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I have a simple macbook, 13.3 screen.

The example I gave was a Dell desktop, and desktops was mainly what my post was about, but I can address your example.

The 13.3" Dell is a not very popular and thus is an over-priced model. And 13.3" is not a popular size of laptop in general, so 13.3" PC laptop models by any manufacturer are rather pricey. If instead you compare the commonly sold screen-size models in laptop PC's, which are 15.4" first, and 14.1" second, then you will find that you can get a PC laptop much cheaper than an Apple laptop in commonly sold size of comparable specs.

Here is a desktop configuration of a Dell Inspiron I just configured at Dell.com:

Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q6600 (8MB L2 cache,2.4GHz,1066FSB)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition - English
MONITOR No Monitor
MEMORY 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz- 4DIMMs
HARD DRIVE 500GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™
OPTICAL DRIVE 16x DVD+/-RW Drive
VIDEO CARD Radeon ATI HD 2600 XT 256MB
SOUND Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
KEYBOARD & MOUSE Dell USB Multimedia Keyboard and Dell Optical USB Mouse
FLOPPY & MEDIA READER Dell 19 in 1 Media Card Reader
MODEM & WIRELESS 56K PCI Data Fax Modem
OPTIONAL PORTS IEEE 1394a Adapter

Cost after $300 coupon code is $864 with Free Shipping
Add my new Sammy 24" monitor for $400 for a Grand Total of $1264.

From Apple website, just now:

MacPro
2.8 gHz Quad Core Intel
4GB Ram
500GB Hard Drive, 7200 rpm
23" Flat Panel Display

Total Cost: $3798.00

The specs on these two machines are pretty close. The apple has a faster processor, 2.8 vs 2.4 for the Dell. But the Dell I priced out with a gorgeous Samsung 24" monitor, vs a 23" Apple monitor. The hard drives, ram, and video cards are identical in my examples.

The cost of the Apple desktop is exactly 3 times as much as the cost of the virtually comparable spec Dell desktop. So even if you want to pooh-pooh the larger monitor in my Dell, and toot the faster processsor in the Apple, it does cost 3 times as much. If the Apple is worth that much more to you, I have no problem with that, but the fact is, the comparably-equipped PC is, in fact, way way way less money. So much so, you could buy 3 of the Dells above for the same money as one of the MacPro's. And if you run dual monitors, like I do, you apparently have to buy Apple's proprietary over-priced displays, which I see are 2 1/4 to 2 1/2 times the cost of a comparable size flat panel monitor for a PC. Apple may in fact, have a nice desktop product, but it's way way out of range of what I am willing to spend.

I rest my case.

First off, you could run the monitor from dell off the laptop, instead of the Apple display; and you could run the apple monitor off your dell, so that part of your comparision is in error.

You can run any monitor you want, though Apple’s are very highly rated and a good bargain for the quality.

As for the monitor on the laptop itself, there are are a large portion of the laptop cost, I don’t know how you could compare dells to apples.

Second as you note, the processor speeds are different.

Third is bundled software.

Not sure what the dell wireless comparision with the airport card is; dunno what the difference in interface connections are.

I would also imagine the case difference is considerable.

Is the XP home edition 64 bit and networking and otherwise comparable to the OS shipping with the Mac?

Someone else can perhaps compare the audio and video cards.

I rest my case.

You have no case. You really don't know what you are talking about. You are comparing a home/home office computer setup, the Inspirion, against a professional WORKSTATION class machine. There is no comparison. The base Dell you should be starting with to do a proper like to like comparison is the Dell Precision^TM Workstation. Let's see what you put together and compare against the base Mac Pro:

Processors:
Your Dell has ONE (1) 2.4GHz Quad cores for a total of FOUR processors, 8MB L@ cache, with a 1066MHz FSB, retail (Neweg) $268.50.
The Apple has TWO (2) XEON 2.8GHz Quad core for a total of EIGHT processors, 12MB cache L2, with a 1600MHz FSB, retail (newegg) $733.00 EA total $1466.00.
Operating System:
Your Dell has Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition - English - 32 Bit... $109 The Mac has OSX.5.2 Leopard professional level... 64bit... $129
Memory:
Your Dell has basic 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 unbuffered SDRAM at 800MHz- 4 1GB DIMMs - good enough for home use. (Newegg) $93.00
The Mac has 800MHz Dual Channel DDR2 fully buffered Error Correcting Circuit DIMMS - that's workstation level RAM. (Newegg) $240.00
Power Supply:
Your Dell has either a 350 or a 540 Watt Power Supply.
The Mac has a 970 Watt Power Supply.

Are you beginning to understand what "Comparable Machines" means? We haven't even started to talk about the differences in workstation class motherboards...

Like I said, the ‘comparable’ mac was more like 3x than 2x.

Our mac mini and macbook have both been able to display on our 37” tv. The mini only has 1 dvi output, but the macbook can treat the 37” as either a mirrored display or a second display. Not sure about the Pro.

It was hard to drop 1000+ on a small laptop. I could have gotten 2 (underpowered) vista laptops for about the same coin. I finally pulled the trigger on the macbook (right after the new OS came out), and I haven’t regretted it once.

Trying to catch the thing up so I can use it as my development environment - still have work to do. I want to give xcode a shot, but I think I will stick with eclipse.

I still spend more time on my work pc (xp), but my goal is to set up my laptop to also run windows. and some other parallels appliances.

Also looking hard at a 24” iMac. I should post a pic of my wife’s desk...argh...as soon as I prove to myself that parallels will let her have both a mac and an xp sitting there together in 1 small form, could save some precious space...