Calculating UK Apple Tax On New Mac Pro & Minis

Following up on our "Apple Mac Pro Vs Windows PC : A 4-way Comparison", we've compiled an article on the amount of money Apple charges its customers extra after having considered the cost of hardware and software.

For the purpose of today's paper, we will not be factoring the price of the following 7 factors: assembly, after sale warrranty, operating system and software, casing, keyboard, mouse and cables. Any price difference between the two platforms will include the price of these items. 

Unlike our previous 4-way comparison article, we will be looking at DIY PC only. We chose the Mac Pro and the Mac Mini because they are the only Macs without screens (excluding the Apple servers) and therefore make comparisons easier.

Apple Mac Mini 

The Mac Mini uses a microATX motherboard, an Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 1GB DDR3 SDRAM, a 120GB SATA hard disk drive and a slot in DVD Writer. It costs £499 delivered.

So let's carry on with the parts. Samsung sells the SN-T082 24x Slot in Slim DVD writer (with Lightscribe) for £34.93 at Special Tech. The Asus  Motherboard comes at £39.08. It doesn't have an integrated Geforce 9400M video module. Crucial 1GB Memory module costs £8.99. A Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200 2.5GHz costs £57.78. A PNY 9400GT 512MB will come in at £36.85. A 120GB Western Digital 2.5-inch drive costs £36.47.

A few comments before continuing. Apple's product is so integrated and cutting edge that it is very difficult to make direct apples-to-apples comparison. For example, there's no integrated microATX motherboard with Nvidia's 9400M, let alone one with DDR3 memory. It is equally difficult to get a Core 2 Duo T6400 processor since this is a OEM only laptop part.