A lot of the comments here are misconceived. Many applauded Zak for his dismissal of Jesse S., yet Zak failed in that to anyone who is knowledgeable. He failed because he didn't do any research on the components Zak (and another poster) listed, and simply relied on his own ignorance of those manufacturers and components to do the judgment. Lian-Li makes the best computer cases on the market. Their V2000 series can hold 7x 5.25" bays, 1x 3.5" external, and 12x 3.5" internal, as well as a 7 PCI slots. That's a hell of a lot more than you can put in a Mac Pro. Tyan, along with Supermicro, make the best server/workstation motherboards that money can buy; they have an impeccable reputation for quality and stability. Their m/b's that support 2-, 4-, or 8-CPUs all have support for numerous SATA/SAS drives, RAID, numerous PCI slots, as well as numerous eSATA / Firewire / USB.
The components that Jesse and Rueben listed are not hacked-together junk (well, except for the 1000W Antec PSU, Antec PSUs over 300-500 Watts are junk...go with Enermax, PC Power & Cooling, Zippy/Emacs, Seasonic, or Silverstone...and when in doubt, just PC Power & Cooling; while their PSUs may not always be as fully-featured as others, they have rock-solid build quality and 5- to 7-year warranties). And home-built systems are not just un-thought out pieces of junk made with predominantly plastic; they can be that, or they can be better than anything else on the market. And yes, for the same quality, they will often be cheaper.
The other issue with pre-built systems is that they're, well, of limited customizeability. For what many people do, having 2 quad-core processors isn't that important. But it might be more important to have more room for PCI slots, and more than 4 hard-drives.
Of course, this isn't a knock against Macs. I think that of the pre-built systems, they are clearly the best both in quality and value. Btw, there is no-longer a fundamental distinction between Macs and PC's anymore, since they're all based off of the same CPU (except that PC's may also be AMD). Basically, a Mac is just a PC with OSX, and Intel (as opposed to AMD processor), and generally better built quality. Their cases are similar to Lian-Li designs, which has prompted a number of ignorant fanboys to accuse Lian-Li of just copying them (despite the fact that Lian-Li has had that grilled hole design for a long time). I'm curious who makes or designs Apple's cases...I wouldn't be surprised if it was Lian-Li, because the Mac-cases are I think all-aluminum, and all-around very similar to Lian-Li. One thing I do like about the new Mac-Pro though is the wireless HD-install...nifty.
In any event, it could be seen as pretty insulting when people refer to a system built on a Lian-Li case and a Tyan (or Supermicro) motherboard as "slapped together".
PS: The reason for the Mac Pro's lack of prowess in the HD category (compared to Lian-Li) is because its MP is smaller than even the Lian-Li's super-Mid-tower line, the V1200 Plus II. The Mac-Book Pro is "only" 1.76 cubic feet in volume, while the V1200 Plus II is 2.27 cubic feet, and the V2000 Plus II is 2.86 cubic feet.
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A lot of the comments here are misconceived. Many applauded Zak for his dismissal of Jesse S., yet Zak failed in that to anyone who is knowledgeable. He failed because he didn't do any research on the components Zak (and another poster) listed, and simply relied on his own ignorance of those manufacturers and components to do the judgment. Lian-Li makes the best computer cases on the market. Their V2000 series can hold 7x 5.25" bays, 1x 3.5" external, and 12x 3.5" internal, as well as a 7 PCI slots. That's a hell of a lot more than you can put in a Mac Pro. Tyan, along with Supermicro, make the best server/workstation motherboards that money can buy; they have an impeccable reputation for quality and stability. Their m/b's that support 2-, 4-, or 8-CPUs all have support for numerous SATA/SAS drives, RAID, numerous PCI slots, as well as numerous eSATA / Firewire / USB.
The components that Jesse and Rueben listed are not hacked-together junk (well, except for the 1000W Antec PSU, Antec PSUs over 300-500 Watts are junk...go with Enermax, PC Power & Cooling, Zippy/Emacs, Seasonic, or Silverstone...and when in doubt, just PC Power & Cooling; while their PSUs may not always be as fully-featured as others, they have rock-solid build quality and 5- to 7-year warranties). And home-built systems are not just un-thought out pieces of junk made with predominantly plastic; they can be that, or they can be better than anything else on the market. And yes, for the same quality, they will often be cheaper.
The other issue with pre-built systems is that they're, well, of limited customizeability. For what many people do, having 2 quad-core processors isn't that important. But it might be more important to have more room for PCI slots, and more than 4 hard-drives.
Of course, this isn't a knock against Macs. I think that of the pre-built systems, they are clearly the best both in quality and value. Btw, there is no-longer a fundamental distinction between Macs and PC's anymore, since they're all based off of the same CPU (except that PC's may also be AMD). Basically, a Mac is just a PC with OSX, and Intel (as opposed to AMD processor), and generally better built quality. Their cases are similar to Lian-Li designs, which has prompted a number of ignorant fanboys to accuse Lian-Li of just copying them (despite the fact that Lian-Li has had that grilled hole design for a long time). I'm curious who makes or designs Apple's cases...I wouldn't be surprised if it was Lian-Li, because the Mac-cases are I think all-aluminum, and all-around very similar to Lian-Li. One thing I do like about the new Mac-Pro though is the wireless HD-install...nifty.
In any event, it could be seen as pretty insulting when people refer to a system built on a Lian-Li case and a Tyan (or Supermicro) motherboard as "slapped together".
PS: The reason for the Mac Pro's lack of prowess in the HD category (compared to Lian-Li) is because its MP is smaller than even the Lian-Li's super-Mid-tower line, the V1200 Plus II. The Mac-Book Pro is "only" 1.76 cubic feet in volume, while the V1200 Plus II is 2.27 cubic feet, and the V2000 Plus II is 2.86 cubic feet.