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Silver Tower Mac Pro (Dual Optical) Q&A - Updated April 13, 2007
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How does the stock original Mac Pro compare to a similar Windows PC?
Please note that all systems mentioned in this Q&A have been discontinued. The original Mac Pro models were replaced on January 8, 2008 by the "Early 2008" Mac Pro models.
At WWDC 2006, Steve Jobs compared the Apple Mac Pro to a Dell Precision 690 Workstation. When the Precision 690 was configured to match the default configuration of the Mac Pro -- with two dual core 2.66 GHz Intel Xeon 5150 processors, 1 GB of unspecified memory, a NVIDIA Quadro 550 graphics card (compared to a NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT for the Mac Pro), a 250 GB hard drive, and a 16X "SuperDrive" -- Apple reported that the Dell cost US$3448. This compared to US$2499 for the stock Mac Pro, nearly US$1000 cheaper. Those who chided the Mac for years as being "more expensive" no doubt were surprised.
Photo Credit: Apple Computer (Left), Dell (Right)
However, EveryMac.com never has been a website that takes the marketing claims of any company at face value, so a quick trip to the Dell website was in order. When configured through the "Medium & Large Business" store, EveryMac.com priced an equivalent Dell system -- two dual core 2.66 GHz Intel Xeon 5150 processors, 1 GB of 667 MHz ECC DDR2 FB-DIMM memory, a 250 GB 3.0 Gb/s SATA hard drive, and a 16X DVD+/-RW drive. Dell no longer seemed to offer the Quadro 550 graphics card, but when configured with a 128 MB NVIDIA Quadro NVS 285 graphics card with dual DVI ports (which has less memory than the NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT) on the evening of August 8, 2006, the system came to a grand total of US$3700, about US$250 more than the price Apple claimed. When the same system was configured on April 13, 2007, Dell sold it for US$3486, still US$38 more than Apple claimed in August 2006.
Dell changes pricing seemingly in real-time, and sometimes coupons are available to lower the price substantially, but it certainly appears that Apple presented a very fair comparison of the pricing of each system at the time the comparison was made.
To be completely objective, the Precision 690 does offer additional expansion options -- three external 5.25" drive bays and an external 3.5" "flex" bay that can accommodate a vintage floppy drive (for US$9), compared to two 5.25" external drive bays for the Mac Pro. The Precision 690 also has seven PCI slots of varying capabilities, although depending on configuration some are blocked and unusable. The Mac Pro, on the other hand, has four PCI Express slots (one double-wide 16-lane PCI Express graphics slot is occupied by the graphics card).
The Dell system also offers 8 USB 2.0 ports, along with a number of legacy PC ports, compared to five USB 2.0 ports for the Mac. However, the Dell lacks dual Firewire "800" ports and optical digital audio in/out, and dual Gigabit Ethernet ports are not standard for the Dell like they are with the Mac.
The Dell does include a three-year warranty by default, so if that is deemed to be of value, you might wish to configure the Mac Pro with a three-year AppleCare warranty for an additional US$249.
Comparing the case design of the two systems is no contest. Even the most entrenched Windows loyalist would have to admit that the Dell system cannot touch the Mac Pro in terms of ease of upgrading. A Windows user might want to include the cost of Windows XP Pro when purchasing the Mac for a "dual boot" setup, and if purchased at the retail price, that would add US$299 to the cost of the Mac. Even with a retail copy of Windows added to the mix and an extended warranty, the Mac Pro is still quite a bit cheaper than the Dell, and that ignores the fact that Apple does not support running MacOS X on the Dell box.
Anyway you slice it, the Mac Pro is an extremely competitive product compared to equivalent Windows PCs. If you need a high-end workstation for running MacOS X or even Windows, the Mac Pro delivers.
Please refer to EveryMac.com's Ultimate Mac Comparison feature to dynamically compare any Mac Pro model to any other G3 or later Mac.
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