"Neil Gould" wrote in message ...

[...]

I don't know how you get from $1400 to $3000 by adding a case, video card,
RAM, HD and OS. Much less what the top-end G5 is likely to go for. Has
anyone seen prices yet?

Prices are posted on Apple's web site.

Here's a Dell quote:

Dell Precision™ Workstation 450 Desktop

Dual Intel® Xeon™ Processor, 3.06GHz, 512K Cache
1GB,DDR266 SDRAM Memory,NECC (2 DIMMS)
Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional with Media using NTFS
120GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive with DataBurst Cache™
(2nd) 120GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive with DataBurst Cache™
4X DVD+RW/+R with Roxio® Easy CD Creator and DVD decode
nVidia, Quadro NVS 280, 64MB, dual monitor DVI or VGA capable
56K,v.92 data/fax modem,PCI
Dell UltraSharp™ 1702FP 17 inch Flat Panel Monitor (17.0 inch vis)
Enhanced Performance, USB (8 Hot Keys)
USB,Logitech,2 button OPTICAL w/ scroll
1394 Controller Card

120GB is the biggest option from Dell. Machine comes with
3 year warranty.

.... and an Apple quote:

Dual 2GHz PowerPC G5
1GB DDR400 SDRAM (PC3200) - 2x512
2x250GB Serial ATA - 7200rpm
ATI Radeon 9600 Pro
Apple Studio Display (17" flat panel)
56k V.92 internal modem
SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW)
Apple Keyboard & Apple Mouse - U.S. English
Mac OS X - U.S. English
APP for Power Mac (3 year extended warranty)

Throw away the lame mouse from the Mac, spend $30 on a real
rodent.

The two systems are roughly comparable -- the Mac has
FireWire800 (which may mean something someday) and
larger (and probably faster) hard drives.

Prices? [drumroll]

Dell: $4,749.00
Apple: $4,722.00 (plus real mouse)

Yeah, huge premium.

You can jigger the options around so one is a little cheaper
than the other for roughly equivalent systems, but they're
in the same ballpark. I doubt this is an accident -- Apple
marketing people are perfectly capable of doing quotes on
Dell's website.

-DrBoom