Mac mini vs. Dell, Round 1

VS.

The top two complaints I hear about Macs from PC users are price and compatibility. In all fairness, Macs hold only about 10% of the market, and they at least appear quite expensive, bang-for-buck.

I'm very enamored with my new Mac mini, but to be fair, I thought I'd do a breakdown vs. some comparable Dell models. The intended use matters very much in choosing a "best" system. In this case, it's a typical home user who surfs the web, uses office apps, perhaps uses Netflix instant movies or Hulu, runs Quicken, and the like. Heavy duty gaming is saved for the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, not for the computer. No heavy video editing or graphic arts, either. I believe that this is the type of user Apple is targeting with the Mac mini. A significantly different use case would require a different selection of computers.

For comparison, I chose the $799 2GB/320GB mini model, and sought out three Dell models to compare it against: (a) the cheapest desktop they have, (b) the desktop their parameter searcher brought up as the same price ($799), and (c) as close as I could get on a feature-for-feature customization match.

I came up with the Inspiron 537s Slim ($269), the Studio Slim ($539) and the XPS630 ($799). Here's a chart of the specs:

Item	Mac mini	XPS630	Studio Slim
Price	$799	$799	$539
Processor	2GHz Core2 Duo E7300	3GHz Core2 E8400	2.66GHz Core2 Duo E7300
L2 Cache	3MB shared	6MB	3MB
Frontside Bus	1GHz	1.3GHz	1GHz
Memory	2GB DDR3 1GHz	2GB DDR2 1GHz	2GB DDR2 800MHz
HDD	320GB/5400rpm	500GB/7200rpm	500GB/7200rpm
Video	GeForce 9400M	Dual GeForce GTS 240	GMA X4500HD
Network	Gigabit	Gigabit	Gigabit
802.11N Wireless	Included	Optional	Optional (included)
PassMark CPU	1371 / 192	2156 / 99	1794 / 129

Item	Mac mini	Inspiron 537s
Price	$799	$269
Processor	2GHz Core2 Duo E7300	Celeron 450 2.2GHz
L2 Cache	3MB shared	512kB
Frontside Bus	1GHz	800MHz
Memory	2GB DDR3 1GHz	2GB DDR2 800MHz
HDD	320GB/5400rpm	320GB/7200rpm
Video	GeForce 9400M	GMA X4500
Network	Gigabit	100Mbit
802.11N Wireless	Included	Optional
PassMark CPU	1371 / 192	668 / 377

I'll explain the meaning and details of some of these values as we go along. All of these machines are easily obtainable from either Apple or Dell, and they're pretty much off the shelf configurations. I did add the optional 802.11N wireless to the Studio Slim since it was supposed to be as close to the Mac mini as I could make it. The wireless option is included in my price of $539. I did not include any tax or shipping costs. None of the prices include monitors, keyboards, mice or other peripherals either, just to keep things fair.

I've chosen the PassMark benchmark test suite results to compare the processors. These tests are an average of many user submissions, and is easily available.

The Dells, as priced, don't include any productivity software, and I'll hold off on comparing OS X vs. Windows until the end, since those comparisons are the same across all machines. However, these differences can be the deal maker/breaker, so hold on.

But first, the hardware comparisons!

General Observations:

A few general observations can be made about the mini vs. all the Dells. The mini is obviously much smaller than even the Studio Slim. It's also quite an attractive package.

On the other hand, because the Dells are all made with industry standard PC parts (except the Dell-custom motherboards), they are generally easily repaired and easily upgraded. This can result in more flexibility and a longer use life. The Mac mini is generally not user-modifiable, unless you're a "hacker" and don't mind voiding the warranty.

Mac mini vs. the Price Match:

The Dell XPS630 is marketed as the base model of Dell's gaming machines, which means it's supposed to have some serious horsepower. Also, note that the XPS630 is quite a bit larger than the mini.

The XPS630, at the same price, sports a significantly faster processor, a moderately larger hard disk (500GB vs. 320GB), and dual video controllers. Also, largely by virtue of its larger size, it provides several PCI and PCIe expansion slots, drive bays, and more USB ports. It does not, however, come with wireless, though this is a low-priced option. On price, I'd say the larger hard disk and lack of wireless are a wash - unless wireless is particularly important to you.

In short, if raw horsepower and expandability matter, and size doesn't, the XPS630 wins. On the other hand, for this type of user, too much horsepower is wasted, expansion ports often go unused, and size very well may matter, so I think the mini is still competitive here.

Next episode: Mac mini vs. the Feature Match!