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Echowatch has done a blow-by-blow price comparison of a Power Mac G5 DP 1.8Ghz with a Dell XPS 3.4GHz P4. To make it fair, each computer was specified comparably; for example, both get a 20" LCD and a 256MB Radeon video card, albeit different models. The Dell Dimension XPS comes out at $5, 985, while the Power Mac is a mere $3,702. Admittedly, 3-year AppleCare isn't rolled into the retail price, whereas the Dell has a 3-year warranty. That would put the Mac's price around the $4,000 mark. However, FireWire and comparable photo and video editing software have to be optioned with the Dell - which costs - whereas Apple bundles iLife with every Mac. The Dell also has a much larger hard drive - 250GB v. 80GB. Both run Serial ATA, but again you'd have to factor in a couple of hundred extra dollars to give the Power Mac that much storage. Both machines are equipped with 8x DVD burners. In basic form, the Power Mac has it all over the Dell (the author also links to two saved PDFs as the Apple and Dell stores). But even pushing the Mac up-spec (250GB HD etc.), the Power Mac still beats out the Dell by around $400, coming in at around $5,500. Here's a comment from the article: "The Dell system isn’t that good a value. For the additional cost you don’t get much. Plus it doesn’t have the Mac OS X operating system. Also, Sound Blaster Audigy doesn’t output true digital audio like the Optical jack in the PowerMac. Granted, optical compatible speakers are considerably harder to find and more expensive than traditional surround speakers." Analysis: The fact is that similarly-equipped PCs don't have a lot of difference in price. It's reasonable to expect that Apple and Dell pay roughly comparable wholesale prices to manufacturers, although Dell's volumes would make its per-thousand orders a little cheaper. But whether one pays $70 or $80 for a DVD-R, even spread over thousands or millions of units doesn't equate to savings at point of sale; it just means better margins and profitability for Dell. Little of that volume saving is passed on to the consumer. Of course, you could point to the processor speed disparity, but then there's always a DP 2.5GHz Power Mac. The only limit is your credit card...
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