It's funny, though, a Dell that's comparable to my Mac Pro would cost a few hundred bucks more. The only way you can really complain that Macs are expensive is if you build your own computer.
That really depends upon your needs and your price range; you can buy a pre-built Compaq tower with Windows Vista Home Premium Service Pack 1, 2GB of memory, a 160GB hard drive, a DVD burner with LightScribe, and room for internal expansion for barely over half the price of the least expensive Mac mini with half the memory, half the hard drive space, no DVD-burning capability, no LightScribe or other disc-labeling ability, and no internal expansion. Here is an example from one of this week's Fry's Electronics ads, a Celeron 430 system with those very specifications for $339.99 down from a regular price of $349.99:
http://newspaperads.mercurynews.com/ROP/ads.aspx?advid=32664&adid=6147302&subid=21104076
The Core 2 Duo in the Mac mini may be preferable to that Compaq's Celeron 430, but for most people, the latter would be more than enough for them to use their Web browsers, e-mail clients, word processors, and other common applications. Apple does make some nice systems and their high-end notebooks may compare well with other similarly priced high-end name brand notebooks, but they just aren't price-competitive for basic home and office desktop systems.
