My "base" early 2008 mac pro is still fast enough that I havent felt a need to upgrade. It really is the first 5+ year PC that I think I have purchased... I think the expense can be justified in those terms...
I'll agree with you here. I bought my wife a Mac Pro the same time I built myself a PC. I paid about 1/3 for the PC and it feels really dated. Her Mac Pro, meanwhile, is still incredibly fast. It plays SC2 on max settings without slogging while my PC slogs on Medium (and enough Marines running around).
But you paid 1/3 for it... If you had paid the same for a PC, I can pretty much guarantee you'd be getting better performance on the PC. Mac's are nice, but gaming isn't their specialty.
That shows the perception between quality, though. So many people fight the fight with regard to price -- which I did, and failed. Now I have a PC which isn't really upgradeable because the CPU Socket (AM2+) and RAM-type (DDR2) are obsolete.
As far as I know, Phenom II processors are backwards compatible with AM2+ sockets [1]. And they work with DDR2 when in an AM2+ socket.
True, the perception is probably more skewed than reality. For gaming, PC's are still definitely the way to go, but Mac's aren't quite as marked up as most people think. They do use quality parts.
Apostrophes indicate possession, not pluralization.
Why didn't you use an Intel platform, just as Apple does?
You got screwed on the PC, too. I bought parts for mine about the same time (March 08) for a total of about $600, and it plays SC2 on max detail with no issues at all.
You're probably right. I paid $800 in Nov '08.
Been a while since you re-installed Windows?
Same. In fact, I'm still rocking a Rev A Mac Pro (c. Aug 2006). Aside from adding a bunch more memory after market, the machine is incredibly capable to this day. I'm considering upgrading the video card in a few years, but I'm expecting to get at least 3 more years out of it before even considering upgrading to a new machine.
My "base" inspiron 640m bought in 2006 is still fast enough that I haven't felt the need to upgrade either. Displays 720p video, boots in 20 seconds, and I just purchased a replacement Inspiron 640m for 150$.