Mac vs. PC System Shootouts $3,200 Workstations 3099
This was actually a fairly balanced and accurate comparison. It probably would have been better to compare the Mac Pro to the Dell 490 as these chbuttis math closer.
I don't think the MacWorld guy was purposefully trying to be confusing, instead I think he got lost on the Dell dite and just posted the wrong specs. I could...
Tim, Come on man, this artical isn't even trying to be fair in the comparision. First, the author picked the 1Kw with SLI 68 plus 10...
The author did state it in the article, but Dell ships a 19-inch Ultrasharp flat panel at that price point ($250). Also the Dell comes with a 3-year hardware warranty. For comparison sake the $249 Applecare should have been added to the Mac Pro.
Just to point our a few more features of the Dell that were glossed over, the motherboard has an on board SATA RAID controller and can support RAID 0,1, and 5. Best of my limited knowledge the Mac Pro only supports software RAID. Also, the Dell offers WORKSTATION clbutt video cards (Nvida Quadro and Ati FireGL) where Apple only offers high-end gamer cards. To many people who work in 3d rendering there is a big difference between the consumer cards and the Quadros, specifically FULL OpenGl support. As a note, if you call Dell they will ship the 68 plus 10 with a consumer card and you can get a GeForce 7300GT 256meg, it is about a $30 upgrade. (The Quadro NVS 285 is a POS and really only suited to 2d CAD work or office applications)
Just my opinion
Brent
Sandman