cost comparison

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NirK said:
I am not leaving anything out because i genuinely do not care as I do not have an apple and do not need to justify it. I was simply putting facts down out of interest.

It is not difficult to build a quiet and heat efficient PC. Maybe 5 years ago it was but now you have a massive selection of silent cases and fans etc. and the cooling would be better on a PC due to the size of the heatsink.
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Well then you are completely missing the point of non-performance-related value of the components. Do you even know how quiet the iMacs are? A lot of engineering has gone into making them as thermally efficient as possible, with as few fans as possible. You can't get that from bundling in fans into an ATX case and expect it to be even near the same level.

And so we are again full circle :rolleyes:

Reminds me of the old Android days when they were more hung up on raw hardware specs with a complete disregard for the rest of the system.
 
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Yes and I am going to leave it there as I have said MULTIPLE TIMES I am not even considering those things I am simply putting the numbers down of how much you can get equivalent performance for simply out of interest. TBH though things such as silence and whatever else has been mentioned are not difficult to get. Have you actually heard a noise insulated PC case with a thermalright heatsink? No because it is completely silent.

This forum seems to be incapable of objective normal logical thought and everything I say is then countered with "But this ... or but that ..." All I was doing was building a PC with comparable performance, screen and noise characteristics out of interest. Sorry if I have upset anyone by doing that.

Anyway I have proved my point and found out some interesting facts about how much it costs to build comparable system etc.... Its been educational....

Skyboat said:
Reminds me of the old Android days when they were more hung up on raw hardware specs with a complete disregard for the rest of the system.
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Seriously though....

Can you tell me what the imac offers other than the following things :

Form factor
Thunderbolt
Apple badge

Silence and power consumption are very easy to get with a modern PC.

IMO £1200 is a lot to pay for that.
 
You know you can edit your posts, right?

Also, serious question, why do you keep saying: "I'm out" "Goodbye" "I'm leaving" "This is a waste of time"... only to return a few minutes later. Utterly baffling.
 
If you are close then it's not the same.

62% of a similar Spec = mission fail.

You can better it but that's the point building it yourself isn't it? Get something better for less.

Getting something less for less is kinda pointless?
 
No it was the same spec with all the same things and it was ready built for 62.5% of the price. Self build was 57%... I even posted it in the thread all you have to do is read it... Not lesser... Probably better components and screen than in an imac.... The case was a lian li case and the monitor Dell 2713 with thermalright cooling etc.

Honestly I dont really care how much an imac costs or how much a comparable PC costs.... I was just interested.... The thing that actually annoys me is that apple fans / imac owners whatever will NOT agree even although the evidence is there infront of them... it is hilarious... Its like "LOOK here is the data with a breakdown of cost and components I have spent the time to do this and shown it to you" and then it is replied with "no you cant do that dont be silly"... jesus christ.
 
NirK said:
Can you tell me what the imac offers other than the following things :

Form factor
Thunderbolt
Apple badge
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Alright then:
  • Mac OS X.
  • Fusion Drive. I admit it's a marketing term, but it works better than Intel SRT and can support SSDs of any size. More of a subset of Mac OS X than an individual selling point to some extent.
  • Substantially less power usage.
  • First-class customer support.
  • Completely silent operation at idle. The latest models have only 1 fan to cool the entire unit, and it will only be audible during intensive tasks. A typical PC will have at bare minimum three, and will always be spinning.
  • Aesthetics.
  • This is just off the top of my head so I may be missing something else.

It's not an extra £1200, as we've been through. Again, and again. And again. And again.
 
Skyboat said:
Alright then:
  • Mac OS X. -
  • Fusion Drive. I admit it's a marketing term, but it works better than Intel SRT and can support SSDs of any size. More of a subset of Mac OS X than an individual selling point to some extent.
  • Substantially less power usage.
  • First-class customer support.
  • Completely silent operation at idle. The latest models have only 1 fan to cool the entire unit, and it will only be audible during intensive tasks. A typical PC will have at bare minimum three, and will always be spinning.
  • Aesthetics.
  • This is just off the top of my head so I may be missing something else.

It's not an extra £1200, as we've been through. Again, and again. And again. And again.
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It is an extra £1200, I already worked it out.
 
Skyboat said:
The GTX 680 has more cores, which are actually a lot more useful in applications such as Photoshop than raw clock speeds.

Also underclocking the GPU by a moderate amount will help significantly with heat, and subsequently noise. Funny how you are deliberately leaving this out of every comparison.
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It is just a downclocked GTX680. It has the same number of cores.
It also has a large overclocking headroom and most users can easily hit stock GTX680 clocks.

I run mine at 970mhz which is just shy of the GTX680 as I do not need any more power at the moment and it still stays cool and quiet
 
Raymond Lin said:
If you are close then it's not the same.

62% of a similar Spec = mission fail.

You can better it but that's the point building it yourself isn't it? Get something better for less.

Getting something less for less is kinda pointless?
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Anyway why am I even bothering I am going to go and repeatedly bang my head against a wall because it is more productive.

ninja2000 said:
It is just a downclocked GTX680. It has the same number of cores.
It also has a large overclocking headroom and most users can easily hit stock GTX680 clocks.

I run mine at 970mhz which is just shy of the GTX680 as I do not need any more power at the moment and it still stays cool and quiet
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The 660, 660ti, 670 etc. are also just downclocked GTX680... Shaders disabled etc.

The real world performance of a 680mx is just below a 660ti.
 
ninja2000 said:
It is just a downclocked GTX680. It has the same number of cores.
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I know the iMac's 680MX has the same number of cores as the desktop GTX 680 so I'm not sure what you're getting at.

ninja2000 said:
It also has a large overclocking headroom and most users can easily hit stock GTX680 clocks.

I run mine at 970mhz which is just shy of the GTX680 as I do not need any more power at the moment and it still stays cool and quiet
Click to expand...

Interesting, is this in OS X?
 
adolf hamster said:
apple/non apple item, got to be same spec to make it a fair comparison right?

how about: same piece of kit, same manufacturer, same retail store:

apple: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-316-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1673

non-apple: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-302-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1673

i'll let the numbers speak for themselves, can't say i'm a fan of apple but then i'm not too fond of windows either.
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Here is example number 10 of apple tax. The apple version actually has a worse blower style cooler found on the cheapest 7950's...
 
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That's just Sapphire profiteering from a niche Mac Pro market.

Besides, it's possible to flash the firmware on most modern GPUs so that the Mac Pro's EFI can output video pre-boot.

One's for gaming machines, the other's for professional workstations.
 
Raymond Lin said:
Lol I doubt it, I have a feeling you have missed out things such as.

1 - web cam and mic (its in the screen)
2 - Lack of Thunderbolt
3 - to the same db noise level. 1 db over and you are out and i mean it.
4 - Need both 128G SSD and 1TB HD inside to match.
5 - 10bit 27 inch 1440p IPS TFT

Missing a single part is mission fail, so that it is the SAME spec. Anything else is Lesser spec.

That is before you get the same form factor, if that rule is enforced then you can't built one yourself to that size no matter what.
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Even though I'm a Mac boy and I feel they are good value, the screen is only 8 bit. OS X doesn't even support 8 bit yet.
 
After all the effort I have made, what I would just LOVE to hear would be something like :

"yes I admit that is is quite obvious that apple do actually overcharge for their brand, based on the fact that this has now been demonstrated multiple times.... however I like the apple brand and to me I think the extra money is worth it, even if it is a bit over priced"

Instead of :

"yes but it is justified that they over charge because of *insert random reason here which actually makes no difference*"

Cant you just admit that apple over charge for the products but you like them anyway?

Upgrade specs on the apple site for an imac :

8GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x4GB
16GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2X8GB [+ £160.00]
32GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 4x8GB [+ £480.00]

FOUR HUNDRED AND EIGHTY POUNDS FOR TWENTY SIX GIGABYTES OF RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY!
 
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