the hell that might be. Firefox 3 adds updated page rendering, improved memory handling, tighter integration with the Look and Feel of the operating system, a revamped download manager, and a wealth of other improvements. In non-web-geek talk, it runs better, eats less memory and looks prettier. It installs fairly well in parallel to Firefox 2 on Windows at least which makes it a fairly low-risk install if you don’t feel it’s ready for you yet. Also, be sure to check out Lifehacker’s awesome Field Guide to Testing Firefox 3
Top 10 Annoying Local Commercials
For this week’s Top 10, we’ve scoured the depths of YouTube to bring you the Top 10 Annoying Local TV Commercials. We’ll start off with a favorite of my hometown, Bernie & Phyl’s.
#10 Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture
Which one is Bernie? Which one is Phyl? WTF are they saying?
Podcast Pick: WebbAlert
Like Tech News? Enjoy snarky commentary? Can’t get enough Morgan Webb? Well WebbAlert is certainly for you. With a new episode roughly 80% of weekdays, WebbAlert is a great tech news podcast providing headlines, insight and commentary about all the important or at least interesting or humourous tech news of the day. X-Play co-host Morgan Webb delivers what you need in about 5 minutes each episode with mild commercial interruption. Certainly a worthy and informative way to waste a little time each day.