Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Psystar Mac clone could save me all of $18!

Here's an interesting confluence of observations:

Despite what Ben Charny (Dow Jones Newswires) claims:

"At $400, the Psystar box is a quarter of the cost of Apple's Mac Mini, the Apple computer most like Psystar's."

... the facts are that the MSRP on the basic Apple Macintosh mini is $599.
Not 4 x $400 = $1600. A wee Journalistic 'Oops'.

So the difference isn't that dramatic.

But what's also been quickly lost in the noise is that the $400 price being thrown around for the Psytar Macintosh clone doesn't include Mac OS, for which they want an additional $155 for Leopard (10.5), which brings its real (honest) price to $554 total.

So the difference is: $599 - $554 = $45.

$45 is less than a 10% difference, yet people are so excited over it with this new clone.

But this $45 difference is before one even start to look for deals on the Apple mini, such as if one is eligible for a discount (such as EDU). Well, as a Federal Employee, it turns out that I can buy the base mini from Apple for $563, so the price difference for me is a whopping $18.

So if I'm willing risk IP/EULA issues, as well as not have a functional Apple 'Software Update' feature to maintain the system, I can save all of $18?

Thanks, but no thanks.