The Underscore Archives

On Jan 31, 2008 10:07 PM, Tom Gidden <tom at gidden.net> wrote:
> On 31 Jan 2008, at 19:01, Richard Davey wrote:
> >
> > Anyway let's not get into the whole Mac vs. PC thing. While there are
> > significant Mac merits, price will never be one of them.
>
>
> Hey, that's not fair, Rich!  You can't just say "Let's not get into
> the whole Mac vs. PC thing" and then shoot off the start of a Mac vs.
> PC argument!

I'm game! - it's 2am and sleep deprivation has reduced my ability to resist!

If you truly compare like for like, the budget end of Apples range
actually comes out pretty well - take for example the bottom of the
range macbook (13.3" widescreen, 2ghz core duo, 1gb Ram, built in
webcam, 80gb drive) £699 inc VAT and delivery.

The 13.3" screen is a virtue here - it's a very portable laptop, I
wouldn't want anything bigger, in fact i'd go smaller if there was one
in Apples current range. I also like the long battery life I get from
my macbook - allegedly up to 5 hours under minimal load. So my
requirements are to find an equivalent non-apple to match or better
the base spec macbook:-

- 13.3" widescreen (no bigger - i'm not looking for a suitcase!)
- slim form factor
- min 2Ghz core duo processor
- min 1gb RAM, built in webcam
- good battery life

Before I bought my macbook I did a bit of searching around for an
equivalent form factor/spec non-apple machine and didn't find anything
as cheap. I just did a quick google, and found (on tesco of all
places!), this range of 13.3" widescreen laptops, and the cheapest one
is the bottom of the range macbook :)

http://direct.tesco.com/q/N.1999724$4294959117/Nr.99.aspx


On the same note can anyone find an equivalent spec mini PC as quiet
and small as a mac mini but cheaper? I'm genuinely interested - last
time I looked into it there were only a handful of mini -ITX(?)
machines available, none cheaper than the mac mini and all were bigger
and noisier...

/me gets back to work..










-- 
Rick Hurst, Web developer, Bristol, England
http://www.rickhurst.co.uk