| Features |
Apple |
Dell |
Inequalities (any worth noting) |
| Processor |
Dual 2GHz G5 |
Dual Xeon 3.2GHz*
|
  |
| Operating System |
Mac OS X 10.3 |
Windows XP Professional |
  |
| Monitor and speakers |
No monitor
Built-in mono speaker |
No monitor
Built-in mono speaker |
  |
| Graphics |
64MB nVidia GeForce
FX 5200 Ultra |
64MB nVidia Quadro
NVS 280 |
The Dell as configured has the bottom-of-the-line Quadro card, but
that one is still about $100 more than the GeForce chip that's the
cheapest option for the PowerMac. |
| Hard Drive |
160GB Serial ATA, 7200 RPM |
160GB Serial ATA, 7200 RPM |
  |
| Mouse |
USB Optical Mouse |
USB Optical Mouse |
  |
| Optical Drive |
Combo (CD-RW/DVD-ROM) |
Combo (CD-RW/DVD-ROM) |
  |
| Ports |
Optical audio in/out,
2 Firewire 400 ports
1 Firewire 800 port
3 USB 2.0 ports
2 USB 1.1 ports |
Digital 5.1 out
2 Firewire 400 ports
8 USB 2.0 ports |
The Dell has a few more ports and slots for adding internal and external devices, but both systems are pretty generous |
| Expansion options |
2 internal hard drive bays
1 optical drive bay
2 100MHz PCI-X slots
1 133MHz PCI-X slot 
|
3 internal hard drive bays
2 optical drive bays
3 100 MHz PCI-X slots |
| Support option |
3-year extended |
3-year extended |
  |
| Software options |
The Powermac comes with the following free software that doesn't have equivalents in Windows XP:
- iLife (includes iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD and GarageBand),
- Art Directors Toolkit,
- GraphicConverter,
- OmniGraffle,
- OmniOutliner,
- QuickBooks for Mac New User Edition,
- Setup Assistant--Transfer data and settings,
- Sherlock
|
McAfee Security Center 15-month subscription  |
Dell lacks the following software functionality that comes with the Apple
system. The retail cost of this software is not huge, but it's probably
$200-$300. Also, the software cost of the Dell increases because of
the need to purchase antivirus subscription services. 
- Personal finance
- Digital photo management
- Digital video creation and management (Microsoft's MovieMaker
app is not equivalent to iMovie!)
- DVD creation
- Music creation and editing
- Games
- Desktop web services (like Sherlock)
- Software for migrating applications, documents, and personal
settings from your old computer to the new one
- Other useful functions like those with Omnigraffle and OmniOutliner,
which come with the Mac.
|
| Total Cost |
$2,619 |
$2,742 |
  |
