I had a look at Dell’s Open-Source PCs website, and for fun I decided to see what a great Ubuntu desktop system would cost me when they reach Australia.
I was amazed at the great value for money.
- Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6700 (4MB L2 Cache,2.66GHz,1066 FSB) - the most powerful that they offer
- Ubuntu Desktop Edition version 7.04 with 1 year of Basic Support
- 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz
- 500GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™ (not sure what DataBurst Cache is meant to be, but 500 gigabytes is much more than my total storage currently is!)
- Dual Drives: 48x Combo + 16x DVD+/-RW w/ dbl layer write capable (I really wanted dual DVD burners, but this will do - just last night I was thinking of replacing my CD-RW drive with another DVD burner).
- 22 inch E228WFP Widescreen Digital Flat Panel (I can’t really afford a 42 inch plasma to use as a monitor, but 22 inches would be nice anyway)
- 256MB nVidia Geforce 7300LE TurboCache
- Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
- Dell A525 30 Watt 2.1 Stereo Speakers with Subwoofer
- Bog-standard Dell keyboard and mouse
- SurgeArrest 11 Outlet with Tel2/Splitter, Coax and Ethernet Protection (I’ve been thinking about buying a proper surge protector for my computer)
- 13 in 1 Media Card Reader
All for the not-so-princely sum of $1,703 US dollars, or $1,969 Australian!
Good value? Undoubtedly. I seem to have a nose for bargains in computers - my current system came with the following specs (since upgraded a bit):
- AMD Sempron 3200+ at 1.8GHz
- 256Mb RAM
- 80 gig 7200RPM hard drive
- CD-RW drive
- Integrated ATI Radeon Xpress 200
- 9-in-1 memory card reader
- 56k softmodem
- Ethernet 10/100 Base T
- Integrated 6 channel (coaxial) sound card
- Windows XP Home
- Bog-standard keyboard and mouse
- Bog-standard speakers
- CRT monitor
Which cost me $596 over a year ago.
Just for fun, let’s configure an iMac at the Apple Store with the closest specs possible to my proposed Dellbuntu:
Apple 20 inch iMac:
- Only a 2.33 GHz Core 2 Duo
- 2 gigabytes DDR2 RAM
- 500 Gig SATA hard disk
- ATI Radeon X1600/256 mb
- No modem
- Standard keyboard and mouse
- No Applecare
- No software support
- Only one optical drive - a DVD burner
- Only a 20 inch monitor
- No Ubuntu
- Only 2-channel audio, I think
- No surge protection
- No memory card reader
Grand total: $3,404. Fucking hell, that’s roughly half my savings, and I’m getting less of a computer. THIS SHOULD PUT TO REST ALL THE APPLE FANBOYS WHO CLAIM THAT MACS ARE CHEAPER OR EVEN THAT THEY ARE GOOD VALUE.
To emphasise the point even more, I configured a Mac Mini:
- 2 gigs of RAM
- A tinchy little 1.8 GHz Core 2 Duo - the maximum offered
- 23 inch flat-panel display
- Superdrive (writes DVDs) - no second drive offered, of course
- Standard mouse and keyboard
- Tiny 160 gig SATA hard disk - the maximum offered
- No modem
- Intel graphics
Grand total: Just under $3,500. "Oh, but you get a cutting-edge form factor!". True, but my $600 year-old computer would probably outperform it.
EDIT: Any way that it is possible, I will buy a Dellbuntu when they become available here; and it won’t be an el-cheapo one either!
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