Apple iMac vs PC: which gives the best value for money?

The new iMac range is now available in South Africa carrying a sizable price tag for the hardware

The 27” iMac goes for R23 999, giving you the incomparable iMac unibody aesthetic and the fantastic 27” 2560×1440 LED backlit LCD screen with In-plane Switching (IPS) technology. IPS gives the screen a wide viewing angle.

Under the hood is an Intel quad-core 2.66GHz Core i5 (750). The GPU is an ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB. There are four RAM slots, supporting up to 16GB, but it comes with 2x2GB 1066MHz PC-8500 DDR3. The Front Side Bus runs 1066MHz. There is enough room for a single HDD – 1TB is standard.

For connectivity there are four USB 2.0 ports, a Firewire 800 port, Gigabit Ethernet, an 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi antenna, and a DisplayPort. The DisplayPort allows an external display to be connected, or allows the iMac to be used as a secondary display device.

There is also an integrated webcam and microphone, stereo audio, 8x Dual layer SuperDrive, and a wireless keyboard and Magic Mouse. Rounding off the package is the 64bit MacOS X 10.6 and a one year hardware and service warranty.

One wonders how much it would cost to build a similar computer. Below is a system of comparable hardware. Where exact equivalents couldn’t be found (the Magic Mouse for example), the nearest match in terms of price and function was chosen.

The online retailer Landmark PC was selected because they have a broad range of products available at average prices.

The 512MB versions of the HD 4850 were more expensive than the 1GB Club 3D version of the card at the Landmark PC store. For this reason the Club 3D version was chosen as it is a better value proposition.

There are no screens equivalent to the iMac 27” available – some may argue that the 27” iMac screen is a major attraction of the product. Likewise, nothing can really compare to the unibody enclosure, so a chassis selection was left out entirely.

With the final amount sitting near R15 000, one could argue that the R9 000 premium goes towards the unique Mac unibody with its aesthetic elements, the impressive multi-touch Magic Mouse, the larger screen with IPS and the 1 year hardware and service warranty.

More bang for your buck?

Now that we’ve seen how much it would cost to build a comparable computer, let’s take a look at what we can get from Landmark PC for around R24 000.

Apple iMac versus PC – discussion

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